FORT GREENE — St. Francis College will celebrate its largest graduating class ever today when more than 450 students will receive their diplomas in a ceremony at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s (BAM) Howard Gilman Opera House.

The Commencement Speaker for the event will be newly appointed Brooklyn federal court Judge Margo Kitsy Brodie (’88), a St. Francis alumna who made history earlier this year when she became the first Afro-Caribbean-born judge to serve on the federal court bench.

Judge Brodie’s first experiences in the United States were as a student at St. Francis in Brooklyn Heights. She said that everything that happened at the college, from the classes she took, the professors she met and the friends she made, helped prepare her for her new career at the courthouse just blocks away from her alma mater.

This commencement, which is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m., will also be a homecoming for Judge Brodie, who graduated on the same stage almost 25 years ago.

After being nominated last summer by President Barack Obama, Brodie was appointed as a United States District Judge for the Eastern District of New York on Feb. 29 and was sworn in weeks later.

Having been a Brooklyn federal prosecutor since 1999, Brodie last served as deputy chief of the Criminal Division and previously as counselor to the Criminal Division from 2009 to 2010, chief of the General Crimes Section from 2007 to 2009 and deputy chief of the General Crimes Section from 2006 to 2007.

Prior to becoming a federal prosecutor, Brodie worked at the law firm of Carter, Ledyard & Millburn from 1994 to 1999 and at the New York City Law Department from 1991 to 1994.

She received her law degree in 1991 from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law and received her bachelor’s degree from St. Francis College, graduating magna cum laude in 1988.