Ground-breaking leader, Congressmember Karen Bass to deliver University of Southern California’s 2019 commencement address
The first African-American woman to serve as leader of a state legislative body, U.S. Representative and Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus returns to her alma mater.
Contact: Ron Mackovich at (213) 810-8583 or rmackovi@usc.edu
Congressmember Karen Bass will speak to more than 60,000 fellow members of the Trojan Family, when she delivers USC’s 136th commencement address May 10.
Bass was sworn in to chair the Congressional Black Caucus in January and joined the U.S. Congress in 2011. A lifelong Angeleno and daughter of a U.S. postal worker, Bass served as an emergency room Physician Assistant at LAC+USC Medical Center early in her career.
She is a lifelong community organizer. In 1990, Bass founded the Community Coalition, an organization that works to this day to transform the social and economic conditions in South Los Angeles that foster addiction, crime, violence and poverty by building a community institution that involves thousands in creating, influencing and changing public policy.
In 2005, she was elected to represent parts of Los Angeles in the State Assembly. During her third term there, Bass became the first-ever African-American woman to be elected leader of any state legislative body. In the aftermath of the 2008 economic recession and budget crisis, Bass’ bipartisan negotiation efforts earned her the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award.
Bass has represented California’s 37th Congressional District, which includes the University Park Campus, in Washington, D.C. since 2011. In addition to chairing the 55-member Black Caucus, Bass has served on the Foreign Affairs, Judiciary and Budget committees and currently chairs the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations in addition to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security.
She holds a Masters of Social Work degree from the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work.
More than 19,000 degrees will be conferred during USC’s commencement this year, including more than 1,500 doctorate degrees, at the main ceremony in Alumni Park and satellite ceremonies across the University Park and Health Sciences campuses.
Degree candidates, Half Century Trojans, faculty and distinguished guests will form a procession leaving Bovard Auditorium at 8:30 a.m. on May 10. USC Interim President Wanda Austin will preside over the main ceremony at 9 a.m. in Alumni Park.
For more information about USC commencement, visit commencement.usc.edu
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Photo: Leroy Hamilton
