2022 Commencement and Honors Convocation

April 5, 2022

We are excited to celebrate Grand View’s Commencement at Wells Fargo Arena on Sunday, May 1, 2022, at 2 p.m. Honors Convocation will be held Friday, April 22, 3:30, Sisam Arena. This year's commencement speaker is Jeff Chelesvig.

Jeff Chelesvig is President & CEO of Des Moines Performing Arts, an organization he has led for 27 years. Des Moines Performing Arts is Iowa’s largest performing arts organization serving over 300,000 audience members each year at the organization’s four venues: the Des Moines Civic Center, Stoner Theater, Temple Theater and the outdoor Cowles Commons.

Under Jeff’s leadership Des Moines Performing Arts has grown to become one of the largest performing arts presenters in the region, presenting an average of 235 performances annually in seven different series, including the Willis Broadway Series, the Dance Series, and the Applause Series of performances for young audiences.  He is responsible for first-run engagements in Des Moines of some of Broadway’s biggest shows, including The Lion King, The Book of Mormon, Dear Evan Hansen and Hamilton.  In 2021 he was voted a lifetime member of the Broadway League, the national trade association for Broadway in New York and across the country, and he is Iowa’s only voter for Broadway’s annual Tony Awards. Recently, Jeff served as President of the Independent Presenters Network, a Tony Award-winning consortium of touring Broadway presenters that produce shows on Broadway, on tour and in London. 

Jeff was born in Iowa and has resided in downtown Des Moines for over 15 years.

Commencement will be broadcast live. More information can be found here.