May 8, 2007 2 min read

Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus, will hold commencement services at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 19, in the Maggie Hardy Magerko Theatre. The commencement marshal will be Dr. Dennis Brestensky.

The commencement speaker for 2007 will be Emily DeRocco, assistant secretary employment and training administration with the U. S. Department of Labor.

DeRocco, a Pennsylvania native, was nominated by President Bush to be the assistant secretary of labor for employment and training on June 21, 2001. After being confirmed by the U.S. Senate, she was sworn in on Aug. 3, 2001.

Since taking office in 2001, DeRocco has sought to transform the workforce investment system to meet the challenges of the 21st century global economy.

Holding her current title, DeRocco is responsible for managing the country’s public workforce investment system and under her leadership, the Labor Department has introduced a variety of initiatives to engage business, education and the workforce system in developing the talent of America’s workers.

Through the President’s High Growth Job Training Initiative, Community-Based Job Training Initiative and most recently, the Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development Initiative (WIRED), the department of employment and training administration is working to not only improve the public workforce system but also to transform the way local and regional economies approach workforce and economic development.

According to a press release issued by Penn State Fayette, DeRocco’s belief is that the country must integrate and leverage resources from the workforce system, education and industry to prepare our workforce to be globally competitive in the 21st century.

In addition to high-level federal positions serving Cabinet officers at the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Energy during the Reagan administration, DeRocco spent more than 10 years as the executive director of the National Association of State Workforce Agencies.

She graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a bachelor of arts degree in journalism, and received her juris doctorate degree from the Georgetown Law Center in 1982. She was admitted to the Bar of the District of Columbia in 1983.

For more information about Penn State Fayette’s commencement, call 724-430-4199.