Jeanne Shaheen, the senior U.S. Senator from New Hampshire and former governor of the state, will address the graduates at the 2016 Boston College Law School Commencement on May 27.
The Law School’s graduation ceremonies will take place at Conte Forum on BC’s Chestnut Hill campus.
“I am very pleased that Senator Shaheen has agreed to be our Commencement speaker,” said BC Law Dean Vincent Rougeau. “Her record of service as a governor and a US Senator—including her leadership roles on crucial Senate committees—is remarkable, and I am sure that she will bring a unique perspective to our graduating students and their guests.”
Senator Shaheen is the only woman in U.S. history to be elected both a governor and a United States Senator. She has served in the U.S. Senate since 2009, and is a member of the Senate Committees on Armed Services, Foreign Relations, Appropriations, and is Ranking Member of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee.
Senator Shaheen played a key role in passing the Small Business Jobs Act and the Small Business Innovation Research program. She led Senate efforts to pass a critical extension of unemployment benefits to help struggling families, and has led an effort toward a bipartisan debt-reduction plan, introducing bills to reform the country’s budget process. She cosponsored measures to cut government spending on vehicles by 20 percent and to eliminate unneeded tax breaks for major oil companies and ethanol production. Senator Shaheen has also advocated for energy efficiency, introducing bipartisan legislation that would create a national energy efficiency strategy to foster job creation, save businesses and consumers money and reduce pollution.
As Ranking Member and the former chair of the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on European Affairs, Senator Shaheen was an outspoken proponent of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START). She helped to secure its ratification, enabling the U.S. to resume critical inspections of Russia’s nuclear arsenal.
Senator Shaheen was governor of New Hampshire from 1997 to 2003. after which she served as director of Harvard University’s Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government.
More information on Law Commencement is available at the Boston College Law School website.
—Nate Kenyon, Boston College Law School Magazine