Nominate a Honorary Degree Recipient or Commencement Speaker
* Baccalaureate Speaker
**Commencement Speaker
2024
**Amy Herman ’88, Founder and president, The Art of Perception Inc.
Robert L. Freeman, Democratic member of Pennsylvania House of Representatives, serving 136th Legislative District
John Sexton, President emeritus of New York University, dean emeritus of NYU Law School
2023
**Elizabeth A. Mowins ’89, American play-by-play announcer and sports journalist for ESPN, CBS, and Marquee Sports Network
Daniel E. Cohen, Esq. ’65 , Attorney, Hof & Reid LLC
Leslie F. Muhlfelder, Esq. ’81, Retired Vice President for Human Resources and General Counsel/Lecturer in Government and Law
2022
Harrison Bailey III ’95, Principal of Liberty High School
**Charles “Chip” Bergh ’79, President and CEO of Levi Strauss & Co.
Walter A. Scott ’59, G’23, retired Chairman of Assured Guaranty Ltd.
Audrey Evans, world-renowned pediatric oncologist
2021
**Yolanda Wisher ’98, Philadelphia-based poet, singer, educator and curator
2020
**Temple Grandin, Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University, industrial designer and advocate for autistic people
2019
**Wes Moore, CEO, Robin Hood Foundation
Hyman Muss `64, Mary Jones Hudson Distinguished Professor of Geriatric Oncology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine
Max Weinberg, Musician and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer
2018
**Marcia Bloom Bernicat `75, U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh
James L. Goldman, Anchor of 6ABC Action News
Eric H. Holder Jr., 82nd Attorney General of the United States
Elizabeth A. Mowins `89, Award-winning television play-by-play announcer and sports journalist
Robert E. Sell `84, incoming chair of the Lafayette College Board of Trustees, Group Chief Executive of Communications, Media & Technology, Accenture
2017
**Ron Chernow, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer
Laneta Dorflinger `75, Distinguished Scientist and Director of Contraceptive Technology Innovation at FHI 360
Seifollah Ghasemi, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Air Products
Meredith Monk, Recipient of the National Medal of Arts
2016
**William D. Adams, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities
L. Anderson Daub, senior partner of Brown-Daub Automobile Dealerships
Roger Newton ’72, founder of Esperion Therapeutics and co-developer of Lipitor
Marciene S. Mattleman, distinguished advocate for literacy and public education
2015
**Erik Weihenmayer, renowned adventurer, author, and filmmaker
Karl Stirner, internationally known sculptor and pioneer of the arts community in Easton
Miles Young, worldwide chairman and chief executive of Ogilvy & Mather and president of Friends of Hermione-Lafayette in America
2014
**The Honorable Portia Simpson Miller, prime minister of Jamaica
Harry L. Ettlinger, member of the “Monuments Men” of World War II
Kevin Mandia ’92, senior vice president and chief operating officer of the FireEye computer threat protection firm
Roger Ross Williams, Academy Award-winning producer and director of documentary films
2013
**Anne-Marie Slaughter, professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University and former director of policy planning for the U.S. Department of State
Daniel H. Weiss, Lafayette College president
Martin Amis, author
Joseph T. Cox ’68, headmaster of The Haverford School
Robert A. Pastor ’69, professor of international relations and director of the Center for North American Studies and Center for Democracy and Election Management at American University
2012
**Garry Marshall, award-winning television and film director, writer, producer, and actor
John and Marianne Loose, founders of Lauren’s First and Goal Foundation
Barry Sleckman ’83, immunologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
2011
**Gwendolyn L. Ifill, managing editor and moderator for Washington Week and senior correspondent for The NewsHour at PBS
*Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J., president of College of the Holy Cross
Wilbur W. Oaks ’51, physician, retired professor of medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine, and founder of Saint John’s Hospice homeless soccer team, Body and Soul
Salvatore J. Panto Jr., mayor of the City of Easton
2010
**Joan Lunden, TV journalist
Edward W. Ahart ’69, incoming Lafayette College Board of Trustees chair and managing partner and chairman, Schenck, Price, Smith & King
Thomas J. Hagan, O.S.F.S., former Catholic chaplain at Lafayette and founder of Hands Together
Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette
2009
**Benjamin Solomon Carson Sr., M.D., director of pediatric neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
Elliot Jay Sussman, president and chief executive officer, Lehigh Valley Health Network
Nechama Tec, professor emerita of sociology, University of Connecticut, Stamford
Riley Keene Temple ’71, principal, Temple Strategies
