Commencement
24 APRIL 2026
SCHOOL OF LAW
This program is for ceremonial purposes only and is not to be considered an official confirmation of degree information. It contains only those details available at the publication deadline. Please note that not all graduates’ names are listed, as some students opt out of having their names appear in Northeastern publications.
THE HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN
Founded in 1898, Northeastern is a global research university and recognized leader in experiential learning, renowned for its innovative approach to education. Yet its origins were remarkably humble.
At the end of the 19th century, immigrants and first-generation Americans constituted more than half of Boston’s population. Among the city’s institutions committed to helping newcomers improve their lives, the Boston YMCA stood out as a gathering place where young men attended lectures on literature, history, music, and other subjects considered essential to intellectual growth.
In response to enthusiastic demand for these lectures, the YMCA directors organized the Evening Institute for Young Men in May 1896. Frank Palmer Speare, a well-known teacher and high school principal, was hired as the institute’s director. Two years later, the YMCA established the “Department of Law of the Boston YMCA,” and on October 3, 1898, Robert Gray Dodge taught the first class. This program was an immediate success and marked the birth of Northeastern University. Speare would later remark, “We started with an eraser and two sticks of chalk.”
As demand for additional courses grew, Speare expanded the offerings. In 1909, full-time day colleges began instruction. That same year, the Evening Polytechnic School announced “cooperative engineering courses,” providing students opportunities to apply classroom knowledge in the workplace—the genesis of Northeastern’s signature cooperative education program.
Decades of expansion
The institution continued to grow, establishing the College of Business in 1922. More space was needed. The university acquired the former home of the Boston Red Sox in 1929, and in 1934, the distinguished Boston architectural firm Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson, and Abbott was awarded the contract to design Richards Hall. Employing what would become a Boston campus signature—white brick—the firm created a neoclassical building. Opened in 1938, Richards Hall became the first structure on the front quadrangle.
As the physical campus expanded, so did academic programs. The addition of the College of Liberal Arts in 1935 signaled the institution’s evolution toward becoming a major university.
When Speare stepped down as president in 1940, Carl Stephens Ell, dean of the College of Engineering, succeeded him. Under Ell’s leadership, Northeastern admitted women to fulltime day programs for the first time.
In the postwar era, Northeastern experienced phenomenal enrollment growth. The university expanded programs to accommodate an increasingly diverse student population. Additional colleges were established in rapid succession: College of Education, 1953; University College, 1960; College of Pharmacy, 1962; College of Nursing, 1964; Boston Bouvé College, 1964; College of Criminal Justice, 1967; and College of Computer Science, 1982.
This expansion required substantial physical growth. When Ell retired in 1959, Asa S. Knowles assumed the presidency. Under his leadership, the university acquired suburban properties in Weston, Nahant, and Burlington, Massachusetts. The Boston campus flourished with new construction, including undergraduate dormitories for the growing residential student population at what had primarily been a commuter campus.
Transforming the Boston campus
Kenneth G. Ryder succeeded Knowles in 1975, bringing unique perspective as someone who had risen from history department faculty member to executive vice president. Under his leadership, the university expanded programs, particularly in arts and humanities, while continuing facilities improvements. Plans for Snell Library were finalized, and the campus was beautified. Northeastern also deepened its commitment to Boston and surrounding neighborhoods.
In 1989, Ryder stepped down as the fourth president of the university. He was succeeded by John A. Curry, Northeastern’s executive vice president and its first alumnus to become president. Under Curry’s direction, the university embarked on a series of ambitious undertakings, including a science and engineering research center, a state-of-the-art classroom building, a recreation complex, and several new undergraduate and graduate programs.
To support these new ventures, Curry led a successful fundraising campaign; his tenure also featured significant institutional restructuring as the university prepared to enter its second century. After four decades of service, Curry retired in 1996, and the trustees elected Richard M. Freeland as the sixth president.
Elevating experience
A distinguished historian and administrator, President Freeland brought to the university a renewed sense of energy and mission. His initiatives supported his vision of Northeastern as a university that would be student-centered, practice-oriented, and urban. The university developed the West Campus with architecturally acclaimed residence halls and teaching facilities for the health sciences and computer science, and added new spaces to enrich campus life.
