Special to the Times
Veteran Democratic political strategist and former Chair of the Democratic National Committee, Donna Brazile will be the speaker for this year’s Miles College Commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 6.
The graduation, which will take place at the Boutwell Auditorium, will have approximately 247 students walk across the stage.
“We are honored that Donna Brazile will speak at our Commencement this year,” said Miles President George French. “As a respected and outspoken community advocate and political leader, Ms. Brazile has a front-row view of the country’s evolving educational, social justice and political current and future climate. We welcome her to share words of wisdom and encouragement with our 2017 graduating seniors.”
Brazile is the former Vice Chair of Civic Engagement and Voter Participation at the DNC and former chair of the DNC’s Voting Rights Institute. Also as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, Brazile is the author of the best-selling memoir Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics and is on leave with ABC News.
She is has made cameo appearances on CBS’s The Good Wife, and Netflix’s series House of Cards. She most recently appeared on BET’s Being Mary Jane. She is currently on the board of the National Democratic Institute (NDI), the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Foundation, and the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.
Brazile has worked on every presidential campaign from 1976 and in 2000 became the first African-American to manage a presidential campaign. Named among the 100 Most Powerful Women by Washingtonian magazine, Top 50 Women in America by Essence magazine, and received the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s highest award for political achievement. In 2016, Brazile was awarded Wonk of the Year from the Kennedy Political Union at American University.
A native of New Orleans, Louisiana, she is the recipient of numerous honorary doctorate degrees including from Louisiana State University, North Carolina A&T State University, Grambling State University, Spelman College and Xavier University of Louisiana, the only historically Black, Catholic institution of higher education in the United States.
Ms. Brazile is founder and managing director of Brazile & Associates LLC, a grassroots advocacy firm based in Washington, DC.
