Here’s a look at FSU, FAMU commencement speakers for fall 2023 graduates

Florida State and Florida A&M universities’ Friday graduation ceremonies are where this fall's commencement speakers will be found behind lecterns, speaking to the graduating classes.

While ABC News President and FAMU alumna Kimberly Godwin has been chosen to speak to soon-to-be grads at the HBCU (historically Black college or university), former FSU Board of Trustees Chair Edward Burr and renowned FSU Art Professor Lilian Garcia-Roig will be speakers at FSU’s ceremonies.

FAMU’s ceremony will be held at 6 p.m. at the university’s Lawson Center and FSU will hold a special doctoral degree ceremony at 9 a.m. along with ceremonies at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., all at the Tucker Civic Center.

Tallahassee Community College celebrated its graduates a bit earlier by holding its commencement ceremony last Friday evening in the Tucker Civic Center, where Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. was the keynote speaker.

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'A full circle moment'

Over 650 students from more than a dozen of FAMU’s colleges and schools will walk in this semester’s commencement ceremony.

"It's a full circle moment," said Godwin, a 1984 graduate of FAMU’s School of Journalism & Graphic Communication (SJGC). "I think about arriving on campus at 16 years old after being on a Greyhound bus for 30 hours from New York City until this moment, and it's just an incredible feeling to think about my journey and to think about how I could possibly inspire other young people to reach their greatest potential as well."

Godwin is also expected to receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters during Friday’s commencement — an award she says will "live on in the history of my family forever."

In April 2021, she became the first woman and first person of color to be appointed ABC News’ president, and she was also the first Black person to lead a major broadcast news network.

Godwin spearheads editorial and business operations for broadcast, digital, streaming and audio news across the television network, including “Good Morning America,” “World News Tonight,” “The View” and “This Week.”

The organization has had 66 Emmy news and documentary nominations and 10 wins under Godwin’s leadership, the most that it has had in over two decades.

"I'm a big believer of 'if you see it, you can be it,' " Godwin said. "It was that way for me — seeing people before me who went on to do great things in life — and I hope this graduating class reaches even greater heights."

‘Humbled and honored’

While 3,047 students will graduate from FSU this fall — including 1,909 with bachelor’s degrees, 885 with master’s and specialist degrees, and 127 with doctoral degrees — nearly 2,000 graduates plan to attend the ceremonies.

Burr — who served as FSU's Board of Trustees chair in 2015-21 and served on the board for 10 years — will address graduates at the 2 p.m. ceremony, which includes students from the colleges of Motion Picture Arts, Social Sciences & Public Policy, Business, as well as the Dedman College of Hospitality, Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship and FAMU-FSU College of Engineering.

“I am humbled and honored to be asked to speak at the fall commencement,” said Burr, an alumnus of FSU’s College of Business who is also the founder, president and CEO of GreenPointe Holdings in Jacksonville. “The graduation ceremony is one of my favorite and most exciting events at FSU.”

During Burr’s time as chair of FSU’s Board of Trustees, investments in student success significantly contributed to FSU’s rise to becoming one of the nation’s top public universities.

Burr was also a Bernard F. Sliger Award recipient in 2021 and has participated in the university’s Foundation Board of Trustees, the Seminole Boosters Board and the FSU Real Estate Center Executive Board in the College of Business.

Garcia-Roig — a Cuban-born artist who has been a professor at FSU’s Art Department since 2001 — will speak to students from the colleges of Medicine, Fine Arts, Communication & Information, Law, Nursing, Criminology & Criminal Justice, Social Work and Arts and Sciences during the 7 p.m. ceremony.

“I’ve given talks to big audiences about my own work, but I've never given a talk to such a broad group of graduating students,” Garcia-Roig said. “I hope what I say will resonate with them or might be another way to say something they've already felt and can use moving forward.”

Over the past 30 years, Garcia-Roig has created a large body of work, which can be found in the collections of major museums around the world.

This year, she became the first visual artist to receive the highest honor that FSU faculty can bestow upon one of their own members by being named the 2023-24 Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor.

Garcia-Roig says she is still tweaking her commencement speech, making sure that it is “from the heart” and “hopefully useful.”

For more information on how to livestream the FSU and FAMU commencement ceremonies, visit FSU’s website at https://commencement.fsu.edu/ and FAMU’s website at https://www.famu.edu/students/commencement/.

Contact Tarah Jean at tjean@tallahassee.com or follow her on X: @tarahjean_.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU, FAMU announce 2023 commencement speakers for fall graduation