Dorie Clark ’97, described by the New York Times as an “expert at self-reinvention and helping others make changes in their lives,” will give the 2019 Commencement address at Mary Baldwin University.
Marketing strategy consultant, professional speaker, and frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review and Entrepreneur magazine, Clark has written three books, Entrepreneurial You (which Forbes named one of the Top 10 Business Books of 2017), Reinventing You, and Stand Out. She is also an adjunct professor of business administration at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
“Our graduates are about to launch into their next chapter,” said President Pamela Fox, “and what better endnote to their studies than hearing Dorie, who speaks so dynamically about personal branding and enhancing your authentic self. We are thrilled to welcome her back to Mary Baldwin for Commencement.”
A former presidential campaign spokeswoman, Clark consults and speaks for a diverse range of clients, including Google, the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Yale University, the Mount Sinai Medical Center, and the U.S. National Park Service.
And on May 19, Clark will address the campus community where she first arrived as a 14-year-old student in the Program for the Exceptionally Gifted (PEG).
“What I loved most about Mary Baldwin was the tight-knit community,” Clark said in a 2017 Mary Baldwin Magazine profile. “It was that closeness that enabled me to see the lives of the professors who were role models for me.”
After two years in PEG, she headed to Smith College where she earned her undergraduate degree in philosophy and then to Harvard Divinity School, where she graduated with a master of theological studies.
A self-described “Renaissance woman,” Clark also directed the environmental documentary film The Work of 1000 and produced a multiple Grammy-winning jazz album.
Visit dorieclark.com to learn more and see videos of her speak at TEDx, Talks@Google, the Business Innovation Factory, and more.