Governor Lou Leon Guerrero will be the featured speaker during the Fañomnåkan 2019
Commencement Ceremony.
Governor Leon Guerrero to deliver UOG’s commencement address
The University of Guam will welcome Governor Lou A. Leon Guerrero as the speaker for
its Fañomnåkan Commencement Ceremony at 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 26, at the Calvo Field
House.
“Governor Leon Guerrero has become a leader in every industry she’s pursued — from
nursing, to banking, and to public service as a senator and as our Maga’håga,” said UOG President Thomas W. Krise. “Her story truly speaks to UOG’s tenets of
para hulo’ and rising above, and we’re excited to let her words be the first to inspire our
first class of 2019.”
About the Speaker
Leon Guerrero was the first woman to be elected governor of Guam in 2018 and the first
Pacific Islander woman to serve as governor of a U.S. territory or state. Just prior
to her election, she served as president and chairwoman of the board for the Bank
of Guam for 12 years, where she led the bank to become a billion-dollar institution
and expanded its network of branches to every island of Micronesia.
She also spent 10 years as a senator in the Guam Legislature, in which capacity she
moved forward legislation to improve health delivery services on island and to improve
the quality of health of Guam residents — including the Natasha Act, which banned
smoking in restaurants and bars.
Earlier in her career, the governor worked as a nurse at Santa Monica Hospital in
California and at Guam Memorial Hospital, where she became the hospital’s assistant
nursing director. She then spent four years as director of operations for the Family
Health Plan clinic. The governor was also the visionary behind the launch of the Guam
Women’s Chamber of Commerce five years ago and served as a founding member and its
first president.
“I am truly honored to be this year’s commencement speaker,” she said. “Education
is undoubtedly the best investment you can make into your future. No one can take
what you learned away from you. I am excited to see so many empowered by education,
and I look forward to the contributions these new graduates will make to our community.”
Leon Guerrero holds a 1973 bachelor’s in nursing from California State University,
Los Angeles and a 1979 master’s in public health from the University of California,
Los Angeles. She is also a 2009 graduate of the Pacific Coast Banking School at the
University of Washington.
