FALL COMMENCEMENT
Navy Reserve leader to speak to graduates
Family and friends will gather to celebrate at East Carolina University’s Minges Coliseum on Friday, Dec. 16 as more than 2,200 students receive degrees during the fall commencement ceremony. The event will begin at 10 a.m. with the processional.
This will be the first commencement for Chancellor Cecil Staton, who came to the university in July.
“I look forward to congratulating my first group of Pirate Nation graduates. It will be an honor to take part in such a momentous time in their lives, celebrating with our new alumni, their families and friends,” said Staton.
ECU will confer degrees to 1,620 bachelor degree candidates, 558 graduate degree candidates, and 39 certificates and doctoral degrees during the ceremony.
Rear Admiral Christina “Tina” Alvarado will be the keynote speaker. She is the Deputy Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Reserve Policy and Integration and is a registered nurse who holds a master of health care administration degree from the University of North Carolina School of Public Health.
Navy Reserve Rear Admiral Christina Alvarado
During Alvarado’s distinguished military career, she was the first nurse to command Naval Reserve Expeditionary Medical Facility Dallas One, a commissioned expeditionary medicine unit. She was called to active duty in 1990 and 1991 during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm and again in 2002 during operations Noble Eagle and Enduring Freedom. In 2007, she returned to active duty to serve at the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery.
Alvarado worked 10 years on Capitol Hill as staff director of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Hospitals and Health Care and a professional staff member of the U. S. House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. She was recognized for her outstanding contributions to veterans in 1994 by the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives Resolution.
In 2015, her husband, ECU alumnus and trustee Kieran J. Shanahan ’79, established the Rear Admiral Christina M. Alvarado Scholarship in Health Services Management for students in ECU’s health services management program in the College of Allied Health Sciences.
During her time in the Navy Reserves, Alvarado has received several military awards including the Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, Meritorious Unit Commendation, Armed Forces Reserve Medal with “M” device and the National Defense Medal.
Additionally, she was named Columbia University School of Nursing 2011 Distinguished Alumni and is a three-time World Champion equestrian.
ECU will live-stream the fall commencement ceremony for those who are unable to attend. A link to the live-stream and a complete listing of college, school and departmental recognition ceremonies are available at
http://www.ecu.edu/commencement.