Red Cross president, Pulitzer Prize finalist to speak at ASU's spring commencement ceremonies
Photo by ASU
A Pulitzer Prize finalist for poetry and an Arizona State University graduate who is the president of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies will be the featured speakers at ASU’s May commencement ceremonies.
Poet Elizabeth Alexander, now the president of the Mellon Foundation, the nation’s largest funder of the arts and humanities, will speak at the May 12 undergraduate ceremony.
Red Cross President Kate Forbes, a 1973 alum of the W. P. Carey School of Business and a member of the W. P. Carey Alumni Hall of Fame, will speak at the graduate ceremony earlier that day.
Both recipients will receive honorary degrees from ASU and will be hooded during the undergraduate commencement.
Graduate commencement: Kate Forbes
Forbes said never in her wildest dreams did she envision being a commencement speaker at ASU.
“I mean, can you imagine? To have the honor of being asked to come back to where you went to school as an undergrad,” said Forbes, who has been with the Red Cross for 44 years and won numerous volunteer and humanitarian awards. “I’m beyond honored, grateful, excited and terrified. All of those.”
Forbes called her days at ASU “magical times,” recounting the thrill she felt walking across campus and looking at ASU Gammage, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. She lived at the Manzanita residence hall and said that she’s so old, when she took her accounting classes, students didn’t even use handheld calculators.
“True story,” she said. “Gosh, the memory. Tuition was $160, and the student government at the business college was debating on whether they would allow four-function calculators to be used. They would add, subtract, multiply and divide. It was voted down because they were more expensive than tuition.”
Forbes’ Red Cross journey began in 1981 at her local American Red Cross chapter in Phoenix. She worked to combat a surge of home fires impacting Indigenous communities, prevent drownings across the region and provide access to health services through special transportation programs. In 2000, Forbes assumed the role of vice chairman of the American Red Cross Board of Governors and then the national chairman of volunteers. In these roles, she mobilized more than a million volunteers to deliver assistance, connect with local communities and provide training in their local communities.
Forbes said the message she hopes to get across at the ceremony is one of possibilities.
“When I graduated from ASU with a degree in accounting, never did I imagine that I'd head the largest humanitarian network in the world,” she said. “And if an accountant can make a difference worldwide, anybody can make a difference.”
Forbes said she’ll also tell the students that helping others brings a “sense of gratitude, a sense of peace and a sense of accomplishment that you don’t get doing other things.”
Undergraduate commencement: Elizabeth Alexander
Alexander said she’s proud to be chosen to speak at the undergraduate ceremony in part because of ASU’s commitment to the humanities.
“ASU has been a real innovator in the humanities, and we’ve seen all kinds of exciting work that I think kind of deeply understands the way the humanities, and particularly the arts within humanities, are necessary parts of understanding who we are, how we live and how we think students should be prepared to be the kinds of complex, effective workers and doers as they move out from their education,” Alexander said. “We admire what they do and feel there is great kinship (with the Mellon Foundation).”
Alexander said that in her message, she’ll acknowledge the work being done at ASU and in The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to build students’ critical thinking skills. She said she’ll also emphasize why she believes the study of humanities is important.
“When I think about the ability to very, very closely read and interpret all of the text that is around us, that is something that I use every day,” said Alexander, who holds a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University, a Master of Arts from Boston University and a PhD in English from the University of Pennsylvania.
“That translates into many, many different kinds of work and the ability to do it efficiently, sharply, with nuance and to keep hewing toward the truth.”
Alexander, who taught at Yale for more than 15 years and is the author or co-author of 15 books, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize with her 2005 poetry book, “American Sublime,” and for her 2015 memoir, “The Light of the World.” She also composed and delivered the poem “Praise Song for the Day” for President Barack Obama’s inauguration.
“The study of the arts, the ways in which the profound empathy that comes from losing yourself in a novel, time travels you,” Alexander said. “It takes you to another place. It takes you to other human beings. How we connect as human beings and understand each other, I think, is what our mission is right now.”
Commencement details
Find the full schedule of ASU's ceremonies, along with registration and parking information, at graduation.asu.edu.
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