When Freeland stepped down in 2006, Joseph E. Aoun, an internationally recognized linguistics scholar, became Northeastern’s seventh president. President Aoun came from the University of Southern California, where he served as dean of the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences. He developed an academic plan outlining the university’s vision in several areas: experiential learning, global outreach, use-inspired research, urban engagement, and intellectual life. He significantly expanded global co-op opportunities, and he aligned research with three worldwide imperatives—health, security, and sustainability— emphasizing interdisciplinary solutions.
A rising global profile
Under Aoun’s leadership, Northeastern launched a campus system designed as platforms for lifelong learning aligned with regional economies. The first locations opened in Charlotte, North Carolina (2011), and Seattle (2013); additional campuses followed in Silicon Valley, California (2015), and Toronto (2016).
In 2016, Aoun led development of a new academic plan, Northeastern 2025, a blueprint for transforming the institution into a global university system—featuring networks of learners and innovators— designed to empower people to succeed in this era of unprecedented technological change. The university expanded its global campuses as platforms for learning, research, and industry partnerships. In 2019, Northeastern opened a Vancouver location and acquired New College of the Humanities in London, now officially Northeastern University London, offering undergraduates a unique opportunity to earn a dual U.S./U.K. degree. Later in 2019, Northeastern launched a research campus in Arlington, Virginia, complementing two existing research campuses in Nahant and Burlington, Massachusetts (formed in 1967 and 2012, respectively).
In January 2020, technology entrepreneur David Roux and his wife, Barbara, established the Roux Institute in Portland, Maine. The institute focuses on graduate studies and research in fields such as artificial intelligence, digital engineering, and advanced life sciences, amplified by industry partnerships. It was specifically designed to be a model of how higher education can ignite economic development in regions of the country largely bypassed by the innovation economy, setting a new bar for what the global university system could achieve.
Resilience and momentum
The revolutionary vision that inspired Northeastern 2025 infuses the university’s latest academic plan, Experience Unleashed. The plan is designed to deepen the impact of Northeastern’s global network by maximizing the power of experience to understand and solve the world’s interconnected, ever-evolving challenges.
In 2022, the university merged with Mills College in Oakland, California, becoming the first institution with comprehensive residential campuses for undergraduate and graduate students on both U.S. coasts. In 2023, Northeastern opened a Miami campus featuring graduate education and innovation partnerships aligned with South Florida’s economic growth. The following year, the university announced a New York City campus through a merger with Marymount Manhattan College.
Through dedication and vision, Frank Palmer Speare’s “eraser and two sticks of chalk” have evolved into one of the world’s most innovative universities. Our faculty collaborates fluidly with experts across industry, government, and community organizations. Ideas and solutions can be scaled. And our students are empowered to be global citizens, scientists, entrepreneurs, and creators—prepared to make lasting impact wherever they go.
PROGRAM
Presiding
Beth A. Winkelstein
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
Prelude
Processional
The audience is requested to remain seated during the processional of the graduates and faculty. Upon a signal from the Chief Marshal, the audience will rise and remain standing until instructed to be seated.
Music provided by Majestic Brass
Eric Berlin, trumpet
Hans Bohn, trombone
Takatsugu Hagiwara, tuba Whitacre Hill, horn
Richard Watson, trumpet
We kindly ask those in attendance to silence their electronic devices.
SCHOOL OF LAW COMMENCEMENT CEREMONY
LEADER BANK PAVILION, FOUR O’CLOCK
Welcome and Opening Remarks
James Hackney Dean, School of Law
Student Addresses
Hien Thu Nguyen
Mariana Xacur Trabulce
Benjamin T. Makishima
Faculty Address
Margaret Hahn-DuPont
Commencement Address
Lois Dehls Cornell, ‘86
Conferral of Degrees
Beth A. Winkelstein Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
James Hackney Dean, School of Law
Degrees in Course
James Hackney Dean, School of Law
Charge to the Graduates
James Hackney Dean, School of Law
Recessional
The audience is requested to remain seated during the recessional.
COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS
Commencement Speaker
Lois Dehls Cornell
Lois Dehls Cornell has spent her career demonstrating what law looks like when it is deployed in the service of something larger than itself. As an attorney and executive whose work has centered on the institutions that protect and advance public health, she has brought legal expertise to bear on one of society’s most consequential responsibilities—ensuring that organizations entrusted with our health are well governed, well led, and built to endure.
Since 2016, Cornell has served as executive vice president of the Massachusetts Medical Society. She is responsible for the operation and management of the society and provides oversight for NEJM Group, which publishes the New England Journal of Medicine, as well as the society’s subsidiaries. Under her leadership, the society has been named annually a Top 100 Women-Led Business in Massachusetts by The Women’s Edge and one of the Top Places to Work by The Boston Globe
Cornell’s legal career spans private practice, in-house counsel, and executive leadership in the healthcare industry. She began her career at the Boston law firm of Goodwin Procter before joining Tufts Health Plan, where she spent 24 years, ultimately serving as both chief administrative officer and general counsel—a dual role that highlights the unique breadth of her legal and operational expertise. She is a past president of the American Health Lawyers Association and serves on the boards of the Pan-Mass Challenge, Massachusetts Health Quality Partners, the MMS and Alliance Charitable Foundation, and Physician Health Services.
Her contributions to the legal profession have been widely recognized: Women’s Business Boston named her one of the Top 10 Women Corporate Lawyers in Boston, and Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly honored her with its In-House Leaders-in-the-Law Award. She is also a recipient of the YWCA Boston’s Academy of Women Achievers Award and is a member of the Massachusetts Women’s Forum.
Cornell received her bachelor’s degree from Macalester College and her Juris Doctor from the Northeastern University School of Law.
SCHOOL OF LAW
Juris Doctor
Ashley M. Agostinelli
May Alabbadi
Isis A. Alexander
Marissa S. Amen
Camilla B. Andrade
Ariel Applewhite
Jordyn P. Arakelian
Oluwanifemi Oluwatobiloba Awosika
Margaret A. Babikian
Edith Baez
Theodore M. Bakas
Nicholas C. Barber
Autumn E. Barnes
Nicole M. Benevento
Phoebe Bobola
Sarah Joy Bonfanti
Nadia Isabella Boudoukara
Stephanie J. Bousley
Evan M. Boyer
Jackson N. Bracy
Cara Bradley
Leonard P. Brooks III
Brendan J. Brosnihan
Michelle Buinickas
Amanda Carroll
Daniel Alejandro Castro-Fernandez
Jaylen R. Cavil
Nicole Celis
Sarah Y. Chang
Mary A. Chapin
Leyan Lorraine Chen
Katerina B. Chew
Kanika Chitnis
Jessamyn Ward Chmura
Yunjae Choe
Sammuel Choi
Jamie Clougherty
Tabitha Anna Collins
Erin Connolly
Makayla Connor
David M. Coscia
Lucille J. Cotto
Jesse L. Cullen-Popp
Andrew J. Curran
Parthi Dasondi
Allison M. Dattomo
Josie E. Davis
Kaitlyn C. Dehais
Christina D. DeVincenzi
Michael J. Devlin-Horne
Owen P. Doherty
Kaylee Dolan
Maggie Doldt
Catherine R. Dowd
Ashley Lara Duval
Noah C. Eckersley-Ray
Briana Ehrlich
Owen A. Engler
