Cheryl L. Johnson, the 36th Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, who served during the 116th and 117th Congresses through the first session of the 118th, will be featured speaker for Guilford College’s Commencement exercises on Saturday, May 17.

Cheryl was nominated to the post of Clerk – the chief record-keeper and senior officer for the House – by Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi in December 2018. She was renominated in January 2023 by Speaker Kevin McCarthy to remain as Clerk, and served until resigning six months later.  

“Cheryl has a long and distinguished record of public service,” says Jean Bordewich, Guilford’s Acting President. “Her lifelong commitments to democratic institutions, integrity and justice mirror the core values of Guilford College, and I know she will have an inspiring message for our graduates and their families.”

For four days in January 2023, Cheryl served as the acting presiding officer of the U.S. House while the election of a Speaker for the 118th Congress was deadlocked until Kevin was elected after a nearly unprecedented 15 ballots, making her the first person of color and African American woman to preside over the House of Representatives.

During her four-year tenure, from 2019-23, she oversaw the development of electronic bill introduction and transparent proxy voting in response to the global pandemic, as well as other initiatives to improve the operations of the House.

Before becoming Clerk, Cheryl was on staff in the House for nearly 20 years followed by 13 years at the Smithsonian Institution. She was the Chief Education and Investigative Counsel for the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, where she served as a principal policy advisor and spokesperson for the Committee, and as a senior member of the House Administration Committee staff.

As Chief of Staff to the founding director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) and Director of Smithsonian Government Relations, she worked with the Smithsonian Board of Regents to build and maintain strong relationships with Congress in support of the institution’s annual appropriations and the creation of the NMAAHC. 

Most recently, Cheryl served as Director of External Affairs for the U.S. Agency for Global Media where she developed legislative strategies to support the organization’s unique mission to promote freedom and democracy in countries without a free press.   

A New Orleans native, Cheryl earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communication from the University of Iowa and her law degree from Howard University. She is also a graduate of the senior management program at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Other speakers at Commencement on May 17 will be:

• Wess Daniels, William R. Rogers Director of Friends Center and Quaker Studies, who will offer the invocation.
• Acting President Bordewich, who will make welcoming remarks
• Julia Spoor ’25 of Jenkintown, Pa., who will be speaker for the Class of 2025. She is an Education Studies major with minors in Religious Studies and Environmental Studies. Since her first year, she has worked at New Garden Friends School, most recently as a first-grade teaching assistant.
• Jacob Mitchell ’25  of Dobson, N.C., Guilford Student Body Association President. He is a Psychology major and Ethical Leadership Fellowship Scholar.
• David Grimsley ’00, who will bring alumni greetings. He has worked in sustainable agriculture and farming in rural Virginia for two decades and has been an active volunteer with hurricane relief in western North Carolina.

For more information about Commencement, visit our web page.