{"id":52,"date":"2023-03-08T16:45:12","date_gmt":"2023-03-08T16:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westfield.ma.edu\/commencement2023\/?p=52"},"modified":"2023-03-08T16:45:13","modified_gmt":"2023-03-08T16:45:13","slug":"52","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westfield.ma.edu\/commencement2025\/2023\/03\/08\/52\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Friday, May 13, 2022
Twelve o\u2019clock in the afternoon
MassMutual Center<\/strong>

Dr. Linda Thompson, President
Juline E. Mills, Ph.D., Interim Provost and Vice President, Academic Affairs
Robert A. Martin, Ph.D., Chair, Board of Trustees
Lynn Shelley, Ph.D., Professor, Psychology, Grand Marshal<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PROCESSIONAL<\/strong>

CALL TO ORDER<\/strong>
Lynn Shelley, Ph.D., Professor, Psychology, Grand Marshal

WELCOME<\/strong>
Juline E. Mills, Ph.D., Interim Provost and Vice President, Academic Affairs

COLOR GUARD<\/strong>
Westfield State University Police Officers

THE NATIONAL ANTHEM<\/strong>
Derrick Harnish, Class of 2023

Accompanied by the Westfield State University Wind Symphony under the direction of Dr. Karen Lavoie, Professor, Music<\/strong>

INVOCATION<\/strong>
Reverend Kathleen O’Goley, Pastor
Interfaith Chaplains Council, Albert and Amelia Ferst Interfaith Center

GREETINGS<\/strong>
Dr. Linda Thompson, President
Robert A. Martin, Ph.D., Chair, Board of Trustees
H. Zahra Caldwell, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Ethnic and Gender Studies, on behalf of the faculty and librarians
Katherine R. Pinney, President, Class of 2022, on behalf of the students

THE COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS<\/strong>
John P. Ockerbloom, Esq. \u201989

CONFERRING OF HONORARY DEGREES<\/strong>
Robert A. Martin, Ph.D., Chair, Board of Trustees
John P. Ockerbloom, Esq. \u201989, Doctor of Humane Letters
Dr. Mark Keroack, Doctor of Science

CONFERRING OF DEGREES<\/strong>
Robert A. Martin, Ph.D., Chair, Board of Trustees

VALEDICTORIAN<\/strong>

SALUTATORIAN<\/strong>

DEAN\u2019S AWARD FOR ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE IN CONTINUING EDUCATION<\/strong>

SCHOOL OF BUSINESS, MATHEMATICS, COMPUTERS, AND SUSTAINABILITY<\/strong>

SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY, PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL JUSTICE, AND PUBLIC POLICY<\/strong>

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION, ARTS, COMMUNICATION, AND HUMANITIES<\/strong>

SCHOOL OF HEALTH, NATURAL SCIENCES, AND HUMAN SERVICES<\/strong>

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION REMARKS<\/strong>
Megan Bishop \u201913, President-Elect, Westfield State Alumni Association Executive Council

ALMA MATER<\/strong>
Aaliyah Brown, Class of 2023
Accompanied by the Westfield State University Wind Symphony under the direction of Dr. Karen Lavoie, Professor, Music

BENEDICTION<\/strong>
Reverend Kathleen O’Goley, Pastor
Interfaith Chaplains Council, Albert and Amelia Ferst Interfaith Center

CLOSING REMARKS<\/strong>
Juline E. Mills, Ph.D., Interim Provost and Vice President, Academic Affairs

RECESSIONAL<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WESTFIELD STATE UNIVERSITY BOARD OF TRUSTEES<\/strong>
Dr. Robert A. Martin, Chair
Mr. Ali R. Salehi, Vice Chair
Ms. Lydia E. Martinez-Alvarez \u201986, \u201804, Secretary
Ms. Melissa A. Alvarado \u201999
Mr. Paul D. Boudreau
Ms. Theresa A. Jasmin
Ms. Madeline Landrau
Mr. Chris Montemayor \u201990,\u201911, Alumni Trustee
Hon. William C. Reichelt \u201909
Ms. Chloe M. Sanfacon, Student Trustee
Dr. Gloria B. Williams \u201977<\/p>\n\n\n\n


