2012 Graduation Guest Speaker Nominees
Vote now for one guest speaker
Chenoa Egawa
A member of the Lummi and S’Kallam Nations of Washington State. She has worked as the First Nations MESA (Math, Engineering, Science Achievement) coordinator through the University of Washington to encourage Native students to pursue higher education and careers in science, math and engineering. Her work with MESA includes developing curriculum, workshops and classroom models that celebrate and integrate Native American culture, values, contributions, accurate history, current issues and spirituality in an effort to foster self-empowerment among Native youth and greater equity in the public educational system. She has also traveled throughout Central and South America facilitating communication between indigenous peoples of the North and South, toward the protection and preservation of traditions, languages and homelands. She has served as a bridge in cross-cultural interactions, encouraging mutual respect among Native and non-Native communities, educators and environmental groups. Her experience as an actor includes performing in lead roles in the World Premiere of Ghosts of Celilo at Portland, Oregon’s Newmark Theatre in 2007 and 2011 where she also won the Portland Area Musical Theatre Award for “Best Original Score” (co- writer); in Sacagawea, at the Oregon Children’s Theatre in 2003, and at the New Visions, New Voices series at Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center in May 2002. Chenoa is Host for the Native news television programs ‘Northwest Indian News’ and ‘Native Heartbeat,’ both of which are viewed across the Western United States, Canada, Hawaii, Alaska and New Zealand.
Van Jones
A civil rights and environmental advocate and attorney in Oakland, California, working to combine solutions to social inequality and environmental justice. In 1996 he founded the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, a California non-governmental organization (NGO) working for alternatives to violence. In 2005 he co-founded Color of Change, an advocacy group for African Americans. In 2007 he founded Green For All, a national NGO dedicated to “building an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty.” In 1998 he was awarded the Reebok Human Rights Award and in 2008 wrote The Green Collar Economy: A Revolutionary Plan to End Global Warming, Beat Poverty, and Unite America that reached number 12 on the New York Times Best Seller list. In March of 2009 he was appointed by President Obama to the position of Special Advisor for Green Jobs where he worked to advance the administration’s climate and energy initiatives. He resigned the position in September of 2009 when he became “embroiled in a controversy” over his past political activities. Jones is currently a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a senior policy advisor for Green For All. He holds a joint appointment at Princeton University, as a distinguished visiting fellow in both the Center for African American Studies and in the Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
Audrey Marrs
1996 TESC Alum. A film producer and Chief Operating Officer of Representational Pictures, Inc., and producer of No End in Sight, which is her first film. It won a Special Jury Prize for documentaries at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. She was also nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature film category for the film. Her next film, Inside Job, was co-produced with Charles Ferguson. It is a documentary about the financial crisis of 2007-2010, which was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2010. Inside Job was released by Sony Pictures Classics in October 2010 and subsequently won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Rick Steves
An American author and television personality who focuses on European travel. He is the host of the American Public Television series Rick Steves’ Europe, has a public radio travel show, Travel with Rick Steves, and has authored various location-specific travel guides. In 2006, Steves became a syndicated newspaper columnist with his Tribune Media Services column. In 2010, he launched the mobile application Rick Steves’ Audio Europe, a library of audio content (including self-guided walking tours) organized into geographic-specific playlists for the iPhone and Android. He supports the decriminalization of marijuana among responsible adult users in the US. He is currently on the Advisory Board of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. He also supports issues of homelessness. He purchased a 24-unit apartment complex in Lynnwood, WA to house homeless mothers and their children. He raises funds for the hunger advocacy group Bread for the World. In 2011, he gave 1 million dollars to Edmonds Center for the Arts and Cascade Symphony Orchestra. Steves is an Honorary Council member of NARAL Pro-Choice Washington.