Lyndon Institute is proud to announce the Commencement and Baccalaureate speakers for the graduating class of 2025.  

Commencement Speaker - Vermont Secretary of Agriculture, Food and Markets,  Anson Tebbetts
Anson Tebbetts was appointed by Governor Phil Scott to be the Secretary of Agriculture, Food and Markets in 2016.

 Anson grew up on his dairy farm in Cabot, where his family raised Jersey dairy cows, sheep, and ran a Vermont maple syrup sugaring operation. While farming, Anson also had a long career in broadcasting in both radio and television. An award-winning reporter and storyteller, Anson’s last position was managing reporters, editors, and photographers for television. Anson still lives in Cabot on his family farm, where his son Alden, a student at Middlebury College, hunts wild turkey and deer. Anson’s wife Vicky, enjoys foraging the land, and his daughter, Adelie, also a student at Middlebury College, loves the forest and baking. A nature lover and birder, Anson’s radio show “For the Birds” can be heard weekly on Radio Vermont.

Baccalaureate Speaker - Nikki Berry ‘03
Nikki Berry, a veteran of Lyndon Institute’s Social Studies department, grew up in Acton, Maine before moving to Burke, Vermont at the end of her 8th grade year. In addition to managing the Boys’ Basketball team and serving as a class officer, she excelled academically at Lyndon Institute, graduating in 2003. She attended St. Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont, where she majored in History with a concentration in Secondary Education, completing her student teaching at CVU. After earning her BA in the spring of 2007, she returned to her alma mater later that fall, this time as a teacher. For eighteen years, she has shared her passion for history with LI students at every grade level, from First Year Humanities to AP US History to Genocide and Human Rights, a course she designed and added to the department’s offerings. 

During her eighteen year tenure at LI, she has also served as advisor for Model UN, president and secretary of LI’s Faculty Association, member of the school’s UVEI cohort, college counselor for international students, and organizer of over a dozen student trips to places like Washington DC, New Orleans, and locations throughout Europe, including a recent trip to New York City to visit the Anne Frank Exhibit at the Center for Jewish History. She is especially proud of her work with student travel, appreciating the growth students experience when they journey outside of the Northeast Kingdom. 

In terms of her work at LI, she is motivated by her love for history and current events, as well as her love for working with teenagers. “I just enjoy spending time with them,” she says. “I enjoy the laughing most of all—at myself, at the silly things the kids do and say. We have fun together! I also love the chance to turn students—particularly 9th graders—into historians. Students are eager to discuss what’s going on in the world and don’t always get a chance to talk to adults about it. I like being that person they can have those conversations with.”

Lyndon Institute will hold its Commencement ceremonies on Sunday, June 8, 2025. The event starts with Baccalaureate at 10:00 a.m. in the Alumni Auditorium, followed by Commencement at 11:00 a.m. on the Robert K. Lewis Field. More information about LI’s Commencement is available by following this link.