David Brooks, American journalist and commentator, will deliver the address at Arizona State University’s undergraduate commencement on May 6 in Tempe.
He will speak to thousands of graduating studentsSome 10,948 undergraduate students and 4,866 have applied to graduate. The graduate ceremony will take place earlier that day at Wells Fargo Arena. and their guests at Sun Devil Stadium. During the ceremony, he will also be presented with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.
David Brooks
Best-selling author Brooks is known for his op-ed columns in The New York Times and serves as a political analyst and frequent commentator on television and radio news programs, including "PBS NewsHour," NBC’s "Meet the Press" and NPR’s "All Things Considered."
“David is one of the premier philosophical and political thinkers and writers of our time,” ASU President Michael M. Crow said. “His deep reflections on society and culture — our values, the importance of personal relationships, having perspective on quests for happiness and joy — are great lessons for our graduating students as they set out on the next chapter in their lives.”
At the forefront of his current work is social fragmentation and what people can do to create a community of relationship and purpose. Brooks is the executive director of Weave: The Social Fabric Project and is leading and supporting efforts to live a life for community rather than a life for self. This will be accomplished through education, information sharing and connecting communities to shift culture and values.
Brooks graduated from the University of Chicago and began his media career as a police reporter for the City News Bureau covering crime for Chicago’s two largest daily newspapers.
In 1986, he joined The Wall Street Journal, where he was a book review editor and film critic. He was later stationed as a correspondent in Brussels for more than four years, covering the Middle East, Russia, South Africa and European affairs. He finished his career at the newspaper as an op-ed editor in 1995 and became a senior editor at The Weekly Standard.
In addition to news reporting, Brooks has authored four books, each taking a unique view of American life. His fifth book, "The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life" — to be released April 16 — addresses the four commitments that define a life of meaning and purpose.
Beyond his role in the media and as author, Brooks has taught at Yale University in the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and Duke University’s Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy. He servers on various boards including New America, a nonpartisan think tank focusing on a range of public policy issues, and as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest learned societies and independent policy research centers addressing critical challenges facing today’s global society.
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