Jill Abramson has delivered the commencement address at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, just days after she was fired as executive editor of The New York Times. Abramson was the first woman to hold the post and had reportedly complained about making less than her male predecessor. In her address, she discussed how she co-authored a book about Anita Hill, who testified about sexual harassment by then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas before an all-white, all-male Senate panel in 1991.

Jill Abramson: “The senators portrayed her as being, as one of her detractors so delicately put it, a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty. She turned that potential humiliation into a great career teaching at Brandeis University and writing books that tell truth to power. Anita was one of the many people who wrote me last week to say they are proud of me. Those messages are so appreciated.”