Radio Bilingüe's Founder to be commencement speaker at CSUMB

Hugo Morales, who transformed a community radio station for California farmworkers into a national Latino public media network, will be the keynote speaker at CSU Monterey Bay’s commencement ceremony.

Morales, a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, organized farmworkers, teachers, students and artists to launch Radio Bilingüe in 1976 as a single public radio station for the large Latino communities of Fresno and the surrounding San Joaquin Valley.

At the time, Morales was an adjunct professor of La Raza Studies at Fresno State. Ever since, he has been executive director of Radio Bilingüe and a pioneer and advocate for bilingual and minority-controlled public media throughout the country. The network now includes 11 stations in California, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas.

A Mixtec Indian from Oaxaca, Mexico, he was a child farmworker in Sonoma County. He was appointed to the California State University Board of Trustees in 2012, and his honors include a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, the Edward R. Murrow Award, and the Lannan Foundation Cultural Freedom Award.

CSUMB’s 19th commencement will take place at 10 a.m. on May 16 at the Freeman Stadium on the CSUMB campus. Approximately 1,450 students will receive bachelor’s and master’s degrees; about 8,000 family members and friends are expected to attend.

Cecilia Muñoz, adviser to President Obama, to be CSUMB commencement speaker

Officials at Cal State University Monterey Bay have announced Cecilia Muñoz will be the keynote speaker during the university's commencement ceremony on May 17.

Muñoz is an adviser to the President and director of the Domestic Policy Council, which coordinates the domestic policy-making process in the White House. Previously, she served as deputy assistant to the President and director of intergovernmental affairs.

Prior to joining the Obama Administration, she served as senior vice president for the Office of Research, Advocacy, and Legislation at the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the nation’s largest Latino civil rights organization.

She supervised NCLR’s policy staff, covering a variety of issues of importance to Latinos, including civil rights, employment, poverty, farmworker issues, education, health, housing and immigration. Her particular area of expertise is immigration policy, which she covered at NCLR for 20 years.

During the commencement ceremony Julie Packard, founding director of the non-profit Monterey Bay Aquarium, will be awarded an honorary doctoral degree.

Packard chairs the board of the independent Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and serves on the boards of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and The California Nature Conservancy.

"Each of these leaders impacts the world in meaningful ways," said President Eduardo Ochoa. "They represent the values that CSU Monterey Bay works to impart to its students: to find opportunities to be of service to the local, national and global communities.”

Approximately 1,450 students will receive bachelor’s and master’s degrees; about 8,000 family members and friends are expected to attend.

To learn more about commencement, click here.

Leon Panetta, CIA Director, Defense Secretary and Commencement Speaker

If you're not as lucky as I am and bump into Leon Panetta just about every week, check out this video with his remarks at last week's Santa Clara University graduation.

He's supposed to be back home, but he still gets around...

Robert Danzinger to be CSUMB's commencement speaker in May

Robert Danziger, a Carmel resident who received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from CSUMB for his accomplishments as a musician, inventor and sustainable energy pioneer, will be the keynote speaker at the university's 17th commencement ceremony May 18.

Danziger worked at the California Institute of Technology’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he had a close-up look at one of the space age’s most ambitious projects, the Voyager exploration into deep space.

While still in his 20s, he founded Sunlaw Energy Corp. His goal was to research, develop, demonstrate and commercialize new energy and environmental technology.

He has been issued 10 patents, including one for a “walking chair,” which he uses to help overcome his own mobility issues.

And he’s a law school graduate, an artist and musician. His current project: rewriting Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, “coming at it from a jazz point of view,” he said.

The ceremony will be held at Freeman Stadium on the CSUMB campus. Approximately 1,300 students will receive bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

Last year, CSUMB officials bucked tradition and scheduled no commencement speakers. At the time, they said they would review the issue for subsequent commencement ceremonies.