Law senior Kamira Peterson and Master of Business Administration graduate Justine Hanrahan will give the student commencement addresses on behalf of undergraduate and graduate students at Champlain College’s Commencement ceremony on May 9.
Kamira Peterson, from Alexandria, Virginia, is receiving her Bachelor of Arts in Law with a minor in Social Justice. She is the founding member of the Fiction Addiction Literature Club and an acting member of Student of Color Experience (SOCE). With a long history of working both on and off campus, Peterson is a leader, public speaker, civil rights and social justice advocate, and has made a deep impact in both the Champlain and greater Burlington communities.
For three years, she worked on campus in the Career Collaborative as a Career Coach and temporary Wellbeing Coach. During those roles, she’s worked with fellow students to prepare them for careers outside of college and beyond graduation. Peterson also hosted events such as career readiness panels for graduate school, law school, and professional development with the VT Professionals of Color Network.
Throughout her college experience, she completed two internships and held numerous other positions. Early in her college career, she worked as a Research Assistant with the Champlain College Office of Social Justice. She later interned with the Prison Law Initiative, where she taught fundamental principles of constitutional rights and criminal procedure to incarcerated individuals. As of February of this year, she’s also undertaken work with nuwave Equity Corporation where she worked as a Vermont Culture Innovator Intern.
Recognized for her outstanding work, she received the Rick Davis Mentorship Award this April. After graduation, she is planning on working in the legal industry as a paralegal before later applying to law school.
Justine Hanrahan is a healthcare leader and Interim Director at UVM Health. For 15 years, she’s been transforming the health care system, spanning care delivery, technology, and human connection. Across UVM Health, she leads enterprise efforts focused on shaping how care is experienced, delivered, and sustained at scale. She’s transformed mailrooms into thriving Infusion Centers, guided teams through complex system go-lives, and has built growing high-performance teams through periods of change and expansion. She’s even presented at Epic Systems on a Nursing Informatics-partnered nurse engagement program, focused on improving nurses’ experience with Epic through shared learning.
Hanrahan holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Vermont. Her leadership is grounded in real-world clinical experience and deep understanding and respect for those who do their hardest work in health care every day. Currently, she’s completing a Master of Business Administration with a Certificate in Positive Organization Development.
Her leadership is grounded in the belief that meaningful change happens in the moments people feel seen, heard, and supported — and in the courage it takes to help others step into who they are becoming; especially when the path forward is uncertain. Justine partners across the organization to bring together leadership, clinical, operation, and administrative perspectives. All these combine to enhance health systems, ensuring that change is both well-designed and usable. She is known for turning complex challenges into clear, actionable directions that teams can trust. Her work brings clarity, momentum, and joy to the workplace.
Hanrahan lives in Underhill, Vermont, with her fiancée, their five children, two dogs, one cat, one hermit crab, and three fish — a full and lively household that keeps her grounded, flexible, and practiced in balancing competing priorities.
Tune in to their Commencement speeches via livestream, beginning at 10:00 AM at commencement.champlain.edu.