Goucher College announces 2025 Commencement speaker
The 134th Goucher College Commencement ceremony keynote speaker will be Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge.
Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, will deliver the keynote Commencement address at the Goucher College Class of 2025
ceremony. At Global Refuge, Vignarajah leads the largest faith-based national nonprofit
exclusively dedicated to supporting immigrants and refugees in the United States.
For more than 85 years, Global Refuge has helped over 800,000 people rebuild their
lives in the United States. The 134th Goucher College Commencement ceremony will take
place on Friday, May 23, 2025. The undergraduate ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. and
be held in Kraushaar Auditorium.
“These are turbulent times in our country’s history, and it is more critical than ever for us to foreground voices for marginalized communities. Krish has devoted her career to public service and now works tirelessly to support human dignity through Global Refuge and their commitment to refugees and immigrants,” said Goucher College President Kent Devereaux. “As Goucher celebrates its 140th anniversary this year, we remain fully committed to our college’s community principles of respect, inclusion, service, and social justice. And we are confident that this year’s graduating class of Goucher changemakers will continue to live those principles after leaving here.”
Vignarajah previously served in the Obama White House as a policy director for First Lady Michelle Obama and at the State Department as a senior advisor under secretaries of state Hillary Clinton and John Kerry.
A graduate of Woodlawn High School in Baltimore County, Vignarajah attended Yale University, where she earned a master’s degree in political science and a B.S. in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. Vignarajah was a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University, earning an M.Phil. in international relations before returning to Yale Law School, where she served on the Yale Law Journal.
Vignarajah has been recognized as one of The Daily Record’s “Top 100 Women” and “Most Admired CEOs,” The Hill’s “Changemakers,” World Trade Center Institute’s “International Business Leaders,” and one of The Baltimore Sun’s “Women to Watch.”
Find more information about this year’s Commencement ceremonies.