Urban life minister Michael A. Mata will present the 2006 commencement address and his speech will be entitled, Dancing to the Rhythm of a Different Tune.

Reverend Mata is currently national director of the Tools for Transformation Program of World Vision U.S. For the past 25 years he has designed and administered ministry and community programs, particularly in the areas of community ministry, congregational redevelopment, transcultural outreach, leadership development and Latino ministry for various organizations around the country and specifically in the Los Angeles area.

Mata served 17 years as part of the pastoral team at Los Angeles First Church of the Nazarene, a multi-ethnic/multi-congregation church with a highly regarded community program and prominent Hispanic ministry, and two years as pastor of urban mission at Pasadena First Church of the Nazarene. He is the former director of the Urban Leadership Institute, the Mildred M. Hutchinson Assistant Professor of Urban Ministry at the Claremont School of Theology, where he stills serves as adjunct professor of urban ministries, and director of the Bresee Institute.

Mata is currently a doctoral candidate at the School of Policy, Planning and Development at the University of Southern California. He also holds a masters degree in city planning from the University of California at Berkeley, master of divinity and master of arts degrees from Nazarene Theological Seminary and Point Loma Nazarene University respectively.