Commencement Speaker Announced
April 3, 2025
Dear Members of the Trinity Community,
Trinity College’s 199th Commencement is quickly approaching and, as this will be my 11th and last Commencement, I look forward to celebrating and cherishing this day with you! I am excited to announce that Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont will deliver the 2025 Commencement address on Sunday, May 18, at 11:00 a.m., on the Main Quad. Among those receiving honorary degrees are Shabana Basij-Rasikh, School of Leadership Afghanistan co-founder and president, and renowned cancer researcher Joseph M. Connors ’69.
The governor is a distinguished leader whose exemplary service to the State of Connecticut and support of education has made a difference to many. I know his wisdom and words will inspire our graduates and the next generation of leaders. Lamont was sworn into office as the 89th governor of Connecticut on January 9, 2019. He earned a B.A. in sociology from Harvard College in 1976 and an M.B.A. from the Yale School of Management in 1980.
Shabana Basij-Rasikh, who will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree, is being recognized for her work with the School of Leadership Afghanistan, or SOLA, which she co-founded and leads as president. SOLA is the world’s first and only Afghan-led boarding school for Afghan girls. In 2021, the Taliban’s return to rule in Afghanistan forced SOLA to move from Kabul to the nation of Rwanda, where the school welcomes students from the Afghan diaspora annually.
Joseph M. Connors ’69, who will receive an honorary Doctor of Science degree, is being recognized for dedicating his professional life to clinical and research efforts in the area of lymphoid cancers and on the application of genomic analysis to understanding and optimizing treatment for these diseases. Currently a clinical professor emeritus in the Department of Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology, at the University of British Columbia, he is best known for his clinical investigations into the biology and treatment of Hodgkin lymphoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemias, and myeloma. At Trinity, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa with honors with a B.S. in biology. He went on to earn an M.D., cum laude, from Yale University and completed his internship and residency at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He went to Stanford University for a clinical fellowship in medical oncology, then to British Columbia, Canada, where he embarked on a 38-year career targeted at treating and curing cancer.
You can read more about our distinguished guests here.
More information about Commencement will be sent to the Class of 2025 and their families shortly via email and posted on the Commencement website. We are so excited to celebrate this momentous milestone with our graduating seniors and to proudly celebrate their academic accomplishments!
Sincerely,
Joanne Berger-Sweeney
President and Trinity College Professor of Neuroscience
