An ex-astronaut will serve as the keynote speaker during commencement ceremonies May 9 at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont.

Former NASA teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan (picture from NASA) will share her experience with graduates.

“We are absolutely honored that Barbara Morgan will be joining us,” university President Judith Greig said. “Her life is a testament to persistence and seizing opportunities — lessons that will prove valuable to our graduates.”

Morgan, the first educator to complete a mission to space, earned her teaching credential at NDNU, then the College of Notre Dame, in 1974.

She was a member of the space shuttle Endeavour crew that performed a two-week mission in 2007. The team made improvements to the International Space Station.

She carried out what fellow educator-astronaut Christa McAuliffe started more than two decades ago as part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Teacher in Space Program.

McAuliffe and six other astronauts died in the space shuttle Challenger tragedy in 1986.

Morgan, a Fresno native, received a bachelor’s degree in human biology at Stanford University in 1973 before enrolling at Notre Dame, where she graduated with a multiple-subject teaching credential.

Currently, she is at Boise State University in Idaho as a distinguished educator-in-residence, providing leadership on science, technology, engineering and math instruction.