2022 CLASS COUNCIL<\/strong>
Katherine Pinney, President
Hannah Swanick, Vice President\/Representative to SGA
Josselyn Donahue, Publicity Coordinator
Alec Masiello, Representative to SGA
Fallyn Roberts, Secretary
Ricardo Fonseca, Treasurer<\/p>\n\n\n\n


STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
CLASS OF 2022<\/strong>
Cameron Kelleher, President
Kelson Burke, Vice President of Finance
Lyric Lamagdelaine, Vice President of Academic Life
Lindsay McNulty, Vice President of Publicity<\/p>\n\n\n\n


ADVISOR TO THE CLASS OF 2022<\/strong>
Thomas Convery, Institutional Advancement<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SENIOR ADMINISTRATORS<\/strong>
Dr. Linda Thompson, President
Dr. Juline Mills, Interim Provost, Vice President for Academic Affairs
Ms. Maggie Balch, Dean of Students
Dr. Michael Freeman, Special Assistant to the President on University Strategies and Chief of Staff
Mr. Daniel Forster, Vice President for Enrollment Management
Mr. Richard Lenfest, Athletics Director
Ms. Lisa McMahon, Interim Vice President for Institutional Advancement
Mr. Timothy Rooke, Special Assistant to the President on Community and Governmental Affairs
Mr. Stephen Taksar, Vice President for Administration and Finance<\/p>\n\n\n\n


ASSISTANT PROVOST AND DEANS<\/strong>
Enrique Morales-Diaz, Ph.D., Assistant Provost
Ziblim Abukari, Ph.D., Associate Dean, School of Health, Natural Sciences, and Human Services
Gabriel Aquino, Ph.D., Associate Dean, School of Criminology, Psychology, Social Justice, and Public Policy
Brian Jennings, Ph.D., Dean, Assessment and Accreditation
Sabine Klein, Ph.D., Associate Dean, School of Education, Arts, Communication, and Humanities
Rebecca Morris, Ph.D., Associate Dean, School of Business, Mathematics, Computers, and Sustainability<\/p>\n\n\n\n


PLATFORM PARTY GUESTS<\/strong>
Hon. Michael McCabe \u201984, Mayor, City of Westfield<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Commencement Speaker<\/strong>
John P. Ockerbloom, Esq. \u201989
John P. Ockerbloom is currently the Managing Director and co-head of U.S. Real Estate overseeing the real estate debt and equity platform at Barings in Charlotte, N.C. Barings is a subsidiary of MassMutual. Mr. Ockerbloom\u2019s role is leading the development of the U.S. real estate business strategy and is responsible for building and growing the business across a variety of investment vehicles, asset classes, and geographies. Mr. Ockerbloom also serves as co-chair of the Barings Real Estate U.S. Private Investment Committee and Affordable Housing Committee. Before his duties at Barings, Mr. Ockerbloom served as managing director and global head of real estate, gaming, and lodging at financial firm Jefferies, where he founded the firm\u2019s real estate banking business. He also has maintained leadership positions at Morgan Keegan & Co., Wachovia, and Bank of America. At Westfield State, Mr. Ockerbloom was a political science major and an active member of the Music Theatre Guild. He was a two- term student trustee from 1987-88 and 1988-89. He also served his class as president from 1985-86. After his studies at Westfield State, Mr. Ockerbloom studied law at Northeastern University and received a Juris Doctor of Law degree in 1992.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday, May 13, 2022Twelve o\u2019clock in the afternoonMassMutual Center Dr. Linda Thompson, PresidentJuline E. Mills, Ph.D., Interim Provost and Vice President, Academic AffairsRobert A. Martin, Ph.D., Chair, Board of TrusteesLynn Shelley, Ph.D., Professor, Psychology, Grand Marshal PROCESSIONAL CALL TO ORDERLynn Shelley, Ph.D., Professor, Psychology, Grand Marshal WELCOMEJuline E. Mills, Ph.D., Interim Provost and Vice President, …<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westfield.ma.edu\/commencement2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westfield.ma.edu\/commencement2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westfield.ma.edu\/commencement2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westfield.ma.edu\/commencement2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westfield.ma.edu\/commencement2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.westfield.ma.edu\/commencement2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53,"href":"https:\/\/www.westfield.ma.edu\/commencement2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions\/53"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westfield.ma.edu\/commencement2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westfield.ma.edu\/commencement2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westfield.ma.edu\/commencement2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}