Soledad O’Brien to Address May 2012 Graduates

Award-winning television journalist Soledad O'Brien will be the commencement speaker at Hunter's 205^th graduation ceremony, to be held May 29 at the Javits Convention Center.

O'Brien is the anchor of CNN's morning news program "Starting Point" which airs weekdays from 7 to 9 am. She started her career in TV news as an associate producer and news writer at the NBC affiliate in Boston. After a long stint with NBC, she joined CNN in 2003, a move that brought her to New York. Her honors include an Emmy for co-hosting the Discovery Channel's "The Know Zone" and the NAACP's President's Award.

She is the daughter of an Afro-Cuban mother and Australian father of Irish descent. Thanks to this special heritage, she is a member of both the National Association of Black Journalists - which named her Journalist of the Year in 2010 - and the Association of Hispanic Journalists, and was named to Irish American Magazine's "Top 100 Irish Americans" twice. She was on Black Enterprise magazine's Hot List in 2005 and the same year was awarded the Groundbreaking Latina of the Year award by Catalina magazine.