Milwaukee School of Engineering will hold its Fall Commencement on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024 at 10 a.m. at the Kern Center, 1245 N. Broadway. Nearly 100 students will receive their bachelor’s or master’s degrees. Visit msoe.edu/commencement for ceremony details.

Commencement Speaker

Dr. Ellen J. Censky, president and CEO of the Milwaukee Public Museum, will deliver the keynote address during MSOE’s Commencement. A Cedarburg, Wisconsin native, Censky earned her Bachelor of Science in Zoology from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee in 1979 and her doctorate in biological sciences from the University of Pittsburgh in 1994.

Censky spent 20 years at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh conducting research on amphibians and reptiles in the Caribbean, Central and South America and the United States. She has published three books and more than 50 scientific papers. She went on to serve in leadership capacities nationally, including at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, where she received national recognition for her work in founding and developing the BioBlitz program, which is now a staple community outreach program at institutions in every U.S. state and in countries around the world.

Censky continued to expand her leadership skills as the director of the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History and director and CEO of the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History at the University of Oklahoma, guiding both institutions through significant expansions and seven-figure capital campaigns. Following successful tenures of leadership across the country, Censky returned to the Milwaukee Public Museum in 2008 to serve as senior vice president and academic dean. In 2018, she became president/CEO and is responsible for leading the Milwaukee Public Museum as it envisions a future in a new home.