LINCOLN UNIVERSITY, PA – APRIL 6, 2026 – Lincoln University is pleased to announce Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II, President and Senior Lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, as our key commencement speaker at the university’s 167th Commencement.
Taking place on Sunday, May 3, 2026, at 11:00am at the Niara Sudarkasa International Cultural Center Pavilion, Lincoln University will confer over 400 degrees during the university-wide celebration.
“Our 167th Commencement is a powerful reflection of Lincoln University’s mission and its enduring impact across generations,” says Dr. Brenda Allen, President of Lincoln University. "This joyful celebration affirms the resilience, talent, and promise of our graduates, and we are deeply excited to watch them step confidently into the next chapter of their lives—equipped to innovate, serve, and shape the future.”
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II – Commencement Speaker
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, now a Bishop, is the President and Senior Lecturer of Repairers of the Breach; a Professor in the Practice of Public Theology and Public Policy and Founding Director of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School; Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call For Moral Revival and Bishop with The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries.
Rev. Dr. Barber served as senior pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church, Disciples of Christ for thirty years and as president of the North Carolina NAACP from 2006-2017, and on the National NAACP Board of Directors from 2008-2020. He is the architect of the Forward Together Moral Movement that gained national acclaim in 2013 with its Moral Monday protests at the North Carolina General Assembly. In 2015, he established Repairers of the Breach to train communities in moral movement building through the Moral Political Organizing Leadership Institute and Summit Trainings (MPOLIS). In 2018, he co-anchored the relaunch of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival— reviving the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign organized by SCLS, under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., worker’s rights movement, women’s rights movement, religious leaders, and people of all races to fight poverty in the U.S. Rev. Dr. Barber has been arrested more than 15 times in various states standing up with those who have been marginalized by systematic racism.
A highly sought-after speaker, Rev. Dr. Barber has given keynote addresses at hundreds of national and state conferences, including the 2016 Democratic National Convention, the homily at the 59th Inaugural Prayer Service for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Vatican at Pope Francis’s encyclical “Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home” and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. In June 2018, he addressed the 5th Uni Global Union World Congress to more than 25 countries.
Rev. Dr. Barber is regularly featured in media outlets such as MSNBC, CNN, the New York Times, Washington Post, and The Nation magazine. He was named one of 2020’s BET 100 Entertainers and Innovators and one of the 2019 recipients of the North Carolina Award, the state’s highest civilian honor. He is a 2018 MacArthur Foundation Genius Award recipient and a 2015 recipient of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Award and the Puffin Award. He has written five books, including White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy and The Third Reconstruction: Moral Mondays, Fusion Politics, and The Rise of a New Justice Movement.
Rev. Dr. Barber has had twelve honorary doctorate degrees conferred upon him. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree from North Carolina Central University, a Master of Divinity from Duke University, and a Doctorate from Drew University with a concentration in Public Policy and Pastoral Care.
The Honorable Andrew Dinniman - Honorary Degree Recipient
Andy Dinniman has been a leader for communities, families, and taxpayers throughout more than 45 years of public service in Pennsylvania. After a successful career as state Senator of Pennsylvania's 19th District, Chester County Commissioner, School Board Member, and a professor at West Chester University, Andy retired. He now manages the Education PAC, an organization dedicated to providing equitable opportunities in the changing education landscape.
Dinniman’s work directly resulted in the founding of the Chester County Gleaning Program (now the Chester County Food Bank) and the Safe Harbor Homeless Shelter, programs that assist some of society’s most vulnerable members.
His commitment to fiscal responsibility and economic prosperity resulted in a period of low taxes and sustained growth for both large and small businesses in the area. Dinniman has had a special concern for the development and success of the bioscience and pharmaceutical fields, encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation.
Dinniman championed investments in Open Space and efforts to protect our natural treasures and environmental resources. He served as one of the principal architects of Landscapes, the county’s award-winning Open Space plan, which has resulted in the saving of almost 30% of Chester County as open space in perpetuity.
In the Senate, Dinniman served as minority chairperson of the Education Committee, and became known as a champion of equitable education and opportunity for all students. He has received many awards and accolades throughout his career in public service.
