Wagner College’s annual commencement exercise will be held on Friday, May 22 starting at 10 a.m. under a big-top tent on the Sutter Oval, where about 650 students will receive the baccalaureate and graduate degrees they have worked so hard to earn. All are welcome to attend.
You will find more information about Commencement 2015 on our website.
And to watch live video of Commencement 2015, visit this page on our website on Friday, May 22 starting at 10 a.m.
This year, Wagner College will honor three people with the degree of doctor of humane letters, honoris causa: keynote speaker Wes Moore, longtime trustee Aletta Kipp ’65 Diamond and Port Richmond High School Principal Tim Gannon.
Student Government Association President Jesse Lyn Leston ’15 will introduce two student speakers: Kerri Lee Alexander ’15 and Heather Wolf ’15.
Westley Moore
Born in 1978, Westley Moore and his sisters were raised by their widowed mother. Despite early academic and behavioral struggles, he graduated Phi Theta Kappa in 1998 as a commissioned officer from Valley Forge Military College, and Phi Beta Kappa from Johns Hopkins University in 2001, where he also played football and earned a bachelor’s degree in international relations. He then became a Rhodes Scholar, studying international relations at Oxford University.
After completing his studies, Wes Moore was given a military commission, serving a tour of combat duty in Afghanistan as an Army Airborne captain. Moore then became a White House Fellow serving as special assistant to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He currently serves on the boards of the Iraq Afghanistan Veterans of America and Johns Hopkins University, and he founded an organization called Stand! that works with Baltimore youth involved in the criminal justice system.
He came to prominence with the publication in 2010 of his first book, “The Other Wes Moore,” a story of mentorship and support networks that refused to let him fall into crime and drugs. It tells the tale of two kids with the same name living in the same decaying city. One grew up to be a Rhodes Scholar and White House Fellow after serving as combat Army officer. The other is currently serving a life sentence for killing a cop during an armed robbery. Burning with curiosity as to why he and the other Wes were so radically different, Moore investigated the life of the man with his same name. The result was an instant New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller that captured the nation’s attention on what draws the line between success and failure in our communities.
Moore’s most recent book, “The Work: My Search for a Life that Matters,” is the story of how one young man traced a path through the world to find his life’s purpose. Wes Moore graduated from a difficult childhood in the Bronx and Baltimore to an adult life that would find him at some of the most critical moments in our recent history: as a combat officer in Afghanistan; a White House fellow in a time of wars abroad and disasters at home; and a Wall Street banker during the financial crisis. In this insightful book, Moore shares the lessons he learned from people he met along the way — from the brave Afghan translator who taught him to find his fight, to the resilient young students in Katrina-ravaged Mississippi who showed him the true meaning of grit, to his late grandfather, who taught him to find grace in service.
Moore is the host of “Beyond Belief” on the Oprah Winfrey Network and the executive producer and host of PBS’s “Coming Back with Wes Moore,” which focuses on the re-integration of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their return home.
Moore is the founder and CEO of BridgeEdU, an innovative college platform that addresses the challenges of college completion and job placement. BridgeEdU reinvents the freshman year in a way that engages students in real-world internships and service-learning opportunities in addition to core academic classes. BridgeEdU mirrors many of the strategies and values inherent in the Wagner Plan for the Practical Liberal Arts, Wagner College’s signature curriculum, pioneered in the late 1990s by President Richard Guarasci.
For more about Wes Moore, read this story in our Newsroom.
Aletta Kipp ’65 Diamond
Aletta Kipp Diamond was born on Staten Island, attending Curtis High School before her family moved to Scotch Plains, N.J. She earned her bachelor’s degree in education from Wagner College in 1965, her master’s in education from Richmond College and her professional diploma in supervision and administration from St. John’s University.
