Amy Goodman, host and executive producer of Democracy Now!, will deliver the 2013 Hampshire College Commencement keynote address. Commencement will be held on May 18 at 11 a.m. on the Harold F. Johnson Library Lawn.

The speaker for Hampshire’s commencement is selected each year by members of the graduating class.

Goodman has been honored with numerous awards, including a 2008 Right to Livelihood Award. She is the first journalist to receive the award, which is presented annually to four recipients at a ceremony in the Swedish Parliament and widely known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize.” Goodman received the Right to Livelihood Award “for developing an innovative model of truly independent political journalism that brings to millions of people the alternative voices that are often excluded by mainstream media.”

She also was an inaugural recipient in 2009 of the Izzy Award for outstanding achievement in independent media.

Goodman is co-author, with Denis Moynihan, of The Silenced Majority, and the author of Breaking the Sound Barrier. She has coauthored three books with her brother, journalist David Goodman, Standing Up to the Madness, Static, and The Exception to the Rulers.

The independent global-news program Democracy Now! airs on more than 1,100 public television and radio stations worldwide.

Zilong Wang was elected student speaker for the graduating class. Margaret Cerullo is the faculty speaker, Kim Saal 70F is the alumni speaker, Leslie Cox is staff speaker, and Aaron Richmond-Havel will be the student moderator.

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