The Story

Christina Romer to Speak at Commencement 2010

Feb. 26, 2010 | By Danny Mosier, DSJ News Editor

Christina Romer (’81), who is currently serving as the Chair of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, will address the College’s next class of graduates during the 2010 commencement ceremony on May 16, 2010.

Also announced was 2009 Pulitzer Prize recipient Annette Gordon-Reed and former Secretary of Treasury Paul O’Neill as recipients of honorary degrees during the ceremony. Also in attendance to deliver remarks at the ceremony will be Chancellor and retired U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Romer, who received her undergraduate degree in economics from The College, was designated as one of the early members of Obama’s financial recovery team following the 2008 presidential election. As the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, Romer is a member of the President’s Cabinet and is involved in developing Obama’s plan for financial recovery.

�"William and Mary is very fortunate to have Christina Romer among our graduates,” said President Taylor Reveley in a College press release. �"In this time of economic uncertainty and peril, she has been a true and steady hand for President Obama and the nation. We look forward to welcoming her to campus once again.”

Before to her work in Washington, Romer spent 10 years as the Class of 1957-Garff B. Wilson Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. She has taught economics and public affairs as an assistant professor at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. She also served as the co-director of the Program in Monetary Economics at the National Bureau of Economic Research and as vice president of the American Economic Association. She has also been a visiting scholar on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

Annette Gordon-Reed has been a professor of history at Rutgers University and has taught law at New York Law School since 1992. In 2009, she won a Pulitzer Prize in history for her book The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family. Her first book, Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy, was published in 1997 and in 2001 she co-authored Vernon Can Read! A Memoir with longtime civil rights leader Vernon Jordan. Her most recent book is entitled Race on Trial: Law and Justice in American History.

Paul O’Neil has served on a wide variety of national committees, including the American Red Cross, Committee for Economic Development, Joint Council on Economic Education, Institute for International Economics and the National Leadership Commission on Healthcare. After serving under Presidents Nixon, Ford and Reagan, O’Neil was appointed in 2001 as the nation’s 72nd Secretary of Treasury by President George W. Bush. In March 2009, O’Neill visited the College and served as a guest professor in the Executive MBA program at the Mason School of Business.

�"We also welcome Annette Gordon-Reed, one of the country’s most respected presidential scholars,” said Reveley. �"It’s fitting for her to receive an honorary degree from the alma mater of a nation. We will honor as well former Secretary O’Neill, whose many years as a corporate giant and dedicated public servant provide a shining example of accomplishment and integrity.”