Ceremony will be President William Craft’s final commencement before retirement
Moorhead, Minn. – Eboo Patel, author, speaker, educator, and founder and president of Interfaith America, will speak at the Concordia College commencement ceremony at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 7, in Memorial Auditorium. Patel and Kari Yates will also receive honorary degrees during the ceremony.
Patel is a civic leader who believes that religious diversity is an essential and inspiring dimension of American democracy. He served on President Obama’s Inaugural Faith Council, has given hundreds of keynote addresses, and has written five books. Under his leadership, Interfaith America has worked with governments, universities, private companies, and civic organizations to make faith a bridge of cooperation rather than a barrier of division. He is an Ashoka Fellow and holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes scholarship. Patel took part in Concordia’s Forum on Faith and Life's Signature Speakers Series and spoke at Concordia’s opening convocation in 2012.
Across 35+ years in education in North Dakota and Minnesota, Yates has worked as a classroom teacher, special education teacher, Reading Recovery teacher, elementary principal, curriculum and staff development specialist, author, speaker, and consultant. She is passionate about working with school leaders, coaches, and teachers to build brighter life outcomes for students, one next step at a time.
More than 400 students will participate in the ceremony, and Concordia will present 338 Bachelor of Arts and 24 Bachelor of Music degrees, eight Master of Education degrees, seven Master of Science degrees, and 30 Bachelor of Science in Nursing degrees.
After 12 years of service with the college, the ceremony will mark President William Craft’s final commencement before he retires at the end of June.
Concordia College is a four-year liberal arts college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America offering more than 50 majors, including 17 honors majors and 13 preprofessional programs.
-30-
(kk)
23-084