Speakers Named For 2025 Commencement At NJIT In Newark

NEWARK, NJ — The New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) in Newark recently named its keynote speaker and honorary degree recipients for the 2025 commencement ceremonies.

See details for the undergraduate and graduate ceremonies below, or learn more here.

UNDERGRAD

The ceremony for undergraduates will take place at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, May 21 (doors open at 7:30 a.m.) at the Prudential Center, 25 Lafayette Street, in Newark.

The keynote speaker will be Kevin O’Toole, managing partner at O’Toole Scrivo and chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. O’Toole also served 21 years in the New Jersey Legislature as a senator and assemblyman. He holds a J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law and a bachelor’s in political science from Seton Hall University.

In addition to O’Toole, other honorary doctorate recipients include Dennis Bone, former president and CEO of Verizon New Jersey and executive in residence at Montclair State University’s Feliciano School of Business; and Jennifer Taubert, worldwide chair, innovative medicine at Johnson & Johnson and a member of the Board of Directors of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

GRADUATE: COLLEGE OF COMPUTING

The ceremony for master’s candidates at the Ying Wu College of Computing will take place at 9 a.m. on Monday, May 19 (doors open at 8 a.m.) at the Joel and Diane Bloom Wellness and Events Center at NJIT.

The keynote speaker will be Maria Vasquez Karim ’05, an engineering program manager for YouTube ML hardware readiness at Google. She’s also co-chair lead of the Familia Employee Resource Group at YouTube. Earlier in her career, she worked at IBM, Intel and British Telecom. Karim holds a master’s in electrical and electronics engineering from Columbia University and a bachelor’s in computing engineering from NJIT, where she was an Albert Dorman Honors Scholar.

GRADUATE: ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE, SCIENCE/LIBERAL ARTS, MANAGEMENT

The ceremony for master’s candidates at the Newark College of Engineering, Hillier College of Architecture and Design, Jordan Hu College of Science and Liberal Arts and Martin Tuchman School of Management will take place at 1 p.m. on Monday, May 19 (doors open at noon) at the Joel and Diane Bloom Wellness and Events Center at NJIT.

The keynote speaker will be Ken Colao ’77, CEO of construction management company CNY Group. He also serves as co-executive chair of NJIT’s Foundation Board of Directors and a member of the Advisory Board of NJIT’s Hillier College of Architecture and Design. Colao holds a bachelor’s in civil engineering from NJIT.

DOCTORATE CANDIDATES

The ceremony for Ph.D. candidates will take place at 4 p.m. on Monday, May 19 (doors open at 3 p.m.) at the Joel and Diane Bloom Wellness and Events Center at NJIT.

The keynote speaker will be Anita La Salle ’64, ’71, a former program director at the Division for Computer and Network Systems at the National Science Foundation and retired computer science professor. She taught at NJIT and American University, and at the NSF helped create the Innovation Corps. La Salle holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Stevens Institute of Technology and both a master’s and bachelor’s in computer engineering from NJIT.

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