Commencement Speakers and Honorees

Keynote Address

Rowan alumnus, author and legendary investment advisor Ric Edelman

Alumnus Ric Edelman ’80, is a #1 New York Times-bestselling author and perhaps the most famous financial advisor in America.

Ric, who hosted the nation’s longest-running personal finance radio show for 30 years and today hosts the popular podcast, “The Truth About Your Future with Ric Edelman,” was ranked three times as the nation’s #1 Independent Financial Advisor by “BARRON’S,” a weekly financial newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company.

He’s the author of 13 best-selling books on personal finance including “The Truth About Crypto” in 2022 and the children’s book, “The Squirrel Manifesto,” which he co-wrote in 2018 with his wife, Rowan University Board of Trustees member Jean Edelman ’81. He also hosted a series on public television and six PBS specials.

A Distinguished Lecturer at Rowan, which in 2020 renamed its communication school the Ric Edelman College of Communication & Creative Arts (Edelman CCCA), Ric also taught personal finance for nine years at Georgetown University.

He’s the founder of the Digital Assets Council of Professionals, the premier digital assets resource for the financial services industry; his media company, The Truth About Your Future; and the Funding Our Future Coalition.

After graduating then-Glassboro State College, Ric and Jean founded Edelman Financial Services, which in 2018 acquired Financial Engines to form Edelman Financial Engines, a company that today serves more than 1.3 million households and manages more than $270 billion.

Ric and Jean are among the University’s greatest supporters and their generosity has helped propel Rowan with such key initiatives as the Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park & Museum, the Ric and Jean Edelman Planetarium and the Edelman Scholars fund, which supports top students in the Edelman CCCA.

Residents of Northern Virginia, Ric and Jean serve on a variety of nonprofit boards and are benefactors of the Edelman Center for Nursing at Inova Hospital Foundation, Edelman Indoor Arena at Northern Virginia Therapeutic Riding Program, and Rowan’s Ric Edelman College of Communication & Creative Arts.

Honorary Degree Recipient

Joseph Cosgrove ’00 Honorary Degree Recipient

Joseph P. Cosgrove, a 2000 graduate of the Rohrer College of Business (RCB) who became Rowan University’s newest member on the Board of Trustees April 10, will receive an honorary doctorate in entrepreneurship during the main Commencement ceremony Saturday, May 4 in Coach Richard Wackar Stadium.

Rowan’s Distinguished Alumnus of the Year in 2022, Cosgrove is president, chief executive officer and board member of Leiters Health, an FDA-registered provider of high-quality compounded medications and pharmacy services.

An advisory board member and entrepreneur in residence for the RCB, Cosgrove is a recognized innovator in the healthcare services industry with more than 30 years of experience.

Englewood, Colo.-based Leiters Health announced that in 2025 it is opening a 110,000 square-foot manufacturing facility in Buena, N.J., positioning it to respond to increasing demand for its products and services, while creating pharmaceutical jobs in southern New Jersey.

Before joining Leiters in 2023, Cosgrove was chairman, president and chief executive officer of Pentec Health, the nation’s largest privately owned sterile compounding pharmacy.

Formerly vice president and general manager for several units of Cardinal Health, Inc., Cosgrove’s early career was distinguished by executive roles at DuPont Pharmaceuticals Company and Neuman Health Services, Inc.

His many professional awards include the Velocity 50 Winner’s List, Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year, the American Nurses Credentialing Center Pathway to Excellence Award and the SmartCEO Corporate Culture Award.

In 2015, he was a Philly 100 CEO Hall of Fame Society inductee and received the Philly 100 Founder’s Distinguished Achievement Award and the National Kidney Foundation Leadership in Business Award.

In addition to Rowan’s Board of Trustees, Cosgrove serves on the boards for Arizona State University, Discovery Ministries and Titan Aviation Group LLC. He previously served on boards for the National Home Infusion Association, the Aerosol Science Laboratories, Inc., the National Kidney Foundation and the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, where he was a member of the executive committee and the diversity and inclusion committee.

Distinguished Alumna

2024 Distinguished Alumna of the Year Janet Hamill ’67

A celebrated writer whose works have been put to music, recorded and performed on stage, Distinguished Alumna Janet Hamill ’67 is a prolific poet and author who’s been nominated for some of the greatest awards in letters.

Among many honors during a fruitful and distinguished career, Hamill was nominated for a Pushcart Prize for her poem, “K-E-R-O-U-A-C,” and for the William Carlos Williams Prize for her book, “Body of Water.”

An English major with a theatre minor at then-Glassboro State College, Hamill arrived on campus in 1963 eager to become a teacher of poetry but soon developed a passion for creating poetic works of her own.

In the fall of 1964, Hamill joined “Avant,” the campus literary magazine, and soon became secretary. While at Glassboro State, she was inspired by various longtime faculty, including Ed Wolfe and Nathan Carb, and a group of similarly creative students, including future Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Patti Smith.

Hamill was also active in campus productions in Tohill Theater including Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Aria da Capo”; “The Stronger,” by Swedish playwright August Strindberg; and Eugène Ionesco’s one-act play, “The Lesson.”

Since graduating, Hamill has returned on several occasions to read her work, twice on her own, and once with Smith, her longtime friend.

Publisher’s Weekly named Hamill’s debut volume of stories, “Tales from the Eternal Café,” one of the best books of 2014.

She’s written ten books of poetry and fiction ― “Baby Parade,” “A Map of the Heavens: Selected Poems 1975-2017,” “Real Fire,” “Knock,” “Tales from the Eternal Café,” “Body of Water,” “Lost Ceilings,” “Nostalgia of the Infinite,” “The Temple,” and “Troublante.”

Hamill was awarded the Joel Oppenheimer Scholarship for her MFA in Creative Writing/Poetry from New England College. Her poem, “A Thousand Years,” was set to music by contemporary Irish composer Ian Wilson and premiered at New York City’s Symphony Space in 2018.

Widely celebrated, Hamill considers among the greatest honors of her career the inclusion of her archival papers in the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections at Cornell University Library in Ithaca, N.Y.

Hamill has performed her works domestically and abroad, recorded two CDs of spoken word and music with the band Moving Star, and recorded solo CDs for Bowery Poetry Club and Gargoyle Records.

She has presented workshops at Naropa University, Cabrillo College, New England College and at Rowan, and taught, as well as served on the board, at The Seligmann Center in Sugarloaf, N.Y.