Muriel E. Bowser to Deliver 2016 Commencement Address

Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel E. Bowser will deliver the address at National Cathedral School's 116th Commencement, to be held in the Washington National Cathedral on June 4, 2016.

Mayor Bowser took office in January 2015, the seventh person and second woman elected to the District's highest municipal office. Her administration has focused on producing and preserving affordable housing, continuing the District's model of education reform, and expanding employment opportunities. Earlier this year, she allocated more than $80 million toward affordable housing throughout the District.

From 2007 to 2015, voters in Ward 4 elected Mayor Bowser three times to represent them on the D.C. Council, where she pursued open and ethical government, rebuilding quality neighborhoods, and transforming schools and commercial corridors. She served as chair of the council's committee on economic development.

Mayor Bowser was also elected twice as an advisory neighborhood commissioner for Ward 4's Riggs Park neighborhood, serving from 2004 to 2007.

Mayor Bowser, a fifth-generation Washingtonian, is a graduate of two single-sex schools: Elizabeth Seton High School in Prince George's County, and Chatham College in Pittsburgh, where she received a bachelor's degree in history. She also holds a master's degree in public policy from American University.

Her commencement speech will mark a return to NCS: She visited the Close in April 2015 to address Middle and Upper School students as part of the Center for Ethical Leadership and Service speaker series.

"The student response to Mayor Bowser's visit last April was the impetus to invite her to be this year's Commencement speaker," said Head of School Kathleen O'Neill Jamieson. "Her messages to students were powerful and resonated with our school's core values of excellence, service, courage, and conscience."

The commencement ceremony will begin at 5 pm.