Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist and visual storyteller Manny Crisostomo will deliver the commencement address. Crisostomo has dedicated his career to documenting Pacific Islander cultures and the lives of CHamorus in Guam and the diaspora.

This marks Crisostomo’s second time serving as UOG’s commencement speaker. He first spoke to the UOG’s graduating class of 1989 — the same year he won the Pulitzer Prize for his photo essay “A Class Act, The Life and Times of Southwestern High School,” which was published in the Detroit Free Press. It documented the challenges faced by teenagers in a racially diverse community that was contending with drugs, violence and economic hardship.

Crisostomo’s multimedia work has also earned national and international recognition, including the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for his photo documentary on Hmong refugees, “The Leftover People.”

His photography books Legacy of Guam: I Kustumbren Chamoru, Guam From the Heavens,  and Journeys to the Heart: Pacific Islanders Celebrate Their Indigenous Cultures, have helped shape the visual narrative of island life and indigenous identity. His most recent book, a redesigned second edition of Journeys to the Heart was published in 2024.