Laurene Powell Jobs to give keynote address at medical school graduation

Laurene Powell Jobs, founder and president of Emerson Collective, will be this year’s keynote speaker at the Stanford School of Medicine’s graduation.

The event, to be held from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. June 11 on the Alumni Lawn outside the Li Ka Shing Center, will be the first in-person graduation ceremony in three years. It will honor students receiving doctoral and medical degrees as well as master’s degrees in physician assistant studies and other programs.

Using philanthropy, investing, storytelling and convenings, Emerson Collective creates opportunities and develops solutions to spur change in education, the environment and health equity. To combat the alarming achievement gap among students of color, in 1997, Powell Jobs founded College Track, a college completion program that equips students confronting systemic barriers with the tools and resources to earn a bachelor's degree. In 2015, she co-founded the XQ Institute, an organization dedicated to transforming the American high school.

Powell Jobs serves as board chair of the XQ Institute, College Track and Elemental Excelerator. She also serves on the Stanford University Board of Trustees and the boards of the Ford Foundation, Chicago CRED and The Council on Foreign Relations. In keeping with her belief in supporting quality journalism, Powell Jobs is the owner and board chair of The Atlantic.

Powell Jobs earned her bachelor’s degrees in political science and economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, which honored her with the Ernest C. Arbuckle Award.