Educational Leader Peter Gunn Cheney to address Bicentennial Graduating Class

As Western Reserve Academy celebrates its 200th year and reflects on a legacy rooted in purpose, character and service, we are honored to announce Peter Gunn Cheney as our 2026 Commencement speaker.

Head of School Suzanne Walker Buck says, “Peter is a forever friend to schools and a champion of our country’s greatest currency: children. While his career accomplishments and professional accolades are abundant, what really matters to Peter is people.”

Cheney finds his upcoming appearance at WRA in alignment with his own values saying, “I feel a kinship with WRA in that we both try to operate by joy.”

A graduate of the Frederick Gunn School, Transylvania University and Virginia Theological Seminary, Cheney was ordained in the Episcopal Church in 1975 and later received an honorary doctorate from the University of the South. His five decades of experience includes pastoral counseling, adolescent development, mediation and conflict resolution. Peter has devoted his career to helping schools, students and leaders thrive during moments of growth, challenge and transition.

All of this sounds especially apt as he prepares to address a group of Pioneer graduates on the cusp of their next frontiers.

Quoting author and educator Parker Palmer, Cheney says, “The basic question we should ask ourselves is, ‘Is the life I’m living the life that wants to live in me?’ One of the major jobs we have as educators is to help children find their voice.”

Peter served as Executive Director of the National Association of Episcopal Schools for nearly a decade, supporting hundreds of schools across the United States and the Caribbean. His perspective on education is deeply personal; reflecting on his own student experience, he has written on the lasting influence of his ancestor Frederick W. Gunn, a 19th-century abolitionist and educational pioneer, whose commitment to faith, open inquiry and the dignity of others shaped Peter’s understanding of leadership and vocation.

Across the generations he has counseled and the geographies traversed, Gunn cultivates the same warmth and wisdom he naturally exudes. 

“My heart is with the adolescent and the adolescent passage – the joy and the struggle. We are invited to learn that our value is an inherent gift,” Gunn says. “There is such a difference between a young person succeeding because they are trying to prove their worth versus succeeding because they are grounded in it.”

As WRA marks its Bicentennial – a milestone that honors both tradition and transformation – we look forward to welcoming a Commencement speaker whose life’s work speaks directly to the call to flourish: as individuals and an institution.

“There is so much more to our young people, and to life, than where they go to college,” Cheney said. “Every student has a multi-faceted story, and the simple right to find meaning and joy in their life.”