2008
**Juan Antonio Williams, senior correspondent for National Public Radio Morning Edition, contributing political analyst for Fox News Channel
*The Very Reverend Samuel Thames Lloyd III, dean of the Washington National Cathedral
John Anderson Fry ’82, president, Franklin & Marshall College
Nicholas Katzenbach, former attorney general of the United States
2007
**Michael Beschloss, historian, author, and presidential historian
*Reverend Professor Peter J. Gomes, Plummer Prof. of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister, the Memorial Church, and Prof. of Arts & Sciences and of Divinity
Michael Moskow ’59, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
Faith Ringgold, acclaimed artist and author
Lou Reda, documentary filmmaker, executive producer, Lou Reda Productions
2006
**Deborah Bial, founder and executive director of the Posse Foundation
Gregory Farrington, president of Lehigh University
John Hope Franklin, professor emeritus of History at Duke University
Mulgrew Miller, world class jazz musician
2005
Dorothy Gulbenkian Blaney, president of Cedar Crest College
Brian P. Lamb, president, chief executive officer, and founder of C-SPAN
**Thomas Joseph Ridge, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Governor of Pennsylvania
Barbara S. Rothkopf, wife of President Rothkopf
Arthur J. Rothkopf, president of Lafayette College 1994-2005
2004
*Ali A. Mazrui, director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies and Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities
LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr. M.D., surgeon, cancer researcher, former President of the American Cancer Society
Shelley Brown, executive director, The State Theater Center for the Arts
**Edward G. Rendell, governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
2003
*Rebecca S. Chopp, Colgate University’s 15th president, former dean of Yale Univ. Divinity School
Pastor Fred Davis, Shiloh Baptist Church, Easton
Brent David Glass ’69, director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History
**Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation of New York, and former president of Brown University and New York Public Library
2002
*Margaret A. Farley, scholar, Yale Divinity School
Robert A. Freedberg, justice, Northampton County, PA
Aaron O. Hoff, (1808-1902)
Charles E. Hugel ’51, retired chairman, Asea Brown Boveri, Inc. (Lafayette Medal for Distinguished Service) (received honorary degree in 1986)
**James C. Lehrer, journalist, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
2001
*Rabbi Leonard I. Beerman, founding rabbi of Leo Baeck Temple, Los Angeles, Calif.
Charles C. Gillispie, professor of history of science emeritus, Princeton University
**Doris Kearns Goodwin, presidential historian, author, television commentator
Alan R. Griffith ’64, vice chairman, The Bank of New York, Chairman-elect, Lafayette College
Franklin D. Raines, chairman and CEO, Fannie Mae Corp., former Director, OMB
2000
Michael H. Danjczek, president and director, Children’s Home of Easton
Marcia D. Greenberger, founder and co-president, National Women’s Law Center in Washington, D.C.
*Peter J. Paris, educator, Princeton Theological Seminary
**George F. Will, columnist, TV commentator
1999
**Maya Angelou, educator, Wake Forest University
Lucy Wilson Benson, President Benson & Associates, Amherst, Mass., former under secretary of state
*William H. Willimon, dean of the chapel and professor, Duke University
1998
**The Hon. George Herbert Walker Bush, 41st President of the United States
Eugene Morris DeLoatch ’59, founder and dean, School of Engineering, Morgan State University
*The Rev. Theodore W. Loder, pastor, First United Methodist Church of Germantown
Ann Roth, Academy Award-winning costume designer
Albert L. Ueltschi, president and CEO, FlightSafety International Inc. and president/CEO of Orbis International
1997
**François Bujon de l’Estang, ambassador of France
The Hon. Thomas F. Goldsmith ’63, mayor of Easton, PA
Richard S. Gurin, president and CEO, Binney & Smith
*Delores R. Leckey, executive director of the Secretariat for Family, Laity, Women, and Youth of the National Council of Catholic Bishops
George Veronis ’50, Davis Prof. of Geophysics and Applied Mathematics, Yale University
1996
**William H. Cosby, Jr., actor & entertainer
Delano E. Lewis, president & CEO, National Public Radio
Jay L. Parini ’70, writer, poet and novelist, professor, Middlebury College
Judith S. Rodin, president, University of Pennsylvania
*David N. Saperstein, director, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
1995
*Robert M. Brown, professor emeritus, Pacific School of Religion
Frances R. Hesselbein, management consultant, Pres. & CEO, Peter Drucker Foundation
David L. Lewis, historian, professor at Rutgers University
**David McCullough P’80, historian, author
Dwight A. Sangrey ’62, president, Oregon Graduate Institute of Science & Technology