Anna J. Erickson
Gabrielle Fagan
Peter J. Fantozzi
Timothy T. Fay
Henry G. Felstiner
Elliana Fiskio
Joseph W. Flaherty IV
Cora B. Flynn
Lauren Hui Yee Foy
Taviana Franciskato
Elizabeth F. Fretz
Emily E. Ganem
Kathryn Gatuslao
Charlotte E. Getchell
Camryn M. Given
Lindley Gorman
Fiona Guidos
Taylor A. Hahn
Justin Hall
Benjamin I. Hardin
Mariam Hassan
Avery Hayes
Shayan A. Hedayat
Nathan T. Hey
Ezekiel A. Hopkins
Seyedeh Hanieh Hosseini
Eli W. Hovland
Jordan J. Hoyda
Katrynna T. Jackowicz
Jordan N. Jain
Tanzila Jamal
Elizabeth K. Jarrett
Lee Ann Jastillana
Chloe M. Johnson
Meredith E. Johnson
Delphine Jrolf
Grace Jung
Yumna Kamal
Paulina Kanburiyan
Kangan Kanjhlia
Eli L. Karush
Cathlene C. Kaseta
Alexandra M. Katz
Purvaja S. Kavattur
Isaiah C. Kazunga
Katherine C. Kelly
Shraddha Khirwadkar
Kaeun Kim
Kathleen R. Kisker
Nanrawee Kitiarsa
Ava Kuch
Alara Kucukseyhan
Rachel A. Kyriakides
Talia K. Lanckton
Tomo Lazovich
Dahm Lee
Sionnach Levy-O’Malley
Sabrina Liu
Joshua B. Lovejoy
Anna G. Luttrell
Jackson J. Machesky
Nicholas R. Magnani
Reeth K. Magoo
Susanna Maheras
Benjamin T. Makishima
Nathan M. Martin
Fernando Martins
Rachel Matz
Tyler Maxwell
Hannah McCormick
Shannon J. McGarry
Sean Thomas McNeill
Rylee E. Meints
Rose Mendelsohn
Henry G. Meyer
Annika J. Mirchandani
Miles S. Moody
Margaret M. Murphy
David G. Nagle
Vaishnavi M. Nair
Sophia E. Naroian
Jesse Nava
Abina Nepal
Theodore Z. Nguyen
Shea M. Nugent
Michaela Ogedegbe
Luce Angeline Lovely Olivier
Evelyn L. O’Neil
Sydney E. Palmer
Emma A. Parker
Marjorie O. Piani
Kristina L. Poydenis
Maya Quirk
Brenna V. Rademaker
Naledi J. Rampheri
Wilson T. Redfield
Andrea Rice
Camille M. Rivero
Elissa M. Rizzo
Heeyeon Claudia Ro
Andrew Robertsano
Jennifer R. Rodrigues
Flora Rodriquez
Daniel K. Rossignol
Elijah D. Rowland
Brendan V. Ryan
Apurva Sahay
Gabrielle P. Sanders
Alexandra D. Santiago
Samantha A. Schena
Jyla P. Serfino
Kritika Shankar
Runjni Shastri
Adam Yisrael Sherf
Anna Niamh Short
Jacqueline K. Shortsleeve
Annabel D. Shu
Anthea Simon
Isabel P. Smith
Katherine Smith
Kathryn E. Sottile
Candace Stewart
Zachary S. Swanson
Jessica R. Tarnoff
Benjamin Weed Taylor
Nyah Dhanesh Tewani
Siobhan Tierney
Yushan Tong
Alden E. Truesdale
Gareth Wentworth Turnbull-Barr
Master of Laws
Geraldine G. Albaidoo
Ahmad Aljazi
Laura Maria Alvarado
Shaun Jevanie Bean-Arnold
Altynai Beishenalieva
Nomin Bold
Samiyah Bryant
Johannes Buabeng-Baidoo
Albertson Candelier
Anell Capellan Raposo
Kobina Ebo Donkor
Sheena Edathara
Victoria Edwards
Younouss Sakhoba Fall
Paul Fitzpatrick
Cecilia Garcia Delfini
Takeese Onika Gilpin Allen
Kanan Gochiyev
Steve Gustave
Habeeb Ali Bin Hasan
Susana Herrera Jaramillo
Md Ferdows Hossen
Roeldi Hysi
Thomas Un
Arianna Unger
Julian P. Vallen
Lincoln J. Vamos
Minali Venkatesh
Carter Viets
Caroline Weinstein
Jacob Weinstein
Allison C. White
Margaret D. Wiggins
Eve E. Worobel
Michelle J. Yang
Kristal Yee
Jessica Zalzal
Mark Zito
Diane Andreea Zlotea
Adam E. Zumbado
Zeynep Incedere
Winnie Amondi Jagongo
Abdullah Javaid
Amina Karimi
José Miguel León Brol
Alvaro Luna
Adiel Martinez Ventura
Basit Nazir
Rosaurys Villaman Ortiz
Arit Fiakabit Ossom
Namrata Panchal
Maria Del Carmen Pimentel Bueno
Elena Prozorova
Alla Albertivna Pukhtetska
Sello Abednego Rasephei
Itmam Khan Sabit
