Ringling College of Art and Design has announced that its in-person commencement ceremony will take place on Thursday, May 12, at the Bradenton Area Convention Center.  The commencement speaker for this year is Jacinda Walker.

Walker is well known for her design work and for her advocacy for diversity in the professional world of design. She is a sought-after speaker and regularly presents her research and strategies at conferences, youth programs, schools, and universities. She has helped clients including Amazon, Target, Adobe, Kellogg, and others with their diversity recruiting strategies. She has led design thinking and community design education workshops for the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, the Boys and Girls Club, and numerous AIGA chapters. Currently, she is the founder and creative director of designExplorr, an organization that operates as a social impact to address the diversity gap within the design profession.

From 2016-2018, Jacinda served as the national chair of AIGA’s Diversity & Inclusion task force