Keynote Speaker

Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Ph.D., will be the keynote speaker at the 2026 Commencement ceremony for the USC Price School of Public Policy.

Rudd, who is the incoming President and CEO of Asia Society, also served as Australia’s Foreign Minister and, more recently, the country’s Ambassador to the U.S. from March 2023 to April 2026. He was a Member of the Australian Parliament from 1998 to 2013.

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Cecilia Elena Rouse, a former White House economic adviser and now president of The Brookings Institution, will be the keynote speaker at the 2025 Commencement ceremony for the USC Price School of Public Policy.

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Maria Rosario Jackson, chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, was the keynote speaker at the 2024 Commencement ceremony for the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. Click here to watch her inspiring message to the Class of 2024.

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