Speakers
| 2012 | Katie Couric, journalist, author, and advocate for cancer research and therapy |
| Val Ackerman, Cavalier basketball star and founding president of the WNBA | |
| 2011 | Robert F. McDonnell, Governor of Virginia |
| J. Brady Lum, Special Olympics President and COO | |
| 2010 | John T. Casteen III, U.Va. President |
| David Baldacci, bestselling author | |
| 2009 | J. Harvie Wilkinson III, U.Va. Law School graduate and appeals court judge |
| Dawn Staley, a U.Va. alumna who went on to be an Olympian and WNBA all-star | |
| 2008 | Hunter R. Rawlings III, former President of Cornell University and the University of Iowa; visiting Professor of Classics at U.Va. |
| Sheila C. Johnson, entrepreneur and philanthropist | |
| 2007 | John Grisham, best-selling novelist and Albemarle County resident |
| Boyd Tinsley, acclaimed violinist of the Dave Matthews Band and U.Va. alumnus | |
| 2006 | Timothy Kaine, Governor of Virginia |
| 2005 | Vivian
W. Pinn, Director of the Office of Research on Women's Health
(ORWH) at the National Institutes of Health |
| Ron Suskind, Pulitzer Prize-winner, author and journalist | |
| 2004 | Senator John Warner, a 27-year veteran of the U.S. Senate |
| Tiki Barber, star running back for the National Football League's New York Giants | |
| 2003 | Mortimer
M. Caplin, former Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service |
| Dr. L. D. Britt, Brickhouse Professor and Chairman at Eastern Virginia Medical School | |
| 2002 | Mark Warner, Governor of Virginia |
| David Baldacci, bestselling author | |
| 2001 | Francis S. Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (Biographical information) |
2000 |
Alfred Berkeley III, president, NASDAQ (Commencement) |
| Andy Rooney, former CBS News correspondent (Valediction) | |
1999 |
Honorable Howard H. Baker, U.S. Ambassador to Japan |
1998 |
Jim Gilmore, Governor of Virginia |
1997 |
Hunter B. Andrews, U.S. senator |
1996 |
Kathryn Thornton, former NASA astronaut |
1995 |
William Raspberry, freelance writer and columnist for the Washington Post |
1994 |
George Allen, former governor of Virginia |
1993 |
John T. Casteen III, president, University of Virginia |
1992 |
Honorable John Charles Thomas, Virginia Supreme Court Justice |
1991 |
W. Nathaniel Howell, Ambassador |
1973 |
Lady Bird Johnson, former First Lady |