Diamond taught in various roles for 30 years: as an elementary and special education teacher at P.S. 16; as the sex education coordinator for School District 31; as an adjunct professor at Wagner College and Brooklyn College; as a science teacher at P.S. 1; and as a guest speaker and consultant for health education conferences and campaigns. In 1992, the Wagner College chapter of Kappa Delta Pi, the national education honor society, named Diamond Educator of the Year for her outstanding contribution and dedication to the field of education. The Staten Island Council on Child Abuse and Neglect has recognized Diamond for her dedication to the prevention and intervention of child abuse and neglect, and the American Red Cross has recognized her for youth services. Diamond retired as an educator in 1995.
As a leader in the community, Aletta Diamond has been honored several times. She was formerly president of the board of directors of the Lynne Robbins Steinman Foundation, a Staten Island nonprofit organization. In 2005, she was honored by Soroptimist International for her voluntary and professional accomplishments, and United Activities Unlimited gave her its Edward G. Keply Unsung Hero Award. In 2006, the Alzheimers Foundation of Staten Island gave her its Community Service Award.
Aletta Kipp Diamond was elected to Wagner College’s Board of Trustees in 2003. She is serving her fourth term, which expires in 2015. As a member of the board, she is secretary of the Executive Committee, chair of the Institutional Advancement and Bylaws committees, and a member of the Building and Grounds, Academic Affairs and Trustee Affairs committees. She is also a liaison from the board to the Alumni Association.
Diamond has served as president of the Wagner College Alumni Association executive board and is currently co-chair of the Class of 1965 Fiftieth Reunion Committee. She serves on the scholarship fund committee for her sorority, Alpha Delta Pi. She is a charter member and was founding co-chair of the Wagner College Chai Society. For several years, she has been a member of the Advisory Board for the New Educators at Wagner program, which provides support and instruction to Staten Island educators just embarking upon their profession. In 2004, she was inducted into the Wagner College circle of Omicron Delta Kappa, the national leadership honor society, and in 2007 was given ODK’s Dr. Norbert H. Leeseberg Alumni Award for dedication and service. In 2005, the Alumni Association awarded her with the Wagner College Alumni Key. And last year, Aletta Diamond and her husband, Robert Diamond, were honored by Wagner College’s Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government Reform for their long record of support. They are both members of the Carey Institute Advisory Committee.
Timothy M. Gannon
Timothy M. Gannon, principal of Port Richmond High School on Staten Island, was born in the Bronx and raised in Yonkers, New York.
After graduating magna cum laude from Iona College with a degree in mathematics, Gannon joined the Congregation of Christian Brothers and began his teaching career at Power Memorial Academy in Manhattan while pursuing a master’s degree in secondary math education from the University at Albany.
Gannon moved to Staten Island when he began teaching math and computer science at Monsignor Farrell High School, where he also coached basketball and baseball. After leaving the Brotherhood, followed by a short teaching stint at Xaverian High School in Brooklyn, Gannon found his new home at Staten Island’s Curtis High School in 1987, serving in multiple administrative, teaching and coaching positions for the next 17 years. During that period, Gannon earned his Sixth Year Certificate in school administration from the College of Staten Island.
It was during Tim Gannon’s tenure at Curtis that his vision of a school as a family, strengthened by individual relationships, began to take shape. In 1997, when former Curtis basketball player Sandy Brock was killed in a senseless act of gun violence, Gannon created an award in Brock’s name that is given each year to a Staten Island youth organization that teaches the importance of conflict resolution. In 2000, the Staten Island Advance named Gannon its Sportsman of the Year in recognition of his work in establishing strong relationships with his basketball players. By the time Gannon left Curtis, his teams had won Staten Island’s high school basketball championship six times in 11 years.
Tim Gannon took the helm at Port Richmond High School in 2005, first as acting principal in February, then on a permanent basis in June. He has made his mark at PRHS in many ways: with the introduction of new information technology to the classroom, the reorganization of the school into seven smaller learning communities and the added emphasis on college readiness, to name just a few.
