Commencement 2022

Commencement Speaker Rose McKinney-James

Rose McKinney-James embraced a passion and made it a reality. Her work to advance the commercial deployment of renewable resources established her as a national leader in climate and clean energy. She is the Managing Principal and Founder of Energy Works LLC, which focuses on sustainable energy infrastructure. As the former CEO of CSTRR, a solar and renewable energy company, she authored strategies to fast track the integration of renewable resources into utility energy portfolios. As director of the Department of Business and Industry, Nevada’s largest state agency, she was innovative in providing efficient and advanced services to the business community.

McKinney-James has also been deeply engaged for decades in every aspect of public company board governance. She is considered a leading voice in ESG (Environmental Social Governance), at companies including MGM Resorts International, Employers Insurance, and the Mandalay Resort Group. Her work with MGM management led to key initiatives designed to advance diversity, equity and inclusion, sustainability and philanthropy in the communities where it operates. The inaugural diversity program for Mandalay Resorts that she was responsible for creating and implementing became a model for the gaming industry.

Her professional expertise and advocacy have led to her recognition by organizations as diverse as the US Small Business Administration, Women’s Chamber of Commerce, and the Nevada Conservation League. She is a recipient of the Direct Women Sandra Day O’Connor Award for Board Excellence and the GreenBiz Verge VANGUARD Award, and the Chair Emerita for the American Association of Blacks in Energy. She is a graduate of the Antioch School of Law in Washington D.C., and received her BA from Olivet College.

“…nothing can be changed until it is faced…” James Baldwin