Emmy Award-winning host, producer and creator Andy Cohen will return to his native St. Louis to ship the 2026 WashU Commencement address.
Chancellor Andrew D. Martin and Cohen beamed the information from the Manhattan set of “Watch What Happens Live,” Cohen’s in style late-evening speak present, to the Brookings Quadrangle, the place tons of of graduating college students gathered March 24 for the category toast.
“Seniors, I’ll see you May 15. I’ll bring the Imo’s and the Busch beer,” Cohen promised.
The college’s 165th Commencement ceremony will start at 9 a.m. May 15 on Francis Olympic Field on the Danforth Campus. Cohen, who will obtain an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts throughout the ceremony, will address the Class of 2026 and their family and friends members. Roughly 5,000 undergraduate, graduate {and professional} college students are set to graduate this tutorial 12 months.
Since 2009, Cohen has welcomed the largest names in leisure, politics and popular culture to “Watch What Happens Live.” Cohen additionally serves as an govt producer of Bravo’s “The Real Housewives” franchise and has helped launch a dynamic slate of unscripted sequence and specials, together with hits reminiscent of “Top Chef,” “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” “Project Runway,” “Shahs of Sunset” and “Million Dollar Listing.” Every 12 months, tens of millions of viewers ring within the new 12 months with Cohen and good friend Anderson Cooper, co-hosts of CNN’s “New Year’s Eve Live” particular.
Cohen is the recipient of the Vito Russo Award by GLAAD and has been acknowledged in The Hollywood Reporter’s and Variety’s Most Powerful LGBTQ Players in Hollywood lists.
Cohen acquired a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2022; the St. Louis Walk of Fame adopted go well with in 2023. Cohen grew up in Clayton and graduated from close by Clayton High School in 1986.
The college additionally has named 5 different honorary diploma recipients:
- Kwofe Coleman, president and CEO of the Municipal Theatre Association of St. Louis (The Muny) and board president emeritus of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, Doctor of Arts;
- Deborah E. Lipstadt, the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University and former U.S. State Department particular envoy to monitor and fight antisemitism, Doctor of Humane Letters;
- Michael McDonald, 5-time Grammy winner, 2020 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Doobie Brothers lead singer, keyboardist and songwriter, solo artist and St. Louis native, Doctor of Fine Arts;
- Marcus Raichle, MD, the Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Distinguished Professor of Medicine at WashU Medicine and winner of the Kavli Prize in Neuroscience, Doctor of Medicine
- Anabeth and John Weil, philanthropic champions of WashU, the Central Institute for the Deaf, New City School, the Saint Louis Art Museum and different St. Louis establishments, Doctor of Fine Arts
Susan Stiritz, a professor emerita on the Brown School, will function honorary grand marshal. The undergraduate pupil speaker might be Mason Shaver, who’s majoring in political science and in academic research in Arts & Sciences. The graduate speaker might be Sejal Popat, who’s finishing a grasp’s in high quality arts diploma in illustration and visible tradition from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.
The Commencement ceremony might be adopted by a pageant stretching from Francis Field on the west finish of the Danforth Campus to Tisch Park on the east finish. The pageant will characteristic garden video games, picture cubicles, stay leisure and meals from St. Louis eateries.
For extra data, go to the Commencement website.
