Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States Representative to the United Nations, and Dr. Michael Collins ’77, Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, will receive honorary degrees at the College’s 175th Commencement on May 21. Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield will deliver the commencement address and Dr. Collins will offer a reflection for our graduates.
Separately, Reverend David Beckmann, one of the foremost U.S. advocates for people struggling with hunger and poverty in the United States and around the world, and Sister Donna Markham, president of Catholic Charities USA, will receive honorary degrees and speak during a special virtual Convocation event for our graduating Class of 2020 on May 22. Valedictorian Kerry Shortell will also be a featured speaker.
Each of these individuals has impacted their communities and the world through their commitment to social justice and equity issues such as hunger, poverty and access to healthcare.
Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield
Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations will deliver an address virtually to members of the Class of 2021.
Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield, a career diplomat, returned to public service in February 2021 when she was sworn into her new role by the Vice President of the United States. She had retired from a 35-year career with the U.S. Foreign Service in 2017. From 2013 to 2017 she served as the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, where she led the bureau focused on the development and management of U.S. policy toward sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to this appointment, in 2012 and 2013, she served as Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Human Resources, leading a team in charge of the State Department’s 70,000-strong workforce.
Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield’s distinguished Foreign Service career includes an ambassadorship to Liberia, and postings in Switzerland (at the United States Mission to the United Nations, Geneva), Pakistan, Kenya, The Gambia, Nigeria and Jamaica. In Washington, she served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of African Affairs from 2006 to 2008, and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration from 2004 to 2006.
After retiring from the U.S. State Department in 2017, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield led the Africa Practice at Albright Stonebridge Group, a strategic commercial diplomacy firm chaired by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. She was also the inaugural Distinguished Resident Fellow in African Studies at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University from fall 2017 to spring 2019.
Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield was the 2017 recipient of University of Minnesota Hubert Humphrey Public Leadership Award, the 2015 recipient of the Bishop John T. Walker Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award and the 2000 recipient of the Warren Christopher Award for Outstanding Achievement in Global Affairs.
Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield holds a bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University and a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin, where she also did work towards a doctorate.
Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield will be given an honorary degree during Commencement. The College will also award honorary degrees to the following individuals during the ceremony: Dr. Michael Collins ’77, Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Reverend David Beckmann, one of the foremost U.S. advocates for people struggling with hunger and poverty in the United States and around the world, and Sister Donna Markham, president of Catholic Charities USA.
Dr. Michael Collins ’77
Dr. Michael Collins ’77 is chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Medical School and senior vice president for the health sciences for the University of Massachusetts. As the chief executive of UMass Medical School, Dr. Collins oversees a $1 billion academic health sciences center that includes three graduate schools; a $400 million research enterprise; Commonwealth Medicine, the medical school’s health care consulting and operations division; and MassBiologics of UMMS, the nation’s only nonprofit, university-based FDA-licensed discoverer and manufacturer of vaccines and other biologics. Over his fourteen-year tenure as chancellor, Dr. Collins has been an engaged and effective leader for the higher education and Central Massachusetts communities. During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, he has supported important public health initiatives, including the creation of the UMass Medical School Vaccine Corps, which has recruited more than 6,400 volunteers to support Massachusetts’ vaccination campaign and the equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. Prior to joining the university, Dr. Collins served as president and chief executive officer of the Massachusetts-based Caritas Christi Health Care System from 1994 to 2004. An alumnus and former board chair of the College of Holy Cross and a graduate of Tufts University School of Medicine, Dr. Collins is board-certified in internal medicine. He is a tenured professor of medicine and population and quantitative health sciences at UMass Medical School and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians.
Rev. David Beckmann
Rev. David Beckmann is president emeritus of Bread for the World, a non-partisan Christian advocacy organization that advocates for policy changes to end hunger, where he led broad and successful campaigns for legislation to reduce hunger in the United States and around the world. He was awarded the World Food Prize in 2010 for helping to reduce world hunger. Rev. Beckmann is currently Coordinator of the Circle of Protection, an advocacy coalition of Christian church bodies and organizations who together have 100 million members. He is also a joint fellow of the University of California, Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy and the Graduate Theological Union. From 1991 to 2020, Beckmann was president of Bread for the World and its two affiliates, Bread for the World Institute and the Alliance to End Hunger. Prior to that, from 1976 to 1991, he was an economist at the World Bank, where he worked on urban poverty projects and led the Bank’s initial engagement with civil society around the world. He has authored numerous books on faith, economics, and politics, including “Exodus from Hunger.” Rev. Beckmann has earned degrees from Yale, the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, and the London School of Economics, as well as eight honorary doctorates.
