College Taps Hollywood for Commencement Keynote Address

Salt Lake Community College will honor graduates during commencement ceremonies May 5, 9:30 a.m. at the Maverik Center in West Valley City.

This year’s keynote speaker will be Diane Guerrero, known for her roles in the Netflix series Orange is the New Black and The CW Network series Jane the Virgin. In 2015, Guerrero was named a White House Ambassador for Citizenship and Naturalization. She is an outspoken advocate for common sense, comprehensive immigration reform and has worked with Immigrant Legal Resource Center and Mi Familia Vota, a nonpartisan Latino civic engagement organization to promote citizenship and voter registration. Variety named her one of the top 10 Latina actresses to watch.

Diane Guerrero

SLCC’s 2017 honorary doctorate recipients are H. Roger Boyer, chairman of The Boyer Company as well as its director and advisor, and the Honorable Shauna Graves-Robertson, who was appointed to the Salt Lake County Justice Court by the Salt Lake County Commission in January 1999.

Lisa Gough, corporate vice president of Sysco, and Shawn Newell, vice president of business development for Industrial Supply Company, were named Distinguished Alumni. SLCC faculty members Jude Higgins and Heather Schumaker will be recognized for receiving Teaching Excellence awards.

Lon Schiffbauer, assistant professor of business management, was named SLCC’s 2018 Distinguished Faculty Lecturer. This year’s Graduates of Excellence are SLCC students Brooke Baxter, Ermina Mustafic, Gabe Moreno, Heather Lewis, Jirapat Sakkaphun, Leah Price and Megan Gardella.