Jackson Free Press

With May finally here, it's time for high school and college students to take that long-awaited walk across a graduation stage.

This year, Jackson State University graduates have two influential speakers to hear before walking across the stage to get their diplomas. The Nielsen Company's Vice President of Strategic Community Alliances and Consumer Engagement, Cheryl Pearson-McNeil, will address graduate students May 2.

Pearson-McNeil got a bachelor's degree in public relations from Purdue University and a master's degree from Devry University's Keller Graduate School of Management. Before going to Nielsen in 2004, Pearson-McNeil worked as the director of station relations at Chicago's NBC affiliate, WMAQ TV. She also spent time as the vice president of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Chicago and the director of market and communications at the Young Women's Christian Association of Metropolitan Chicago.

In her previous position as the vice president of public affairs and government relations, Pearson-McNeil's responsibility included expanding the company's social responsibility and diversity to more of the public. She created Nielsen's African American consumer report, published for the first time in 2013, and served as Nielsen's senior vice president of communications prior to being vice president of public affairs and government relations.

In March, Nielsen announced Pearson-McNeil's promotion to vice president of strategic community alliances. "Elevating our presence and enhancing our reputation and influencer relationships with multicultural communities and government officials is vital to our growth and our ability to effectively serve our diverse clients and their needs," Karen Kornbluh, Nielsen's executive vice president of internal affairs, told the New Pittsburg Courier in March.

In her new position, Pearson-McNeil will help the company reach more diverse groups of people, leaders and nonprofits. The New Pittsburgh Courier says that this will elevate "their understanding of Nielsen's measurement services to assist in improving the overall probability of their inclusion in Nielsen's panels, studies and surveys."

Purdue University named Pearson-McNeil a "Distinguished Alumna" in 2002, and she has earned many more awards and recognitions, including making TheGrio.com's list of 2012 Class of 100 Americans Making History Today.

"I've learned not to allow others to limit me by putting me into the boxes they feel comfortable having me in. I like to define my own parameters. I define me," she said to The Network Journal in 2007.

Bryon Pitts, a distinguished ABC anchor, will address JSU undergraduates May 3. The university's graduate student ceremony is today, May 2, beginning at 6:30 p.m., and the undergraduate ceremony is Saturday, May 3, at 8 a.m.

*This story has been edited to reflect a spelling correction. The previous version had the ratings company's name spelled incorrectly. It is Nielsen, not Neilsen. Jackson Free Press apologizes for this error.