Meet Jonathan Reckford, the speaker for Sunday's UNC spring commencement

Posted May 9, 2019
Jonathan Reckford is UNC's 2019 Spring Commencement Speaker. After graduating from North Carolina in 1984, he went on to a career in business, working at Goldman Sachs, Marriott, and The Walt Disney Co., before becoming the executive pastor of a Minnesota church. In 2005, he became CEO of Habitat for Humanity, a position he's held ever since. (Daily Tar Heel)

Related: Campus Connections

UNC professor, Nobel laureate Aziz Sancar inspires the next generation
A decade after earning the Nobel Prize in chemistry, UNC School of Medicine professor Dr. Aziz Sancar shows no signs of hanging up his lab...
Sun May 3, 2026

Meet the Carolina Class of 2026
More than 7,100 Tar Heels, including undergraduate, graduate and professional students, will have their Carolina degrees conferred at Spring Commencement on May 9. More than...
Sat May 2, 2026

When a Cold War trip to the USSR turned into a bizarre basketball game for UNC faculty and students
50 yrs ago, one of the most bizarre & hilariously mismatched basketball games in UNC history took place – and almost no one knows about...
Wed Apr 29, 2026

‘A space to breathe:’ The Coker Arboretum’s enduring legacy
There once was just one tree in the space that is now the Coker Arboretum. More than 120 years later, that overcup oak still stands...
Mon Apr 27, 2026