Midwestern State University alumna Valarie McCubbins will deliver the commencement address to the approximately 512 students who are candidates to earn their degrees from MSU Texas. The commencement ceremony will be at 10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 15, at Kay Yeager Coliseum.

After spending 12 years in New York City working in marketing and advertising for multimillion-dollar brands such as Hewlett-Packard, AT&T, Pizza Hut, and Burger King, McCubbins returned to Texas where she is Senior Vice President of Client Service at Austin marketing firm Unique Influence. One simple principle has driven McCubbins throughout her career - understanding the why. "Why do we act? Why do we care? The why is the purpose that drives every one of us," McCubbins said.

After graduating summa cum laude from MSU in 2004 with a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication, McCubbins earned a Master of Arts in Advertising from The University of Texas in 2005. At MSU, she was a member of Alpha Phi, and served as President of the National Panhellenic Council. She was named Greek Woman of the Year in 2004. She was on the President's Honor Roll and a member of Alpha Lambda Delta, Phi Eta Sigma, Alpha Chi, Alpha Psi Omega, and President of Order of Omega. Her freshman year she was awarded Outstanding Freshman Chemistry Lab Student.

Her senior group documentary won first place in videography/editing at the Southwest Journalism Congress. She performed in several theatrical productions and directed a one act play as her final course for her theatre minor. During her senior year, she was featured on a local billboard and other marketing material for the first run of the University's "It's My University, Make it Yours" campaign. She received the Mass Communication Department's inaugural Alumni Award in 2012.

McCubbins graduated from Rider High School in 2000. She is the daughter of Tammy McCubbins and Richard Pe±a of Wichita Falls.