Washington state Speaker Laurie Jinkins JD’90 will deliver the keynote address for the 133rd Commencement Ceremony at the University of Puget Sound on Sunday, May 11, 2025, and receive an honorary degree alongside long-serving and groundbreaking Tacoma education leader Willie C. Stewart Sr.
Jinkins serves the 27th Legislative District in the Washington state House of Representatives, where she made history in 2020 as the first woman and lesbian speaker of the house. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Puget Sound School of Law (later the Seattle University School of Law), as well as Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Jinkins began her career litigating child abuse and neglect cases for the state attorney general’s office. She then moved into the public health sector, serving as an assistant secretary of health at Washington’s Department of Health and senior advisor at the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
Jinkins was first elected to the State House of Representatives in 2011. She has focused her legislative career on a platform of reforming our state’s tax code, improving public health and access to health care, ending gun violence, and advancing Washington’s recognition that our diversity is our strength. Jinkins is a member of Tacoma Rotary 8, and has been recognized for her community service with numerous awards, including the Tacoma Historical Society’s Star of Destiny Award and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Washington’s Legislator of the Year Award.
Jinkins will deliver this year’s Commencement address and receive the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters in recognition of her years of dedicated service to her community.
Joining Jinkins on the Commencement stage is Willie C. Stewart, Sr., who will also receive an honorary degree. Stewart is a longtime Tacoma education leader and youth advocate. The son of Texas sharecroppers who grew up picking cotton, Stewart was the first person in his family to attend college. He later enlisted in the U.S. Army and spent 30 years in the Army Reserves, where he retired from the Medical Service Corps with the rank of colonel. Stewart began his teaching career in Tacoma in 1960 as the first Black male teacher at Gault Middle School (now closed), soon rising to assistant principal. He moved from there to Lincoln High School as assistant principal and earned a master’s degree in education administration at Pacific Lutheran University in 1969. In 1970, he broke barriers as Tacoma Public Schools’ (TPS) first Black principal and has since spent over 50 years serving the district in various administrative, elected, and volunteer roles. In 2015, TPS honored Stewart by renaming its Re-Engagement Center the Willie Stewart Academy.
Stewart is a dedicated community servant, volunteering with the Tacoma Athletic Commission, Boys & Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound, the Kiwanis Club, Pierce County Housing Authority, and the Urban Grace Church’s weekly breakfast for those experiencing homelessness. He was named Tacoma Peace Laureate in 2019 and in 2024, Stewart was named a Shining Star Community Partner by TPS.
In recognition of his lifetime of service as an educator and advocate, Stewart will receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Education.
“We are honored to recognize the outstanding and lasting contributions Laurie Jinkins and Willie Stewart have made to the Tacoma community,” said President Isiaah Crawford. “Their achievements in the face of adversity and tireless dedication to making the world a better place serve as a model of the values to which all Puget Sound graduates aspire—civic engagement, leadership and courage.”
Puget Sound’s 133rd Commencement Ceremony will take place from 2–4:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 11, 2025, at Baker Stadium on the campus of the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma. For more information about this year’s ceremony, visit pugetsound.edu/commencement.
