Colorado State University will confer degrees on fall 2015 graduates at commencement ceremonies Dec. 18-19.

College ceremonies and Army ROTC commissioning will recognize 1,418 undergraduate and 439 graduate students, including 78 doctoral students, and four Army and one Air Force ROTC Commissionees. Fourteen students are candidates for distinction as summa cum laude, 32 as magna cum laude and 75 as cum laude.

Commencement ceremonies, with the exception of the ROTC commissionings, will be webcast live.

Speakers bring experience, insight to graduates

Malcolm Daly will speak at the Warner College of Natural Resources commencement ceremony at 7 p.m. Dec. 18 at the Lory Student Center Grand Ballroom.

Daly is an icon in the outdoor world with 40 years of outdoor industry and nonprofit experience. Known for his affability, sense of humor and to-the-point insight, Daly’s wide-ranging business, outdoor sports and nonprofit experience provides for a lively, entertaining and educational encounter. A talented and experienced public speaker, Daly has presented for many local and national organizations.

Daly came to Colorado in 1973 to attend Colorado State University as a student in the College of Forestry and Natural Resources. He graduated in 1978 with a bachelor’s in outdoor recreation. To this date he has never worked as a ranger or park planner but he has been a cook, dishwasher, logger, wildland firefighter, mountain guide, ski instructor, sales rep, retail store clerk, director of marketing and a product line manager for an international outdoor company, business owner, nonprofiteer, and public speaker.

Daly is a founding member of Great Trango Holdings Inc., the Access Fund, the Action Committee for Eldorado, No Barriers, and Paradox Sports. In 2009 he was honored with the Climbing Industry’s Golden Piton Award in Humanity for his work with the disabled. In his retirement, he spends summers with his wife of 32 years managing a remote fly-fishing lodge on the Katmai Peninsula in Alaska, works at an outdoor store, is a business consultant, conducts leadership training seminars and has just started a business as a cooking coach. Daly lives in Boulder with his wife and has two grown sons.

Don Brown, Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture, will speak at the College of Agricultural Sciences commencement ceremony at 9 a.m. Dec. 19 at the Lory Student Center Grand Ballroom. He was appointed commissioner by Gov. John Hickenlooper in January 2015.

Brown, a third-generation farmer in Yuma County, has run several successful businesses while spending most of his career managing and growing his family’s extensive farm operations. He has also been active in water conservation, energy development and technology innovation issues within the industry.

Don and his wife, Peggy, have three children who continue to call Colorado home. The Brown family farm was homesteaded in 1911 and has been designated as a Centennial Farm. Don’s parents, Cleo and Jennie, were pioneers in pivot irrigation in Yuma County. Don continues that pioneering spirit today through his study of the Ogallala Aquifer and holds two U.S. patents for his fence post systems.

Brown is a recipient of the Bill Seward Memorial Award – Lifetime Achievement for Outstanding Cattle Producer and the Yuma Soil Conservation District Outstanding Conservationist. He is active in the National Cattlemen’s Association; Colorado Cattlemen’s Association; National Corn Growers, and the Colorado Corn Growers Association, and has also served as president of the Yuma County Cattlemen’s Association. Brown is a former Colorado State President of the Future Farmers of America and participates in various community organizations.

Brown graduated with a degree in agriculture from Northeastern Junior College in Sterling, and received a vocational agriculture education degree with honors from Colorado State University.

Brian Jones, director of Colorado State University’s Little Shop of Physics outreach program, will speak at the College of Natural Sciences commencement ceremony at 9 a.m. Dec. 19 at Moby Arena.

Jones has also earned a Senior Teaching Appointment at Colorado State, a title reserved for non-tenured instructors who have demonstrated excellence in sustained teaching effectiveness, student learning, and a commitment to the University.

Jones created the LSOP nearly 25 years ago to bring science and physics to rural schools and under-represented communities. Each year, he, his team, and his rolling laboratory cover 10,000 miles of road and touch the lives of over 15,000 students. To date, the LSOP has reached more than 370,000 K-12 students.