Vonneta Spencer
Acres Adolph Stowe
Michel Jakob Ghassan Wakim
Natasha Williams
Susel Wilson Guerra
Mariana Xacur Trabulce
Bayan Yauhari Ghosn
Master of Legal Studies
Alyssa Agustin
Kevin Allwarden
Lilybeth Arroyo
Fadekemi Ayeni
Fatima-Zahra Azouay
Christina M. Borst
Andrea Calo
Cheryl Anne Casey
Thomas Michael Cornish
Christina Norell Croatti
Judeen Daley
Gayana Daniel
Zara Sakeena Davis
Luca De Menech
Glenn Michael Deitz
Troy Emmet Doughty
Gary Dufault
Nguyen Duong
Steven Ismael Escobar
Modia LaShawn Evans
Kelly Farrier-Glennon
Steffanie Leigh Furtek
Teia Goodwin
Caila Elsa Hanson
Karina Herrera
Meghana Jain
Ana Kemppainen
Carolyn Qiuping Larrabee
Megan Elizabeth Learn
Paige Alicia Maher
Bailey Mallory
Erica Marie Therese Maloney
Miriam Judith Martinez
Listra Jermina Mitchell-Hunt
Patrice K. Morris
Katie Mulligan-Huha
Jonida Ndreu
Hien Thu Nguyen
Julie Nguyen
Alyssa Nicholson
Atonte Eniola Oyerinde
Anicka Pathammavong
Anxhela Pecani
Jonathon Daniel Pereira
Dana Racine
Eric Ramirez
Celeste Alejandra Ramirez Diaz
Madison Kayla Wood Riley
Donna Robles
Alyssa Beate Schmidek
Nathalia Seymour
Elizabeth A. Silva
Amanda Jane Stark
Michelle Amelia Torres
Manuel Urias
Virginia Louise Ward
Cecelia Katherina Weigel
Tameka Alicia Weinert
Kemi Ariana Williams
UNIVERSITY SENIOR LEADERSHIP
Joseph E. Aoun, President
Beth A. Winkelstein, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
Kenneth W. Henderson, Chancellor and Senior Vice President for Learning
Michael Armini, Senior Vice President for External Affairs
Mary Ludden, Senior Vice President for Global Network and Strategic Initiatives
Diane Nishigaya MacGillivray, Senior Vice President for University Advancement
Thomas Nedell, Senior Vice President for Finance and Treasurer
Mary B. Strother, Senior Vice President and General Counsel
UNIVERSITY DEANS
Gregory Abowd, College of Engineering
Rajesh Aggarwal, Interim, D’Amore-McKim School of Business
Jared Auclair, College of Professional Studies
James R. Hackney, School of Law
R. Benjamin Knapp, College of Arts, Media and Design
Beth D. Kochly, Mills College at Northeastern University
Elizabeth D. Mynatt, Khoury College of Computer Sciences
Brent Nelson, Interim, College of Science
Carmen Sceppa, Bouvé College of Health Sciences
Kellee Tsai, College of Social Sciences and Humanities
MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES, TRUSTEES EMERITI, HONORARY TRUSTEES, AND
CORPORATORS EMERITI
Members of the Board of Trustees
Richard D’Amore, Chair
Edward Galante, Vice Chair
Alan McKim, Vice Chair
Joseph E. Aoun, Ex Officio
Jeffrey Bornstein
Subodh Chanrai
Alice Chinebuah
Jeffrey Clarke
William Conley
Richard D’Amore
Deborah Dunsire
Spencer Fung
Edward Galante
Sir Lucian Grainge, CBE
David House
Frances Janis
Chaitanya Kanojia
Amin Khoury
William Lowell
Todd Manganaro
Honorary Trustees
Scott M. Black
Charles K. Gifford
Trustees Emeriti
Barbara C. Alleyne
George D. Behrakis, Vice Chair Emeritus
Margot Botsford
Frederick Brodsky
Frederick L. Brown
Peter B. Cameron
Richard P. Chapman Jr., Vice Chair Emeritus
William J. Cotter
John J. Cullinane
Harry T. Daniels
Alan McKim
James Pallotta
Irene Panagopoulos
John Pulichino
Jean Eric Salata
Kathleen Sanborn
Winslow Sargeant
Jeannine Sargent
Maha Shair
Shelley Stewart Jr.