Dinniman resides in West Whiteland Township with his wife, Margo. Together they have a daughter, Alexis. The Dinniman family has also adopted a rescue poodle named Jagger.
Dr. Renosi Mokate - Honorary Degree Recipient
Dr. Renosi Mokate serves as the coordinating chairperson of the PEAC. Presently, she occupies the position of Executive Chairperson at Concentric Alliance and Chairperson at Government Employees Pension Fund (South Africa). Dr. Mokate is also on the board of 5 other companies.
She is the former Executive and Dean, University of South Africa Graduate School of Business Leadership (SBL), and former Deputy Governor of the South African Reserve Bank. Before joining the SBL, Dr. Mokate was an independent consultant for the Ministry of Finance and National Treasury as well as a member of the Investigation Steering Committee of the Municipal Demarcation Board.
She is a former Executive Director of the World Bank Group, where she represented Angola, Nigeria, and South Africa. Mokate also served as the Chairperson of the Audit Committee as well as a member of various other committees.
She holds a PhD and MA from the University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, and a BA from Lincoln University, Pennsylvania. Her areas of specialization are Development Economics, Urban Economics, and Policy Analysis.
Dr. A. Wade Boykin - Honorary Degree Recipient (Posthumously)
Dr. Boykin was a professor and director of the graduate program in the Department of Psychology at Howard University, where he also served as executive director of the Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed At Risk (CRESPAR), now titled the Capstone Institute. A cognitive psychologist by training, Dr. Boykin brought his training in empirical research and his understanding of the role of culture in human functioning to the study of the education of Black youth.
In his triple quandary framework, Dr. Boykin articulated three psychosocial contexts that Black people in the United States must negotiate—mainstream values, the values of their own Black communities, and the experience of being minoritized—contexts that continue to be important in studying Black and other minoritized youth. In addition to providing a cogent theory articulating the lived experiences of African Americans, this framework also acknowledged the importance of bringing culture into the psychological study of Blacks in the United States.
Dr. Boykin’s career also highlighted the importance of supporting theory with robust empirical investigations, based on the assumption that strong empirical evidence would lead to greater understanding of the psychology of African Americans. This perspective and the numerous articles that he published place him in the vanguard of Black psychologists in the nation. He served on APA President, Melba Vasquez’ Presidential Task Force, which authored the report entitled “Ethnic and Racial Disparities in Education: Psychology’s Contributions to Understanding and Reducing Disparities,” and was also a member of the U.S. President’s National Mathematics Advisory Panel, among many other service contributions. Dr. Boykin is an elected member of the National Academy of Education.
Dr. Sibusiso Vil-Nkomo - Honorary Degree Recipient
Dr. Sibusiso Vil-Nkomo is the Interim Director of the Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs at the University of South Africa (UNISA). Prof Vil- Nkomo is the co-founder and chairperson of the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA) a leading South African Think Tank. The MISTRA was ranked as having had a global impact - placed as one of the Top 10 Best New Think Tanks Globally, according to the 2013 Global Go-To Think Tanks Report produced by the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program at the University of Pennsylvania (TTCSP). MISTRA continues to attract leading national and global thinkers.
In 1994, Prof. Sibusiso Vil-Nkomo was appointed by President Nelson Mandela to serve in the first democratic government as the Public Service Commissioner. By then, he had already been part of the bi-laterals and the Multi-Party negotiations that ushered democracy into our country. His name is inscribed in the Hall of Fame among notable alumni at Lincoln University like Langston Hughes, Thurgood Marshall, Kwame Nkrumah, Nnamdi Azikiwe, and others.
The Sibusiso Vil-Nkomo Annual Lecture is delivered in his honor at the South African Association for Public Administration and Management. He currently serves on the Board of Advisors of the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy, and Administration at the University of Delaware.
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About Lincoln University
Lincoln University, the nation’s first degree-granting Historically Black College and University (HBCU), educates and empowers students to lead their communities and change the world. Lincoln offers a rigorous liberal arts education to a diverse student body of approximately 1,650 men and women in more than 34 undergraduate and graduate programs. To learn more about Lincoln University, visit www.lincoln.edu.
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