Known for his innovative laboratory sessions and real-world perspectives in his classroom, undergraduate students commonly wait for an opening to take one of Jones’ physics or physics education courses. He is the co-author of an introductory physics textbook, produces a local television show called “Everyday Science,” and has created an additional series of podcasts and silent science movies. He is also the recipient of the Robert A. Millikan Medal for notable and creative contributions to the teaching of physics. 

 

Marco Campos, founder and managing principal of Denver-based Campos EPC, will speak at the College of Engineering commencement ceremony at 12:30 p.m. Dec. 19 at the Lory Student Center Grand Ballroom.

He founded Campos EPC, an engineering, procurement, and construction firm, in 2005 at the age of 30. In 10 years, the company has grown from a basement startup to a market industry leader with 200 employees and offices in the Unites States and Canada. Prior to Campos EPC, he worked in a variety of engineering, operations, project management, and management capacities for oil and gas pipeline/terminal and consulting companies.

Campos is a certified project management professional and licensed civil engineer, a 1998 civil engineering graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is a loyal Denver native and a proud father of four children, ages 3 through 13.

Campos has been recognized this year as the 9News Leader of the Year and also received the Martin Luther King Jr. Business Award for Social Responsibility. He remains very active in the community, serving on multiple industry and university boards/advisory councils and leading The Campos EPC Community Outreach Program/Foundation that supports his passion for elevating under-represented minorities and women in their pursuit of science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers. Campos’ outreach program has grown quickly since its inception in 2013, with a material impact on roughly 1,000 Colorado students per year. In 2015, he sponsored the Campos EPC ENVision Summer Bridge Program, which provided 50 high school students from across the DPS school district an opportunity to experience life as a student and engineer at CSU.

Kevin Unger, president and CEO of Poudre Valley Hospital and Medical Center of the Rockies, will deliver the charge to the class at the College of Health and Human Sciences commencement ceremony at 5 p.m. Dec. 19 at Moby Arena. Unger serves on the Executive Leadership Council for the College of Health and Human Sciences.

Unger began his career with what is now the University of Colorado Health System in 2001 as the vice president of planning and strategic development for Poudre Valley Hospital. In 2003, he assumed the role of vice president of operations and ambulatory services for PVH, being named president and CEO in 2005. With the formation of UCHealth, his role changed in 2013 to oversee both hospitals.

Unger’s focus on quality excellence is reflected in the numerous national awards won by Poudre Valley Hospital, Medical Center of the Rockies, and Poudre Valley Health System, including the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 2008. Unger was selected in 2009 as the recipient of the Robert S. Hudgens Young Healthcare Executive of the Year through the American College of Healthcare Executives.

Unger earned his bachelor of arts degree from Colorado State University in 1992, a master of science in Health Administration from the University of Colorado at Denver in 1998, a master of business administration degree from the University of Colorado at Denver in 1998 and a doctor of philosophy in organizational development and change from Colorado State University in 2013.

A native of Fort Collins, he and his wife, Stacy, are the proud parents of three children

Ceremonies

Complete CSU commencement ceremony starting times and locations; ceremonies will be livestreamed at the links provided on the CSU commencement website.

Dec. 18

• Air Force ROTC Commissioning, 8 a.m., Lory Student Center North Ballroom
• Army ROTC Commissioning, 10 a.m., Lory Student Center Grand Ballroom
• Graduate School, 3 p.m., Moby Arena
• Warner College of Natural Resources, 7 p.m., Lory Student Center Grand Ballroom
• College of Liberal Arts, 7 p.m., Moby Arena

Dec. 19

• College of Agricultural Sciences, 9 a.m., Lory Student Center Grand Ballroom
• College of Natural Sciences, 9 a.m., Moby Arena
• College of Engineering, 12:30 p.m., Lory Student Center Grand Ballroom
• College of Business, 1 p.m., Moby Arena
• College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, 4 p.m., Lory Student Center Grand Ballroom
• College of Health and Human Sciences, 5 p.m., Moby Arena