Date: Saturday, May 17, 2025
Ceremony Location: Lincoln Hall Theatre-702 S. Wright Street, Urbana
Line-up: 1092 Lincoln Hall
Time: 3 pm
Graduation is approaching fast, and we are incredibly proud of our spring 2025 graduating class! The LER convocation ceremony will be held on Saturday, May 17, 2025, at Lincoln Hall Theatre at 3 pm. Graduates will line up in room 1092 prior to the ceremony. A reception will immediately follow at the School of Labor and Employment Relations. Of the thirty-seven students who will be participating in the May ceremony, we have four Ph.D. candidates and thirty-three MHRIR candidates from our online and on-campus programs.
Commencement Speaker – Amanda Billiot
Amanda Billiot is the VP, Human Resources for Talent & Organizational Health at Pratt & Whitney. This role is probably her favorite so far – creating strategies and connecting programs to improve the employee experience and leverage talent for business results. Several of the programs she developed within Pratt have become enterprise-wide talent solutions at RTX. Over the past 12 years, she has supported various parts of the business to include Military Engines, Engineering, and Operations. Two of her proudest professional accomplishments include starting the award-winning Empower Ability ERG (now Adapt!) and the WILL Rise program – solutions she created to bring disability to the forefront and women to line leadership roles.
Her introduction to HR came during her undergraduate career at the University of Alabama, where she majored in international economics and worked for the National Labor Relations Board. After graduating with her Masters in Human Resources and Industrial Relations at the University of Illinois, she joined the HR leadership program at GE, which she also credits for her professional DNA.
Ceremony
The Dean of the School, Simon Restubog, will open the ceremony with remarks to the graduates. Amanda Billiot, MHRIR 04, will follow as our spring convocation speaker. Amanda has over 20 years of HR experience and is the VP, Human Resources, Talent for Pratt & Whitney.
Following Amanda will be student remarks, the presentation of the LER Faculty Teaching Excellence Award/Walt Franke Student Development Opportunity Fund, and we will finish off with the presentation of candidates.
The universitywide Commencement Ceremony will be held on Saturday, May 17, 2025, at 9:30 am in Memorial Stadium.
Live Streaming
For those unable to attend in person, we will be live-streaming starting at 2:30 pm CST. We will update this site with the link in early April.
Regalia
Academic regalia is required to attend the ceremony. The deadline to order academic attire on the Herff Jones website and receive early order pricing is Monday, April 14, for the May ceremonies.
Graduates must RSVP for the ceremony by April 7, 2025.
