2000s Commencement Speakers

Commencement speakers dating from Fall 2009 back to Spring 2000 can be found here.

Ceremony	Speaker Name	Profession
Fall 2009	No Speaker (Dr. Rajendra Pachauri sick)	Nobel-Prize winner and world leader in the study of climate change
Spring 2009	Dr. John Seely Brown	Independent Co-Chairman of the Deloitte Center for Edge Innovation
Fall 2008	William (Bill) Cowher	Super Bowl-winning coach and CBS Sports Analyst
Spring 2008	Erskine Bowles	President, The University of North Carolina
Fall 2007	Billy Ray Hall	Founding President, the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center
Spring 2007	Dr. Kenneth Olden	Chief of the Metastasis Section, Laboratory of Molecular Carcinogenesis at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Fall 2006	The Honorable Bonnie McElveen-Hunter	Chairman, The American Red Cross and CEO, Pace Communications
Spring 2006	Dr. Ralph Cicerone	President, National Academy of Sciences
Fall 2005	William R. McNeal	Superintendent, Wake County Public School System
Spring 2005	Dr. Johnnetta Cole	President, Bennett College
Fall 2004	R. Scott Wallinger	Senior Vice President, MeadWestvaco Corporation [retired]
Spring 2004	Lieutenant General Dan K. McNeill	Commanding Officer, U.S. Military Forces in Afghanistan
Fall 2003	The Honorable Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson	President, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Spring 2003	Phil Donahue	Emmy and Peabody Award-winning Television Host
Fall 2002	Dr. James H. Goodnight	CEO, Chairman, Co-Founder and President, SAS Institute
Spring 2002	William James Raspberry	Washington Post Columnist
Fall 2001	The Honorable James B. Hunt, Jr.	Former Governor of North Carolina
Spring 2001	Dr. Harm de Blij	Author, Professor and Television Personality
Fall 2000	Father Theodore Hesburgh	President Emeritus, the University of Notre Dame
Spring 2000	The Honorable Donna Shalala	Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services