Hemant Taneja
Jean-Pascal Tricoire
Christopher Viehbacher
Gregory Waters
Christophe Weber
Lucille R. Zanghi
Susan S. Deitch
Neal F. Finnegan, Chair Emeritus
W. Kevin Fitzgerald
Arnold S. Hiatt
William S. Howard
Venetia Kontogouris
Richard G. Lesser
Diane H. Lupean
Roger M. Marino
Katherine S. McHugh, Vice Chair Emerita
Kathryn M. Nicholson
Arthur A. Pappas
Marcy L. Reed
Ronald L. Rossetti
Ronald Sargent
Carole J. Shapazian, Vice Chair Emerita
Robert J. Shillman
Janet M. Smith
Corporators Emeriti
Salah Al Wazzan
Quincy L. Allen
Tarek As’ad
Robert J. Awkward
Vincent F. Barletta
Richard L. Bready
John F. Burke Jr.
William P. Casey
Lawrence G. Cetrulo
Nassib G. Chamoun
William D. Chin
Steven J. Cody
Timothy J. Connelly
Joseph J. Cronin
Richard J. DeAgazio
Kevin A. DeNuccio
Robin W. Devereux
Robert E. DiCenso
Priscilla H. Douglas
Adriane J. Dudley
Michael J. Egan
Douglas M. Epstein
Joseph D. Feaster Jr.
Louise Firth Campbell
Lisa D. Foster
Francis A. Gicca
Gary R. Gregg
Nancy E. B. Haynes
Charles C. Hewitt III
Roderick Ireland
Mark A. Krentzman
Joseph C. Lawler
Mary Kay Leonard
Sy Sternberg, Chair Emeritus
Jean C. Tempel, Vice Chair Emerita
Alan D. Tobin, Vice Chair Emeritus
Joseph Tucci
Catherine A. White
Arthur W. Zafiropoulo
Michael Zamkow
Ellen M. Zane
M Benjamin Lipman
George A. MacConnell
Susan B. Major
Paul V. McDonough
Thomas P. McDonough
Kathleen McFeeters
Susan A. Morelli
Francis E. Murphy
James Q. Nolan Jr.
Peter J. Ogren
Lawrence A. O’Rourke
Leonard C. Perham
Valerie W. Perlowitz
Steven Picheny
John E. Pritchard
Eugene M. Reppucci Jr.
Rhondella Richardson
Patrick A. Rivelli
David J. Ryan
George P. Sakellaris
Richard A. Schoenfeld
Peter J. Smail
Karen Tay Koh
Gordon O. Thompson
Alexander L. Thorndike
James R. Turner
Mark L. Vachon
Laurie B. Werner
E. Leo Whitworth
Donald K. Williams Jr.
Donald L. Williams
Richard R. Yuse
UNIVERSITY MARSHALS
Mary Jo Ondrechen, Chief Marshal
Stefano Basagni
Jonathan Bell
Christopher Bosso
Luca Caracoglia
Christopher Cesario
Martin Dias
Amy Farrell
Kirsten Fertuck
Alex Fronduto
David Herlihy
Dan Kennedy
Barbara Larson
Kimberly Lucas
Steve Lustig
Jay Mulki
Hande Musdal Ondemir
Ana Otero
Mary-Susan Potts-Santone
Heather Streets-Salter
Annemarie Sullivan
Rajagopal Venkatesaramani
Edward Witten
Elizabeth Zulick
The Registrar of the university maintains the official list of all graduates. This program is for ceremonial purposes only.