Sister Donna Markham
Sister Donna Markham is the president of Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA), the national office for Catholic Charities agencies nationwide. CCUSA’s members provide help and create hope for more than 13 million people a year regardless of religious, social or economic backgrounds. Sister Donna, an Adrian Dominican sister and board certified clinical psychologist with a doctorate in clinical psychology, is the first female president to lead CCUSA in the organization’s 110-year history. A widely-recognized author and speaker, she wrote “Spiritlinking Leadership: Working Through Resistance to Organizational Change” and has held faculty positions at St. John’s Provincial Seminary in Michigan and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Prior to joining CCUSA in 2015, Sister Donna served as president of the Behavioral Health Institute for Mercy Health, where she led the transformation of the delivery of behavioral health services across the seven major geographic regions of the system. Prior to joining Mercy Health, Sister Donna served 10 years as the president of the Southdown Institute in Ontario, Canada and as Prioress of the Adrian Dominican Congregation. She also served for eight years as a member of CCUSA’s Board of Trustees, two of which as Board chair. Sister Donna received her doctorate from the University of Detroit and was named a Fellow in the American Association of Clinical Psychologists. She was awarded the prestigious Harold S. Bernard Training Award from the American Group Psychotherapy Association.
Class of 2020 Valedictorian - Kerry Shortell
Kerry was a Sociology and Psychology major with a concentration in Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies. She is a member of the Alpha Kappa Delta International Sociology Honor Society, the Alpha Sigma Nu Jesuit Honor Society, and Phi Beta Kappa. She is from Pearl River, New York. While at Holy Cross, Kerry was very involved in student research, writing a sociology honors thesis on the topic of domestic violence, and participating in the Weiss Summer Research Program during which she also studied domestic violence and performing archival work for the Worcester Women's History Project. Kerry was also a leader in co-curriculars. She was a co-chair of the Holy Cross Dance Marathon and a student leader for multiple retreats and a spring break immersion trip to Glasgow, Virginia. Kerry served as an Orientation Leader for Fall Gateways programs and as a Resident Assistant in Brooks-Mulledy Hall. She spent her junior year abroad at University College in Cork, Ireland. Kerry is currently serving as an assistant campus minister at Cristo Rey San Jose Jesuit High School in San Jose, California, through the Jesuit Volunteer Corps.
Class of 2021 Valedictorian - Emma Davison
Emma is a political science and Middle Eastern studies double major with a concentration in peace and conflict studies, chair of Pax Christi, a chapter of the Catholic organization for promotion of world peace Pax Christi International, and president of the Alpha Sigma Nu Jesuit Honor Society. She served as a Gateways Orientation leader and was the Head Orientation Leader this past year. She is from West Caldwell, N.J.
While at Holy Cross, Emma was an intern with the Donelan Office of Community Based Learning and was a Multicultural Peer Educator, engaging with staff and students on topics of community engagement, diversity, equity and inclusion. Both a Dana and a Kenneth Rene Desmarais Scholar, Emma spent the fall 2019 semester studying Arabic in Amman, Jordan.
Since joining the Worcester community, Emma has served as a Teaching Assistant at Woodland Academy, a volunteer with the Mustard Seed Catholic Worker, and most recently as a member of the Worcester Together Coronavirus Task Force, working to assist those impacted by the public health crisis.
Following graduation, Emma will begin a full-time position as a Government Relations Associate with L3Harris Technologies, an aerospace and defense technology company that she first interned with as part of the College's Washington Semester Program. She plans to continue studying Arabic at the Middle East Institute and hopes to eventually attend graduate school to study evolving threats to international stability including the climate crisis and nuclear proliferation.