Cassandra M. McZeal '92 Cassandra M. McZeal ’92
Credit: Ewart Jones
Cassandra M. McZeal ’92 will deliver the commencement address to Southwestern University’s class of 2022 this May. Throughout her 22-year career with ExxonMobil, McZeal has helped the global oil and gas corporation solve complex business challenges through mathematical models and applications.

“I am thrilled to welcome Cassandra McZeal back to campus as our 2022 commencement speaker,” says Southwestern President Laura Skandera Trombley. “In today’s information- and data-driven business world, Dr. McZeal truly exemplifies how the liberal arts experience prepares students for 21st-century career success.”

McZeal graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor of arts in mathematics from Southwestern, where she was elected to the honor society Alpha Chi. She went on to earn her master’s degree and doctoral degree in Computational and Applied Mathematics from Rice University in 1998 and 1999, respectively.

McZeal currently serves as Senior Change Advisor for the newly formed ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering Company, where she is part of the strategy and planning group responsible for the successful startup and implementation of the new organization. Since joining ExxonMobil in 2000, she has worked on mathematical optimization models for oil and gas investment portfolio planning and management, led the Visualization and Workflow Integration team, served as a skill area advisor for computational and applied mathematics capability, been the senior advisor for the Computational Methods section as well as the Computational Methods section supervisor. Finally, her last role before her current was as the Computational and Data Sciences Manager responsible for that capability across the ExxonMobil upstream sector.

McZeal is a current member of Southwestern’s Board of Trustees and past member of the Board of Visitors. She has served as an assistant adjunct professor at Rice University and is a member of the Rice Engineering Advisory Board.  She is also a member of the Girl Scouts of San Jacinto Council Board of Directors.  Previously, she has served as co-chair of the United Way of Greater Houston Women’s Initiative Steering Committee and as a member of the Church Council for St Luke’s United Methodist Church in Houston.

Southwestern’s 2022 commencement ceremony will be held on Saturday, May 7, at 9:00 a.m. at Birkelbach Field in the Georgetown ISD Athletic Complex