Gannon has been a deeply committed member of Wagner College’s Port Richmond Partnership, which has brought multiple schools, churches, businesses and nonprofit agencies together to focus on the challenges faced by his community. Gannon has spearheaded the PRP Leadership Academy, a 3-year program that brings a select group of Port Richmond High School students together with Wagner College faculty, staff and students to get them ready for college. He has also placed a Wagner College Raider Center inside PRHS, where his students can interact with Wagner staff and professors to get information, skills and guidance to help them prepare for higher education.
Most recently, Gannon and his staff have won the support of the New York City public school system for the creation of new facilities within Port Richmond High School that will allow it to function not only as a secondary school but as a “community school,” providing educational, social, health and fitness services to the entire Port Richmond community.
Wagner College has previously honored Tim Gannon’s work at Port Richmond High School with the 2012 Hank Murphy Award for Outstanding Leadership in Education.
Tim Gannon lives in the Randall Manor section of Staten Island with his wife Carolyn and son Timothy Jr.
Jesse Lyn Leston ’15
An education and sociology dual major from Brooklyn, Jesse Lyn Leston is president of the Student Government Association. She has been actively involved on campus since her first year in organizations such as the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, the Panhellenic Council and the Wagner Community Advisory Board. Leston’s accomplishments have been recognized with the Joseph T. Gabrielline Memorial Award and the Student Government Award as well as induction into Kappa Delta Pi, the national education honor society, and Omicron Delta Kappa, the national leadership honor society. She has worked as a student teacher at the Curtis School on Staten Island with 2nd- and 5th-grade students. Leston will pursue a master’s degree in education at St. Joseph’s College in Brooklyn this fall.
Kerri Lee Alexander ’15
Kerri Alexander, an arts administration major from Bloomfield, Conn., has dedicated her time at Wagner to igniting change within our community. She was a founding member and served as president of My Sistah’s Keeper, the first support group and mentorship program for African-American women at both the African Refuge Youth Center and at Wagner College. She was instrumental in the creation of a highly successful performing arts partnership between Wagner College, Imagining America, Project Hospitality, Eye Openers: Youth Against Violence, and the Port Richmond community called the Sounds of Port Richmond. Alexander was also a founding member and then president of Unified Theater on Staten Island, collaborating with Lifestyles for the Disabled to foster full inclusion within the performing arts. She has served the Wagner College community as a peer leader, a summer conference assistant and as a member of the Society for Arts Administration Students and the Black Student Union. She has interned at MAPP International Productions, planning culturally and socially conscious engagements merging performance and critical dialogue. Alexander has been recognized for her incredible contributions with the MLK Agent of Change Award and the Distinguished Leader Award and has been designated a Port Richmond Community Scholar. This fall, she will begin her graduate work toward a Master of Arts in Theological Studies and Women’s Studies at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Heather Wolf ’15
Heather Wolf is a business administration major with a concentration in marketing from Pine Brook, N.J. Not only did she excel academically during her time at Wagner — her cumulative GPA is a 3.97 — but she has left a legacy of student leadership on Grymes Hill. A student athlete on the varsity teams for cross country as well as track and field, she also served as a resident assistant, a member of the Wagner College Community Standards Review Board and a leader in the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority. Wolf has been recognized on both the Dean’s List and the NEC High Honor Roll nearly every semester of her college career, and was elected Homecoming Queen last fall. At the Senior Awards Dinner, held the night before commencement, Wolf was recognized with the Business Administration Award, the Sir Peter L. Cardiello Award for Entrepreneurship and the Dr. Donald W. Spiro Award for Outstanding Academic and Co-Curricular Achievements. She has had numerous marketing internships at Clear Channel Communications, Nest Seekers International and Richmond University Medical Center, and is currently employed as a multimedia producer for Wagner College. Wolf is well known on campus for her contributions as both a HawkTalk blogger and founder of the “Humans of Wagner” Instagram account.
