Knox College has announced their commencement speaker for the Class of 2021, and it’s someone who seems all too appropriate for this particular year.
Illinois’ Director of Public Health Dr. Ngozi Ezike will do the honors for the ceremony in June.
Knox has already announced that commencement exercises for the Class of 2021 are planned for Saturday, June 5, and will be split into two sessions — a morning session and an afternoon session — to allow for a limited number of guests.
Ezike was appointed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker as the first black woman to lead the 143-year-old state health agency.
Before that, she led the Cook County Department of Public Health for 15 years and served as medical director at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center.
She’s also a past medical director at Austin Health Center in Chicago, delivered inpatient care at Stroger Hospital in Chicago, and provided primary and preventive care in community and school-based clinics.
Ezike joins the list of distinguished individuals who have spoken at Knox College Commencement exercises, including Shedd Aquarium CEO Bridget Coughlin ’94, actress and philanthropist Eva Longoria, U.S. Senator Richard Durbin, journalist William Whitaker, poet Natasha Trethewey, Brigadier General Mark Martins, then-U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, comedian Stephen Colbert, and then-Senator Barack Obama.
