Timothy Roemer, United States Ambassador to India, will be the principal speaker May 21 at the Commencement ceremony for the University of Notre Dame Graduate School.
The Graduate School ceremony will take place at 10 a.m. in the North Dome of the Joyce Center and be followed by a reception in Jordan Hall immediately following the ceremony.
Roemer earned master’s and doctoral degrees in political science from Notre Dame in 1981 and 1985, respectively. Elected in 1990 to represent Indiana’s Third Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, he served six terms in Congress and was deeply engaged during that time in efforts to improve access to education and to raise standards for it. He also was a principal sponsor of successful legislation to establish the AmeriCorps national service program and co-author of a bill to expand Head Start services.
After his experience in Congress, Roemer was a prominent member of the national 9/11 Commission. He subsequently served as the president of the Center for National Policy in Washington, D.C., a moderate think-tank dedicated to sparking bipartisan dialogue and actively encouraging solutions to America’s most important national security challenges.
In 2009, President Barack Obama appointed Roemer United States Ambassador to India. In that role, he was charged with leading one of America’s largest diplomatic missions. He had principal responsibility for broadening and deepening the multi-faceted U.S.-India partnership as the world’s largest democracies address the challenges of the 21st century.
Roemer announced on April 28 that he was resigning as U.S. Ambassador to India for family and professional reasons and is expected to leave New Delhi in June.