USC Rossier is pleased to announce its keynote speakers for this year’s commencement ceremonies. New York University Professor of History and Social Studies Robert Cohen will deliver remarks at the doctoral hooding ceremony, scheduled for 1 p.m. on Wednesday, May 13, at the McCarthy Quad. Giving Pledge philanthropist and change agent Melanie Lundquist will be the keynote speaker at the master’s ceremony at 4:30 p.m., Saturday, May 16, at the Galen Center.
Leading historian and award-winning author Robert Cohen has dedicated his scholarship to the history of social protest, higher education and the Black Freedom struggle in the 20th century. Melanie Lundquist is one of California’s most significant philanthropic leaders, and, with her husband, has pledged more than $450 million over the last decade with a focus on public education, health care, biomedical research, climate change and democracy.
“The role of education to help create a more just and informed society is especially urgent in this current climate. Robert Cohen’s scholarship gives us unique insight into how institutions of higher education have evolved and responded to student and civil movements for change. Melanie Lundquist’s philanthropic investment, focused on combating some of our society’s most vexing problems, reflects her deep commitment to advancing the public good. Together, these two represent the type of scholarship and leadership that is needed in our current educational and societal landscape,” says USC Rossier Dean Pedro Noguera.
Robert Cohen: Understanding the movements that shaped higher ed
Robert Cohen is a professor of history and social studies at New York University. His historical scholarship focuses on social protest, higher education and the Black Freedom struggle in the 20th century. He is a leading historian of American student movements in the 1960s, especially the campus struggle for freedom of speech and against racism. His most recent book, Confronting Jim Crow: Race, Memory, and the University of Georgia in the Twentieth Century, won the Lillian Smith Book Award last year.
His biography of Berkeley Free Speech Movement (FSM) leader Mario Savio, Freedom's Orator, was adopted by UC Berkeley for its On the Same Page common reading program. In 2025, he was a senior fellow in the University of California's National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement, exploring the campus free speech crises of 1964 and 2024. His latest historical book, Not Dreaming: Martin Luther King, Jr's Critique of America, will be published next October.
Cohen's social studies teaching and scholarship are aimed at fostering historical debate in high school classrooms by connecting teachers and students to historians and topics that intolerant politicians have sought to ban. This work has been reflected in his recent books Rethinking America's Past: Howard Zinn's A People's History in the United States in the Classroom and Beyond (co-authored with Sonia E. Murrow), and Teaching LGBTQ+ History in High Schools: Practical Strategies and Voices of Experience (co-edited by Stacie Brensilver Berman).
Melanie Lundquist: Backing change with “big bets”
Melanie Lundquist and her husband Richard are two of California’s most significant philanthropists, having pledged more than $450 million over the last decade. Signatories of the Giving Pledge, the Lundquists have appeared six times on “The Philanthropy 50,” the annual list of America’s 50 most generous philanthropists. Melanie Lundquist was also named “Philanthropist of the Year” in 2019 by the Los Angeles Business Journal.
The Lundquists’ “big bet” philanthropic investments include: the largest single donor contribution to a non-teaching/training hospital in the United States ($162 million, Torrance Memorial Medical Center); the largest investment ever made by individuals to improve K–12 public education in Los Angeles ($85 million, Partnership for Los Angeles Schools); and one of the largest biomedical research-related investments ever made in California ($70 million, The Lundquist Institute).
She is currently collaborating with the Gates Foundation to improve math outcomes in public schools across California and serves as vice chair of the board at the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, one of the largest, in-district (non-charter) public school transformation organizations in the United States.
Melanie earned her associate’s degree from Los Angeles Valley College. She holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from USC in communicative disorders/speech pathology and audiology, and a credential as a specialist in special education. In 2020, McPherson College recognized her philanthropic work with an honorary doctor of humane letters. Melanie previously served on the USC President’s Leadership Council and is an ex officio member of the USC Rossier Board of Councilors.
For USC Commencement information and livestreams of the USC Rossier ceremonies, please visit: https://commencement.usc.edu/.
