Michelle Agins '77 to speak at Dominican University Commencement

Monday, April 22, 2019



Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times photographer Michelle Agins ’77, an alumna of Dominican University, will serve as the commencement speaker for the undergraduate ceremony, during which she will receive an honorary degree. Michelle was hired by the New York Times in 1989, the second African American female photographer to be appointed by the renowned publication. She and colleagues won the Pulitzer for National Reporting in 2001 for "How Race is Lived in America." She also received Pulitzer Prize nominations in 1990 for her coverage of the Bensonhurst (New York) protests and, in 1995, for her work on the New York Times series, "Another America: Life on 129th Street."



Beginning her career as an intern for the Chicago Daily News, Michelle also worked as a photojournalist for Chicago's South Shore Sentinel before taking a job as a photographer and audiovisual specialist for the City of Chicago's Department of Human Services. She was hired in 1983 by Mayor Harold Washington's press office and served as the official mayoral photographer until 1987.



Michelle received honorary citations in 1990 by the New York Association of Black Journalists and the New York Associated Press. Earlier this year, she received the Joseph A. Sprague Memorial Award, the National Press Photographers Association's highest honor, for her commitment to the craft of visual journalism and for advancing the profession.



Dominican University will hold its 2019 commencement exercises on Sunday, May 5 at University of Illinois-Chicago's Dorin Forum, 725 W. Roosevelt Road, Chicago. The undergraduate ceremony begins at 10:30 a.m. and the graduate ceremony will be held at 3 p.m.



Read more: Dominican University Announces Commencement Speakers