Barbara Pierce Bush to address graduates at Trine's 134th Commencement

ANGOLA (04/04/2019) — Barbara Pierce Bush, Humanitarian and Co-founder and Board Chair of Global Health Corps (GHC), will deliver the address at Trine University's 134th Commencement ceremony on May 4.

"As a person who made a significant positive impact on the world at large while still in her 20s, Barbara Pierce Bush represents the hopes and ideals we hold for Trine University graduates," said Earl D. Brooks II, Ph.D., university president. "Her experiences and insights, as both the daughter and granddaughter of United States Presidents and from her humanitarian work after college, will be an inspiration to the Trine University Class of 2019 as they begin their own careers and lives."

The Commencement ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. in the Keith E. Busse/Steel Dynamics Inc. Athletic Recreation Center on Trine's main campus.

GHC mobilizes a global community of young leaders to build the movement for health equity. The organization was founded in 2009 by six twentysomethings who were challenged by Peter Piot at the aids2031 Young Leaders Summit to engage their generation in solving the world's biggest health challenges. Bush and her co-founders were united by the belief that health is a human right and that their generation must build a world where this is realized.

Since that time, GHC has placed nearly 1,000 young leaders on the front lines of health equity in Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Rwanda, Zambia and the United States, developing a cadre of creative, effective and compassionate change makers.

Prior to GHC, Bush worked in educational programming at the Smithsonian Institution's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, where she supported design-thinking programs for high school students and faculty across the U.S. She has worked with Red Cross Children's Hospital in South Africa and UNICEF in Botswana.

Bush is a member of UNICEF's Next Generation Steering Committee and the UN Global Entrepreneurs Council. She is a Draper Richards Foundation Social Entrepreneur, a World Economic Forum Young Global Shaper, and a fellow of the Echoing Green Foundation.

In 2011, Bush was named one of Glamour magazine's Women of the Year. In 2013 she was recognized as one of Newsweek's Women of Impact, and in 2015 she was named to Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business list. In October 2017, Bush also released "Sisters First," a New York Times best seller written with her twin sister and co-author, Jenna Hager.

The granddaughter of George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st President of the United States, and the daughter of George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States, Barbara Pierce Bush graduated from Yale University with a degree in humanities in 2004.

Everyone is welcome to attend Trine University's Commencement. For more information, visit trine.edu/commencement.

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