Over 2,500 seniors were at Friday’s Senior Breakfast. Overflow seating and big-screen TVs were placed throughout the George Sherman Union.

Commencement 2025

Actor Emily Deschanel (CFA’98) Announced as BU’s 2025 Commencement Speaker

President Melissa Gilliam leads her first official Senior Breakfast

Actor, animal rights activist, and alum Emily Deschanel, best known for her role as Dr. Temperance “Bones” Brennan on the long-running, massively popular TV crime hit Bones, will deliver the main address at Boston University’s 152nd Commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 18. 

The announcement came Friday morning during BU’s annual Senior Breakfast in the George Sherman Union, which was attended by an estimated 2,500 students. University President Melissa Gilliam revealed this year’s honorary degree recipients at the breakfast—her first—considered the official kickoff event of the 2025 Commencement season.

In announcing Deschanel (CFA’98), Gilliam read some of her TV and film credits and then asked the crowd: “Where do you think she became great? BU. I’m really excited to hear her remarks at Commencement.”

Deschanel, who earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre from BU’s College of Fine Arts, will receive an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree and will speak at the Commencement ceremony. She will also deliver the address at the College of Fine Arts convocation ceremony on Saturday, May 17. The other honorary degree recipients announced by Gilliam: Sheri Fink, a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who reports on healthcare and global pandemics (honorary Doctor of Science); Rebeca Carrillo Martinez (LAW’92), Chief Justice of the Texas Fourth Court of Appeals (honorary Doctor of Laws); and Dominic Timothy Moulden, an artist and activist (honorary of Doctor of Humane Letters). Thomas Bickerton, the newly appointed bishop of the New York and Boston Conferences of the United Methodist Church and a BU trustee, will deliver the Baccalaureate address at Marsh Chapel on Commencement morning.

Class Gift co-chair Evrosina Rashad Awad (CAS’25) welcomed everyone to the breakfast. Cameras cut to the overflow senior class crowd seated elsewhere in the GSU. Kate Durant, FitRec associate director of programs, led the seniors in a rousing wake-up stretch.

Rev. Robert Allan Hill, dean of Marsh Chapel, delivered an invocation before the seniors dug into a meal of fruit salad, pastries, chicken apple sausage, and roasted grape tomato, spinach, and mozzarella strata. On the big screen were screengrab images of their freshman-year selves on Zoom, given that they started their college career during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. The new Terriers experienced their freshman year amid daily symptom attestations, weekly COVID testing, and constant mask-wearing.

The morning featured live performances by the BU Jazz Combo and the all-gender a cappella group In Achord and music from the 30-foot-tall John R. Silber Symphonic Organ. The camera panned to golden retriever Bean, BU’s community resource dog, greeting students, too. 

Class Gift co-chairs Paige Bernadette Palinski (Questrom’25), Sophia Featherstone (COM’25), and Awad then announced that the Class Gift—which supports programs like scholarships, student life, and athletics—has already raised more than $55,000; they encouraged their classmates to keep donating.

Awad stayed on stage to give a brief rundown of Commencement dos and don’ts (small purses only, pointy heels are not Nickerson Field turf–friendly, and a prompt 12:15 pm arrival, please). 

Jason Campbell-Foster, dean of students, delivered the news that Jason Wexler (COM’25) will be the Commencement student speaker. Wexler was chosen through an annual process: a committee of faculty and staff appointed by the BU president selects a Commencement speaker from volunteering seniors who relate their story of how their time at BU has shaped and inspired their lives. Keeping with the times, the Senior Week lineup was via a student-produced TikTok.

Gilliam also delivered the morning’s big news—the honorary degree recipients—via camera from downstairs in the GSU. 

When interviewed for CFA’s magazine in 2022, Emily Deschanel described loving the intensity of the college’s program. “We were in class from early in the morning through rehearsals late at night. For most of us, this was all we wanted to do…it prepared us for working in television.”

In 2022, Deschanel starred in Netflix’s Devil in Ohio, created by Daria Polatin (CFA’00). Deschanel’s numerous film credits include My Sister’s Keeper, opposite Cameron Diaz; Glory Road, alongside costars Josh Lucas and Jon Voight; Cold Mountain; Spider-Man 2; and the recent independent features ReEntry and Big Boys. On TV, she’s been seen (and heard) in TNT’s Animal Kingdom, The Simpsons, and BoJack Horseman. 

Deschanel—a longtime vegan—also cares deeply about animal welfare and environmental causes, Gilliam told the students at Senior Breakfast. She served on the board of directors of Farm Sanctuary, a farm animal protection organization, and was a founding member of the Women’s Climate Alliance for Mercy Corps, a group that helps girls and women affected by climate change within the international aid organization.

Sheri Fink, a former relief worker with an MD and a PhD in neuroscience, is a two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, Emmy-nominated television producer, and author. Her best-selling book Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital grew from her investigation of patient deaths following Hurricane Katrina; she later covered the Ebola outbreak and the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Rebeca Carrillo Martinez (LAW’92), Chief Justice of the Texas Fourth Court of Appeals, earned her JD from the School of Law and has served in both federal and state courts. In 2012, she was elected to the appellate court, which at that time was the first and only all-woman appellate court in the country. Reelected twice, she became chief justice in 2020. She is a current member of LAW’s Dean’s Advisory Board.

Dominic Timothy Moulden is a visual storyteller and community organizer based in Baltimore, Md., whose photography documents Black presence and challenges displacement. His work has been exhibited in numerous galleries in and around Baltimore and Washington, D.C. 

Gilliam also announced the recipients of the University’s highest teaching honors, the Metcalf Cup and Prize and Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching. 

The top honor, the Cup and Prize, will be awarded to Tina Durand, a Wheelock College of Education & Human Development clinical associate professor of applied human development. The Metcalf Award winner is Michelle Sullivan (COM’95), a College of Communication professor of the practice of mass communication and public relations and associate dean. Both will be honored during the 2025 Commencement ceremony.

“I’m so excited because this is my first Commencement,” Gilliam told the seniors as the morning wrapped. “I can’t wait to celebrate you at Commencement.”