University of La Verne to Celebrate Virtual Commencement on January 30
Renowned civil rights activist and community organizer Dolores Huerta; the Los Angeles mayor’s chief of staff, Ana Guerrero; regional healthcare leader Jarrod B. McNaughton; and prominent attorney David M. Goldstein will address the University of La Verne’s spring 2020 and winter 2021 graduates at virtual commencement ceremonies on Saturday, January 30. The university will confer degrees on more than 2,300 students who have studied in the university’s four colleges on the central campus in La Verne, nine regional campuses, and online. The event will be broadcast online to graduates, their families, and friends.
“These two classes embody the resiliency and tenacity that thrive within our community,” said President Devorah Lieberman, who will preside over all four ceremonies. “Though this commencement season may look different, the exact same feelings of joy and accomplishment will fill the air. I am inspired by these graduates and can’t wait to see what their futures hold.”
Huerta, who will address graduates of the College of Arts and Sciences at 1:30 p.m., cofounded United Farm Workers of America with Cesar Chavez in 1962. She served as vice president and played a critical role in many of the union’s accomplishments for four decades. In 2002, she received the $100,000 Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship, which she used to establish the Dolores Huerta Foundation. Huerta received the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights from President Bill Clinton in 1998, and in 2012 was awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, by President Barack Obama.
LaFetra College of Education speaker Guerrero has served as chief of staff for Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti since 2013. As his chief strategist, she has been involved in efforts such as the increase of the minimum wage to $15 an hour, creation of the city’s landmark Green New Deal, and the Measure M campaign to fund a historic expansion of public transportation. The ceremony will begin at 11:00 a.m.
University of La Verne alumnus McNaughton, MBA ’00, will address graduates of the College of Business and Public Management at 3:30 p.m. As chief executive officer of Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP), McNaughton works collaboratively with the governing board to set the strategic vision and provide executive leadership for IEHP. With 1.2 million members and a $5.4 billion operational budget, it is one of the 10 largest Medicaid health plans and the largest not-for-profit Medicare-Medicaid plan in the country.
College of Law graduates at 9:00 a.m. will hear Goldstein, attorney and long-time adjunct professor of law at the University of La Verne. He began his career as a deputy district attorney in San Bernardino County and later served there as a deputy public defender. He was a founding member of the San Bernardino County Public Defender’s Death Penalty Defense Unit. Goldstein opened a private law practice in Rancho Cucamonga and has been a practicing attorney for 36 years. He currently administers the County of San Bernardino conflict panel which represents underserved individuals charged with a criminal offense when the public defender has a conflict.
