Commencement speakers for more schools revealed
The speakers include actors, entrepreneurs and a CEO, all with school connections.
By ZACHARY WHALEN
The Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Science, the Viterbi School of Engineering, and the Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences recently unveiled their 2024 commencement speakers.
Jaren Lewison, who stars as Ben Gross in the Netflix teen drama “Never Have I Ever,” will return to his alma mater to be Dornsife’s keynote speaker. Lewison filmed much of the series while studying at USC, earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology in three years and graduating summa cum laude in 2022. The ceremony will take place May 10.
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Emily Anderson, college dean of undergraduate education at Dornsife, wrote that Dornsife chose Lewison for his ability to balance both a demanding course load and a professional career while studying at Dornsife in an announcement released May 3.
The announcement said Lewison attributed his success at Dornsife to support from his friends and family, and mentioned that his degree in psychology aided his acting career.
“I think that [psychology] just informs you on motivations and behavior,” Lewison said in the announcement. “You understand the world around you and how you interact in it and how others interact with it. And I think that as an actor, that’s really what you’re doing. You’re just understanding people and then it gets filmed.”
Actor and director Sean Penn will deliver the keynote speech for Mann, the school announced March 26.
In addition to starring in numerous films throughout his career, he also founded the Community Organized Relief Effort, which provides emergency relief and aid to underserved communities in times of crisis. The brief stated that one of CORE’s most recent projects was a partnership with Mann to operate the country’s largest coronavirus testing and vaccine distribution site.
In the release, Mann Dean Vassilios Papadopoulos promised that attendees would be inspired by Penn’s remarks. The ceremony will take place May 11.
The Viterbi School of Engineering will have three commencement speakers, including executives from Google and Microsoft along with a former USC faculty member. The speaker lineup includes two Viterbi graduates. (USC Viterbi)
Viterbi announced three commencement speakers Tuesday. The undergraduate speaker will be Karen Dahut, CEO of Google’s public sector, which focuses on “helping U.S. public sector institutions — including federal, state, and local governments, and educational institutions — accelerate their digital transformations,” according to Google’s official announcement. She received her master’s degree in system management from the school in 1988 and currently serves as a Viterbi board member.
“A respected and recognized public speaker and author, she’s an expert on technology, the future of work, innovation, and inclusive leadership,” Amy Blumenthal, a public communications specialist for Viterbi, wrote in the release. “[She’s] also an experienced board director for nonprofit and private organizations.”
In the same release, Viterbi announced the speakers for their two master’s ceremonies, with the first designed for those graduating with a degree in a subject other than computer science, and the second specifically for the computer science graduates. Zohreh Khademi, the Corporate Vice President at Microsoft, will speak at the first ceremony. Khademi received both her bachelors and masters in industrial systems and engineering from Viterbi.
“During her 26 years at Microsoft, Khademi has held various technical and leadership roles within Microsoft’s Product Development, Manufacturing and Supply Chain and Devices business groups,” Blumenthal wrote. “Khademi’s personal passions center on diversity & inclusion and recruiting and developing early career talent for Microsoft.”
Viterbi’s second master’s ceremony will feature Kevin Knight as the speaker. Knight served as a USC faculty member for 26 years, with much of his work centered on the intersections of technology and language — including developing translation softwares and algorithms used for decoding. Knight, along with Khademi and Dahut, will speak during the ceremony May 10.
“Working with Ph.D. students at USC, [Knight] wrote early papers on transliteration and generation that founded large bodies of research,” Blumenthal wrote. “Knight developed new algorithms for breaking classical ciphers, which he applied to crack a number of ciphers of historical significance.”
