East Stroudsburg University Announces Student Speakers for 2025 Commencement

student speakers for commencement 2025

Posted by: Elizabeth Richardson on May 6, 2025, No Comments

East Stroudsburg University will hold its commencement exercises on Friday, May 9 and Saturday, May 10 in Koehler Fieldhouse. The graduate commencement ceremony will take place Friday at 6:45 p.m. Ashlee Grennan M’10 M’25 will be the student commencement speaker. The undergraduate ceremonies will take place on Saturday. The ceremony awarding bachelor’s degrees from ESU’s College of Health Sciences and College of Business and Management will begin at 8:45 a.m. Joseph Merkel ’25 will be the student speaker. The ceremony awarding bachelor’s degrees from ESU’s College of Arts and Sciences and College of Education will begin at 1:45 p.m. Richermy Batista Marinez ’25 will be the student speaker. Susan Dillmuth-Miller, Au.D., University Senate president, will be the grand marshal for the ceremonies, which will honor ESU’s December 2024 and May 2025 graduates.

Ashlee Grennan, a master’s degree candidate from Saylorsburg, Pa., a graduate student in reading, is earning her second master’s degree from ESU after receiving her M.Ed. in special education in 2010 and also has her supervisory certification from the University. She has nearly 20 years of classroom experience and has been a special education teacher at Stroudsburg High School since 2019. She has also worked in the Pleasant Valley School District, through Colonial Intermediate Unit 20, and the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts. She holds her bachelor’s degree from State University of New York, College at Oneonta, in speech communication.

Grennan is a lifelong learner, an advocate for education, and a dedicated special education teacher who is deeply committed to the importance of quality education. She is also the mother of two college graduates. Since first joining the ESU community in 2008, she has witnessed the incredible support that the institution provides for its students and is grateful to have been part of that experience.

Joseph Merkel, a graduating business management student from Catasauqua, Pa., found his home, his people and his purpose and dedicated himself to fostering a strong community at ESU. He was president of his fraternity, Delta Chi, managing his organization and leading several philanthropic events. He guided students through their college transitions as a peer mentor and participated in several clubs on campus.

Merkel transferred to ESU after beginning his college experience at Kutztown University. Along with his degree in business management, he has a concentration in entrepreneurship and minor in Spanish. He has professional experience in home renovations.

Richermy Batista Marinez, a graduating political science major from Hazleton, Pa., says that graduation is a celebration of resilience, ambition, and transformation. Her ESU experience included an internship through the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute for Congressman Greg Casar, internships with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Hazleton Integration Project, and a member of many campus organizations including president of MANA-A National Latina Organization and Psi Chi Honor Society.

She was the recipient of ESU’s Martin Luther King Jr. Student Award. As a political science major with a concentration in public administration and minors in psychology and communication, she was a campaign staff member for Pike County Commissioner Christa Caceres and has been a volunteer for the Hazleton Integration Project since 2016.

Dr. Susan Dillmuth-Miller is an associate professor of communication sciences and disorders. She is ESU’s clinic audiologist and is president of the University Senate. She teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses. She has presented internationally the effects of rheumatic disease and hearing manifestations. Scholarly endeavors include examining knowledge and attitudes of excessive noise levels and hearing protection in young adults and concussion and audiological characteristics. She advises the ESU Sign Language Club.

Mitchell L. Cordova’92 will be the keynote speaker at the graduate commencement ceremony on Friday. Justice Christine Donohue’ 74 will be the keynote speaker for both undergraduate ceremonies on Saturday.