SPRINGFIELD, Mo., April 24, 2025 – Leadership Springfield Executive Director Carrie Richardson ’03 MNCL ’20 and world-renowned Springfield chocolatier Shawn Askinosie will serve as speakers for Drury University’s 2025 Commencement ceremonies.
Richardson is slated to speak at the Drury GO and College of Graduate Studies commencement ceremony, 6:30 p.m., Friday, May 9. Askinosie will serve as the commencement speaker for Drury’s Day School graduation ceremony, 11 a.m., Saturday, May 10. Both commencements will be held in the O’Reilly Family Event Center.
“We are thrilled to welcome Carrie Richardson and Shawn Askinosie as our distinguished commencement speakers this May,” Dr. Beth Harville, University Provost, said. “Ms. Richardson, one of our esteemed alumni, has demonstrated exceptional commitment to developing community leaders. Mr. Askinosie exemplifies how entrepreneurship can be intertwined with compassion and social impact. Their diverse experiences and dedication to both professional excellence and community service make them ideal voices to inspire our graduates as they embark on the next chapter of their lives.”
Richardson has been the Executive Director at Leadership Springfield, a non-profit organization centered on encouraging leadership development, since 2018. Before that, Richardson spent a decade in the healthcare field, serving as Chief Operating Officer of Ozarks Community Hospital. Richardson was named one of Springfield Business Journal’s 12 People to Know in 2019 and was honored as one of SBJ’s Most Influential Women in the same year. In 2021, Richardson was featured as one of Biz417’s Women Who Mean Business.
The owner of Askinosie Chocolate since 2006, Askinosie has seen the company flourish into one of the world’s top chocolate micro-factories, earning distinction as one of Forbes Magazine’s 25 Best Small Companies in America. A former criminal defense lawyer, Askinosie was named as “One of the 15 Guys Who are Saving the World” by O, The Oprah Magazine. Askinosie Chocolate’s mission is to serve their farmers, their neighborhood, their customers, and each other, sharing the Askinosie Chocolate experience by leaving the world a better place than they found it. So far, the company has provided over a million school lunches to malnourished children in Tanzania and the Philippines without any donations. He is an author and the co-founder of Lost & Found Grief Center.
For more information on Drury’s 2025 Commencement ceremonies, please visit www.drury.edu/commencement/.
###
Media Contact: Cris Belvin, Director of University Communications & Media Relations | (417) 873-7392 | gbelvin@drury.edu