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.