One of the highlights of my year comes on the first Saturday in June when we hold our global commencement ceremony for Bakke Graduate University in person in Dallas, Texas, and streamed online throughout the world. This year, on June 6, 2026, we celebrated 45 graduates from 22 countries. We also celebrated graduates from our BGU certificate programs, including our first cohort of executive coaches. This year’s graduates include advanced leaders who are doing remarkable things around the world.
Dr. Zachary Hamilton, BGU’s Chief Operation Officer, and Julie McCabe, BGU’s Graduation Coordinator, prepared a report that highlighted some of the topics and initiatives that this year’s graduates focused on. The advanced leaders in this year’s class include people serving in different sectors of society, such as church, ministry, and mission leadership, education and higher education, business, entrepreneurship, and marketplace leadership, government and public service, nonprofit and community development, and healthcare, human services, and mental health. This cross-sector impact differentiates BGU in a unique way from most leadership development organizations.
The graduates produced world-class research projects that addressed societal challenges and built organizational capacity. Intervention strategies were implemented for issues including leadership formation for complex environments, faith and work integration, church renewal and contextual mission, community transformation and social justice, youth, family, and mentoring interventions, and organizational capacity and sustainable impact.
Beyond the excellent research and impact in various sectors of society, each graduate left BGU having been fully equipped with BGU’s eight perspectives on transformational leadership in the fields of business, theology, and urban studies. They studied with the world and made lifelong friendships. During the reception dinner after the graduation ceremony, it was such a joy to hear from each graduate about just how much their lives had changed in positive ways during their journeys through BGU as students. Many expressed their intent to stay connected to our global learning community for the rest of their lives through being active alumni members, and some who will be teaching and coaching future students. Congratulations to all of this year’s graduates, and much thanks to all of our staff, faculty, board members, and donors who helped to get this year’s graduates across the finish line.
Dr. Bryan McCabe
President