NASA astronaut and deputy administrator Pam Melroy will be the speaker at Northeastern’s 2024 undergraduate commencement ceremony, the university announced Monday.
“Pam Melroy has been a force that harnessed the advances in science and the boundless canvas of space to reach extraordinary frontiers,” President Joseph E. Aoun said in a Northeastern Global News, or NGN, article. “We are grateful for her leadership and military service and excited to welcome her to the Northeastern family.”
Melroy has traveled to space three times — twice as a pilot and once as a mission commander — each time as a part of assembly missions to build the International Space Station, according to her profile on NASA’s website. She is only one of two women to command a space shuttle and has logged over 38 days in space, according to her profile.
As NASA’s deputy administrator, Melroy is “responsible for laying out the agency’s vision and representing NASA to the Executive Office of the President, Congress, heads of federal and other appropriate government agencies, international organizations and external organizations and communities,” her profile reads.
A graduate of Wellesley College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Melroy is eager to see this year’s graduates reach for the stars and reap the benefits of Northeastern’s experiential learning.
“[The graduates] are poised to build on their experiential learning to chart new frontiers across every discipline, and new ones they will create,” Melroy told NGN. “Learning from the past, they will propel humanity toward a future of unprecedented advancements.”
The commencement ceremony, which will celebrate both the class of 2024 and Northeastern’s 125th anniversary, is set for 4 p.m. May 5 at Fenway Park.
Mariam Naficy, an entrepreneur and the CEO of the online marketplace Minted, was last year’s commencement speaker. Past speakers include Chobani founder and CEO Hamdi Ulukaya in 2022, former Director of U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Rochelle Walensky in 2021 and celebrity chef Ming Tsai in 2020.
“Northeastern University’s graduating class represents the vanguard of a transformative era, where the boundaries of knowledge are constantly expanding and the possibilities for innovation are limitless,” Melroy said in the NGN article. “As these emerging leaders and innovators embark on their next chapter, it’s an incredible privilege to celebrate their achievements.”
