2026 Bren Commencement Celebration
Congratulations to the Class of 2026! The Bren School invites you to join us for a celebration of our graduates on Friday, June 12, 2026 at 9:00am Pacific Time. The celebration will be held in the Bren Hall Michael J. Connell Memorial Courtyard, followed by a reception on the lawn. The program will also be streamed live online.
Program:
- Presiding - Sarah Anderson, Interim Dean, Bren School
- Keynote Address - Rosanna Xia
- Presentation of Awards
- Student Address
- Recognition of Graduates
- Music by Brengrass
Keynote Speaker: Rosanna Xia
Rosanna Xia is an author, documentary filmmaker and environmental reporter for the Los Angeles Times, where she specializes in stories about the coast and ocean. Xia was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2020 for explanatory reporting, and her celebrated book on climate change adaptation, California Against the Sea, received the PEN America/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, a gold medal from the California Book Awards, and a special citation from the Library of Congress, among other honors. She has been praised for her investigative reporting and narrative storytelling, and her journalism has been anthologized in The Best American Science and Nature Writing series. Xia’s most recent project, the feature documentary Out of Plain Sight, which she directed and produced, is a cinematic expansion of one of her most haunting environmental exposés. The documentary has received numerous film festival honors, including the Audience Choice Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and the Jackson Wild Media Award for Best Investigative Film.