Today I attended a special coordination meeting for some of the many staff volunteers that will be helping to make this Saturday’s commencement exercises be truly memorable for our graduates and their proud families. All things at RISD can happen because of the strong, tight-knit community we share here at RISD – Cecile Theroux (pictured speaking above) from Student Affairs has done a great job at pulling all of us together to make commencement fabulous.

At RISD there are many leaders of all categories that make things happen behind the scenes. Commencement is something entirely visible to everyone in the world, but as President I’ve learned that a ton of things happen behind the scenes all the time. With summer approaching, I am reminded of the arduous process of our yearly audit to occur over the next few months. When I came aboard last year, I was tickled to learn of a newer person on our staff, Kelly Morra, who as Controller had transformed RISD’s audit into something of legendary precision in the short span of a few years. I recall going to Kelly’s office to compliment her for her fine work, to which in a nanosecond she responded, “It wasn’t me — it was the amazing team that I have the privilege to work with!” At the end of the audit cycle I attended a lunch led by Kelly in appreciation for her audit team, and I was absolutely blown away by the kind of passionate respect that Kelly commanded among her team members. Kelly will be serving as our Interim Vice President for Finance and Administration shortly after commencement and I am excited to see what she will bring to our community in her new role.

Commencement is only a few days away. See you there! -JM