UNC System President Hans to speak at 2021 Winter Commencement

UNC System President Peter Hans will deliver the keynote address at Winter Commencement at UNC Pembroke.

The undergraduate ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, December 11, in the main gym of the English Jones Athletic Center. The Graduate School ceremony will be held at 7 p.m. on Friday, December 10, at Givens Performing Arts Center. Dr. Laura Staal, an award-winning professor of reading at UNCP, will serve as the keynote speaker.

The ceremony will be livestreamed and available for viewing here.

Hans is the seventh president of the UNC System. Before his election in 2020, he served as the ninth president of the North Carolina Community College system. During his tenure, the system increased visibility, enrollment, completion rates, public funding, private support, and business partnerships. The legislature elected Hans to the State Board of Community Colleges and UNC Board of Governors. He was chosen by peers for leadership roles and fought for streamlining the transfer of student credits.

Previously, he served as a senior policy advisor to three members of the United States Senate and counseled the private sector on public affairs at one of the state’s largest law firms. He earned degrees from UNC-Chapel Hill and Harvard University.