2 SUNY Oneonta Alumni

To Speak At Graduations

Experts In Climate Change, Refugees;

Also, 8 Professors, 4 Students Honored

ONEONTA – In a new approach this year, two alumni, one an advocate for refugees, the other, a climate-change researcher, will be SUNY Oneonta’s commencement speakers at three ceremonies Saturday, May 11, in the Dewar Arena.

• Crystal L. Williams, ’77, is a lawyer focused on helping refugees and asylum seekers, litigating employment-based immigration law cases, and helping to shape federal immigration policy. She is CEO and executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.  Her achievements include helping advance the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (or DACA) initiative, co-authoring a treatise on immigration law and starting a new pro bono program.

• James C. Zachos, ’81, is a paleoclimatologist and professor of geology, researching to reconstruct Earth’s climate history.  He has been widely published, and speaks at conferences around the world. In 2017, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.