Massachusetts Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Rosalin Acosta.

Massachusetts Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Rosalin Acosta, a past Northern Essex Community College trustee, has been selected to deliver the commencement address to this year’s Northern Essex graduates.

The 2020 commencement ceremony will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 16, on the quadrangle of the Haverhill Campus. More than 1,000 graduates are expected to receive certificates of completion and associate degrees.

Acosta manages the Commonwealth’s workforce development and labor departments, which ensure that workers, employers, and the unemployed have the tools, training, and safety resources needed to succeed in the Massachusetts economy. Secretary Acosta also chairs the Workforce Skills Cabinet alongside the secretary of education and the secretary of housing and economic development.

“Secretary Acosta understands our students and has an inspiring story to share,” said President Lane Glenn. “She came to this country with her family as a baby, and, through hard work and a focus on education, she has achieved great success. She’ll be sharing that story with our students, many of whom will see parallels in their own lives.”

Prior to joining the Baker-Polito Administration, she was a widely respected financial and banking service professional with more than 30 years of experience in Greater Boston financial institutions. Secretary Acosta was a director and planning committee member of the Merrimack Valley Workforce Investment Board and was appointed an NECC trustee by Governor Charlie Baker.

She has been named one of Boston’s Most Influential Women by the Women of Harvard Club and El Planeta’s Top 100 Most Influential Hispanics in Massachusetts. She has also been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA).

Born in Cuba, she earned a bachelor of arts from Wesleyan University in Connecticut where she was a member of the Women’s Varsity Ice Hockey Team. She is the proud mother of five children.

Sec. Acosta knows the value that Northern Essex  gives to its students firsthand as three of her five children have attended NECC.

To learn more about NECC’s commencement ceremony, visit the website .