Fall 2025 Commencement Speakers Announced
Fall 2025 Commencement Speakers Announced
Sam Houston State University’s Fall 2025 Commencement ceremonies will take place from Friday, Dec. 12, through Saturday, Dec. 13, at Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum. Degree candidates attending ceremonies on Friday will be addressed by John Garrett and Bennie Wylie. On Saturday, graduates will be addressed by Jennifer Rockett and Leslie Padilla.
John Garrett (’97) is an outstanding Sam Houston State University alumnus who applied his education from the Department of Mass Communications, experience working for news giants and can-do attitude to launch Community Impact Newspaper with his wife, Jennifer (’99). John will be addressing graduates of the College of Criminal Justice and the College of Arts & Media during the Friday morning ceremonies.
The Garretts debuted the paper out of Round Rock/Pflugerville, Texas in 2005 on the premise that everyone has the right to know what is happening in their communities. Since their initial launch, the media organization now distributes free, local news to the Austin, Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth and San Antonio metros through monthly newspaper releases and daily, digital news updates.
The self-proclaimed “biggest SHSU fan in the world,” has made his alma mater proud by holding strong in his values of faith, passion, quality, innovation and integrity. These ideals serve as a core tenet of his company and inspire greatness from all of his employees, from the Pflugerville printing press operators to their ad sales team and the designers who make the editors’ and reporters’ work visually stunning. For his efforts, he was recognized by the Alumni Association in 2010 as an Outstanding Young Alumnus.
Garrett encourages volunteerism among his employees and demonstrates the impact one person can make in their community himself by serving on the boards of numerous local community and nonprofit organizations. He has been named Best CEO by the Austin Business Journal and won the KPMG Executive Leadership Award from the Austin Chamber of Commerce.
Bennie Wylie (’99) will address students during the Friday afternoon commencement ceremonies for the College of Health Sciences and the College of Education. The former Bearkat student athlete recently returned to Texas to serve as the director of performance and the health and wellness coordinator at Huntsville ISD after spending four seasons at as the University of Southern California’s (USC) director of football sports performance.
Wylie earned his bachelor’s in kinesiology from Sam Houston State in 1999. During his time here, he was a four-year, letter-winning running back, the team’s 1997 captain and a member of the track and field team. He began his coaching career at Sam as a graduate assistant in 1998 and was named interim head strength and conditioning coach that same year. Soon after graduating, he joined the Dallas Cowboys as an assistant strength and conditioning coach, supporting player rehabilitation and performance from 1999-2002.
Football performance and athlete development have been at the center of Wylie’s professional journey. Before his return to Huntsville, he helped guide the USC Trojans to multiple bowl appearances and led an off-season program where players collectively added more than 1,400 pounds of muscle. Prior to USC, he served as the University of Oklahoma’s director of sports performance, contributing to three Big 12 championships, two college football playoff semifinal appearances and multiple bowl games.
Wylie’s career has also included directing The Performance Lab in Abilene, Texas; serving as strength and conditioning head coach at the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Tennessee and Texas Tech University; and providing specialized training to U.S. military personnel through Alpha Warrior. He also appeared on the NBC reality fitness series, “STRONG.” He is certified by both the Titleist Performance Institute and USA Weightlifting and was named a Master Strength and Conditioning Coach by the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association in 2012.
Jennifer L. Rockett (’09) will address graduates of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and all except the agricultural sciences and engineering technology students of the College of Science and Engineering Technology on the morning of Dec. 13. Rockett is a licensed psychologist and director of The Center for Clinical and Forensic Psychology (CCFP) in College Station, Texas. She specializes in forensic mental health assessment, with extensive experience conducting competency and insanity evaluations, violence and sexual offender risk assessments, mitigation evaluations and pre-employment and fitness-for-duty assessments for public safety agencies.
A graduate of SHSU’s clinical forensic psychology doctoral program, Rockett is the former president of the Texas Psychological Association and an active leader in statewide initiatives related to forensic practice, legislative advocacy, equity and professional governance. She has served in multiple academic roles, teaching doctoral-level coursework and providing supervision to developing clinicians, and her research has been published in leading journals such as ‘Psychological Services” and “Psychiatric Services.”
A frequent presenter at professional conferences, Rockett offers workshops and training on competency evaluation, developmental maturity in the legal system, psycho-legal assessment and best practices in forensic psychology. She continues to provide expert consultation to courts, attorneys and public agencies while maintaining an active clinical and forensic practice.
Leslie Padilla (’05) will speak during the Saturday afternoon ceremonies for the graduates of the College of Business Administration and the College of Science and Engineering Technology’s agricultural sciences and engineering technology programs. He currently serves as the Senior Portfolio Manager within the Extravehicular and Human Surface Mobility Program (EHP) at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Padilla’s responsibilities include all technology development projects addressing critical gaps in the Lunar Surface Architecture and bridging the technology readiness level between Moon and Mars.
His diverse portfolio includes high-priority projects such as the Lunar Dust Effects Sensor, Thermal Radiator Electrodynamic Dust Shield, Radiation Tolerant Systems, LiDAR miniaturization for GPS-denied navigation, and advanced materials research like Shape Memory Alloy and Artemis Future Suit Materials. Padilla also serves on a part time detail as part of a team leading the Agency Facility Capabilities transition from the International Space Station to Moon to Mars Programs.
As a recognized visionary in systems engineering and integration who's technical and leadership expertise drives complex, high-stakes efforts across NASA, including serving as the primary architect of foundational testing elements essential for NASA’s return to the Moon. He conceived and implemented the vision for the Johnson Space Center’s EHP Rock Yard (JERY), creating a large-scale training ground for space rovers and astronauts in training to learn how to navigate lunar terrain.
Padilla holds a Bachelor of Science in Physics with a minor in Mathematics from Sam Houston State University, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Houston at Clearlake. He has been recognized with numerous accolades for his strategic vision and commitment to human spaceflight, including NASA’s Rotary Stellar Award, the Space Flight Honoree Award and the NASA Superior Accomplishment Award. He actively serves at Sovereign Grace Church of Pearland and is a member of F3 in Space City, where he contributes to community service in Pearland. He also serves as a NASA mentor and frequently engages with academia to foster the next generation of scientists and engineers to push the boundaries of space exploration.