04/04/2025

Dear Campus Community,

I am very pleased to announce this year’s Commencement speaker and the honorary degrees that will be conferred at Puget Sound’s 133rd Commencement Ceremony on Sunday, May 11, 2025.

Washington Speaker Laurie Jinkins
Speaker Jinkins serves the 27th Legislative District, which includes Tacoma, in the Washington state House of Representatives, where she has served since 2011. In 2020, she made history as the first woman and lesbian to serve as speaker of the house. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Puget Sound School of Law (later the Seattle University School of Law), as well as Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Jinkins began her career litigating child abuse and neglect cases for the state attorney general’s office. She then moved into the public health sector, serving as an assistant secretary of health at Washington’s Department of Health and senior advisor at the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.

Jinkins was first elected to the State House of Representatives in 2011. She has focused her legislative career on a platform of reforming our state’s tax code, improving public health and access to health care, ending gun violence, and advancing Washington’s recognition that our diversity is our strength. Jinkins is a member of Tacoma Rotary 8, and has been recognized for her community service with numerous awards, including the Tacoma Historical Society’s Star of Destiny Award and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Washington’s Legislator of the Year Award.

Jinkins will deliver this year’s Commencement address and receive the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters in recognition of her years of dedicated service to her community.

Willie C. Stewart Sr.
Willie Stewart is a longtime Tacoma educator and youth advocate. The son of Texas sharecroppers who grew up picking cotton, Stewart was the first person in his family to attend college. He later enlisted in the U.S. Army and spent 30 years in the Army Reserves, where he retired from the Medical Service Corps with the rank of colonel. In 1970, he broke barriers as Tacoma Public Schools’ (TPS) first Black principal and has since spent over 50 years serving the district in various administrative, elected, and volunteer roles. In 2015, TPS honored Stewart by renaming its Re-Engagement Center the Willie Stewart Academy.

Stewart is a dedicated community servant, volunteering with the Tacoma Athletic Commission, Boys & Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound, the Kiwanis Club, Pierce County Housing Authority, and the Urban Grace Church’s weekly breakfast for those experiencing homelessness. He was named Tacoma Peace Laureate in 2019 and in 2024, Stewart was named a Shining Star Community Partner by TPS.

In recognition of his lifetime of service as an educator and youth advocate, Stewart will receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Education.

It is an honor to recognize the outstanding and lasting contributions Laurie Jinkins and Willie Stewart have made to the state of Washington, Pierce County and Tacoma.  Their achievements in the face of adversity and tireless dedication to making the world a better place serve as a model of the values to which all Puget Sound graduates aspire—civic engagement, leadership, and courage. I look forward to celebrating the accomplishments of our graduates and our two distinguished honorands this May.

I would also like to thank the members of the Committee on Honorary Degrees for their service in reviewing the candidates for this year’s honorary degrees, as well as the faculty and the Board of Trustees for approving our honorands. Please join me in thanking our committee members:

Emily S. Ehrens ’14, Chair and Trustee
Maria Arellano ’86, Trustee
Erin M. Carlson ’04, Alumni Representative
Ken Teal ’81, Alumni Representative
Noelle Hill ’25, Student Representative
Natalie Worthy ’25, Student Representative
Lisa Ferrari, Professor of Politics & Government
Shelly Norvell, Clinical Associate Professor of Occupational Therapy

With congratulations to our undergraduate and graduate Classes of 2025,

Sincerely,

Isiaah Crawford, Ph.D. | President