Anderson University is welcoming famed civil rights pioneer, public servant, ordained minister and former ambassador to the United Nations Andrew J. Young as its keynote speaker for Spring Commencement 2025.
Ambassador Young has earned worldwide recognition as a pioneer in and champion of civil and human rights. His lifelong dedication to service is illustrated by his extensive leadership experience of more than 65 years, serving as a member of Congress, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, mayor of Atlanta, and ordained minister, among other positions.
Last year, Ambassador Young endorsed the joint initiative of Anderson University and Good of All—a global human rights organization founded by AU Distinguished University Professor of Law, Political Science and Human Rights Dr. Matt Daniels—that will bring together students from universities across the nation to study and practice the principles of civility, public service and human rights. This program has been named The Ambassador Andrew Young Higher Education Fellowship Program, as a reminder to participants to embody the character, service and legacy of its distinguished namesake.
Anderson University is celebrating the achievements of the Class of 2025 during two graduation ceremonies and a doctoral hooding ceremony. Ambassador Young will speak at the undergraduate commencement on Friday, May 9 on AU’s Alumni Lawn beginning at 9 a.m. A doctoral hooding ceremony takes place later that day at 5:30 p.m. in the G. Ross Anderson Jr. Student Center Theater.
Graduate students will receive their diplomas on Saturday, May 10 at 10 a.m., also on Alumni Lawn. The keynote speaker for that ceremony is Dr. Anil Kumar Palla, an entrepreneur and leader in global education who currently serves as the founder and CEO of University HUB, a strategic Anderson University partner.
More About Andrew J. Young
During the 1960s, Ambassador Young was a key strategist and negotiator during civil rights campaigns that led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Appointed as an Ambassador to the United Nations in 1977, Young negotiated an end to white-minority rule in Namibia and Zimbabwe and brought President Carter’s emphasis on human rights to international diplomacy efforts. As two-term Mayor of Atlanta, Young brought in over 1,100 businesses, over 70 billion in foreign direct investments and generated over a million jobs.
Ambassador Young has received honorary degrees from more than 100 universities and colleges in the U.S. and abroad and has received various awards, including an Emmy Lifetime Achievement award in 2011 and the Dan Sweat Award in 2017. His portrait also became part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.
Ambassador Young also serves on several boards, including, but not limited to, the Martin Luther King Center for Non-Violent Social Change, Morehouse College, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State and Americas Mart. In 2003, he and his wife Carolyn McClain Young founded the Andrew J. Young Foundation to support and promote education, health, leadership and human rights in the U.S., Africa, and the Caribbean. Young currently serves as the Chairman of the Andrew J. Young Foundation.
In 2012, Young retired from GoodWorks International, LLC, after well over a decade of facilitating sustainable economic development in the business sectors of the Caribbean and Africa. Young was born in 1932 in New Orleans, and he currently lives in Atlanta with his wife, Carolyn McClain. He is also a father of three daughters and one son, a grandfather of nine and a great grandfather of two.