Mary Baldwin University announces 2019 commencement speaker

Dorie Clark, described by the New York Times as an “expert at self-reinvention and helping others make changes in their lives,” will give the 2019 commencement address at Mary Baldwin University.

MBU’s 177th Commencement ceremony begins at 10 a.m. on May 19 and is held on Page Terrace at the main Staunton campus.

A marketing strategy consultant, professional speaker, and frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review and Entrepreneur magazine, Clark has written three books, Entrepreneurial You (which Forbes named one of the Top 10 Business Books of 2017), Reinventing You, and Stand Out. She is also an adjunct professor of business administration at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

“Our graduates are about to launch into their next chapter,” said MBU President Pamela Fox, “and what better endnote to their studies than hearing Dorie, who speaks so dynamically about personal branding and enhancing your authentic self. We are thrilled to welcome her back to Mary Baldwin for Commencement.”

A former presidential campaign spokeswoman, Clark, a 1997 MBU alum, consults and speaks for a diverse range of clients, including Google, the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Yale University, the Mount Sinai Medical Center, and the U.S. National Park Service.

And in May, Clark will address the campus community where she first arrived as a 14-year-old student in the Program for the Exceptionally Gifted (PEG).

After two years in PEG, she headed to Smith College where she earned her undergraduate degree in philosophy and then to Harvard Divinity School, where she graduated with a master of theological studies.

Clark also directed the environmental documentary film The Work of 1000 and produced a multiple Grammy-winning jazz album.

Founded in 1842, Mary Baldwin University is a small, coeducational university offering a range of degree programs from bachelor to doctoral. It serves a vibrant student population on its main campus in Staunton, Virginia, at its nearby health sciences campus in Augusta County, online, and through regional advising centers throughout Virginia.