The spring commencement ceremony has been a time for reflection and celebration since UNC’s first commencement in 1798. Commencement has traditionally included a featured speaker who provides insight and advice for the graduating students. These speakers have often included prominent people well known through their work in politics, arts, business, journalism, and public service. This list includes UNC-Chapel Hill’s featured spring commencement speakers from 1951-2022.
| Year | Speaker | Role and Affiliation |
| 2022 | Frank Bruni | Author, Journalist, New York Times |
| 2021 | Anthony Fauci and Kizzmekia Corbett (delivered virtually) | Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Fauci), research fellow and scientific lead for the Coronaviruses Vaccines and Immunopathologies Team at the National Institutes of Health (Corbett) |
| 2020 | Roy Williams (delayed until October 2020) | UNC Men’s Basketball Coach |
| 2019 | Jonathan Reckford | CEO, Habitat for Humanity |
| 2018 | Rye Barcott | Author, founder Carolina for Kibera |
| 2017 | Brooke Baldwin | CNN Correspondent |
| 2016 | Anne-Marie Slaughter | Foreign policy analyst |
| 2015 | Jason Kilar | Former CEO, Hulu |
| 2014 | Atul Gawande | Author, Surgeon |
| 2013 | Steve Case | Co-founder, AOL |
| 2012 | Mike Bloomberg | Mayor of New York City |
| 2011 | E.O. Wilson | Author, Biodiversity scholar |
| 2010 | John Grisham | Author |
| 2009 | Archbishop Desmond Tutu | Anglican archbishop, Activist |
| 2008 | Jessye Norman | Opera singer |
| 2007 | Madeleine Albright | Former U.S. Secretary of State |
| 2006 | Wendy Kopp | Founder, Teach for America |
| 2005 | Rev. Peter Gomes | Theologian, Harvard University Divinity School |
| 2004 | Julius Chambers | Attorney and Civil Rights activist |
| 2003 | Bill Cosby | Actor, comedian |
| 2002 | John Edwards | U.S. Senator, North Carolina |
| 2001 | Stuart Scott | ESPN Anchor |
| 2000 | Stuart E. Eisenstat | Deputy Secretary, U.S. Treasury |
| 1999 | Bill Bradley | Former basketball player, U.S. Senator |
| 1998 | Marian Wright Edelman | Children’s Defense Fund |
| 1997 | Erskine B. Bowles | White House Chief of Staff |
| 1996 | Seamus Heaney | Poet, Nobel Laureate |
| 1995 | Johnnetta B. Cole | President, Spelman College |
| 1994 | Francis Collins | Director, National Human Genome Research Institute |
| 1993 | Ted Turner | Broadcaster |
| 1992 | David Brinkley | News anchor |
| 1991 | Lawrence Douglas Wilder | Governor of Virginia |
| 1990 | Hugh L. McColl | Bank of America |
| 1989 | Roger H. Mudd | News anchor |
| 1988 | Dale Bumpers | U.S. Senator, Arkansas |
| 1987 | Peter V. Ueberroth | Commissioner, Major League Baseball |
| 1986 | James G. Martin | Governor of North Carolina |
| 1985 | Charles Kuralt | CBS News reporter |
| 1984 | William Leuchtenburg | UNC Professor of History |
| 1983 | Jim Leutze | UNC Professor, Curriculum of Peace, War, and Defense |
| 1982 | Martha Nell Hardy | UNC Professor, Department of Communications |
| 1981 | J. Carlyle Sitterson | Former UNC Chancellor |
| 1980 | Doris Betts | UNC Professor, Creative Writing |
| 1979 | Richard J. Richardson | UNC Provost |
| 1978 | Jim Hunt | Governor of North Carolina |
| 1977 | Edward Bernstein | President of EMB Research Economists |
| 1976 | J.W. Fulbright | Former U.S. Senator, Missouri |
| 1975 | John Caldwell | Chancellor, N.C. State University |
| 1974 | James Holshouser, Jr. | Governor of North Carolina |
| 1973 | Juanita Kreps | Professor of Economics, Duke University |
| 1972 | Elizabeth Koontz | Deputy Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of Labor |
| 1971 | J. Carlyle Sitterson | UNC Chancellor |
| 1970 | Clifton Daniels | New York Times |
| 1969 | James A. Shannon | Former director, National Institutes of Health |
| 1968 | Alexander Heard | Chancellor, Vanderbilt University |
| 1967 | Gordon Blackwell | President, Furman University |
| 1966 | Frank Porter Graham | Former President, UNC |
| 1965 | Douglas M. Knight | President, Duke University |
| 1964 | Terry Sanford | Governor, North Carolina |
| 1963 | August Heckscher | President’s Special Assistant on the Arts |
| 1962 | Ralph McGill | Publisher, Atlanta Journal Constitution |
| 1961 | Lenoir Chambers | Newspaper editor |
| 1960 | Luther Hodges | Governor of North Carolina |
| 1959 | Vermont C. Royster | Newspaper editor |
| 1958 | Norman Cousins | Editor, Saturday Review of Literature |
| 1957 | Robert B. House | Chancellor, UNC |
| 1956 | Barnaby C. Keeney | President, Brown University |
| 1955 | Carl Sandburg | Author |
| 1954 | Andrew J. Warren | Rockefeller Foundation |
| 1953 | Francis P. Gaines | President, Washington & Lee University |
| 1952 | Gordon Gray | President, Consolidated University of North Carolina |
| 1951 | William Clyde DeVane | Yale University |
The university might not have it, but probably Class of 1988 planning notes and DTH articles and/or editorial pages document that the graduation speaker was changed at the last minute from the first female astronaut Sally Ride to the U.S. senator mostly unknown in North Carolina.