Commencement Archive

Archive of Prior Years

Ivy Day, Saturday, May 18

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Commencement, Sunday, May 19

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Ivy Day, Saturday, May 20

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Commencement, Sunday, May 21

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Commencement 2022 Activities

Ivy Day, Saturday, May 14

Commencement, Sunday, May 15

Commencement Weekend Videos

Ivy Day Awards

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Candle Lighting

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Commencement

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Commencement 2021 Activities

Ivy Day, Saturday, May 29

Commencement, Sunday, May 30

Commencement Weekend Videos

Ivy Day Awards

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Candle Lighting

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Commencement

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On Sunday, May 17, at noon EDT, we honored the Smith College class of 2020 at the first virtual Commencement in the history of Smith College.

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, delivered the virtual Commencement address.

Commencement Activities

Ai-jen Poo speaking at Commencement

 

Ai-jen Poo—an activist and social innovator whose groundbreaking leadership on domestic workers’ rights and family care advocacy earned her the MacArthur “genius” grant—delivered the address at Smith’s Commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 19.

Poo received an honorary degree at Commencement. Honorary degrees were also awarded to Elizabeth Alexander, poet, scholar, educator, memoirist, and president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Drew Gilpin Faust, president emerita and Arthur Kingsley Porter University Professor at Harvard University; Yvonne Freccero, advocate for people who are homeless in Hampshire County; and Nicola “Niki” Sauvage Tsongas ’68, former congresswoman representing the 3rd District of Massachusetts.

Commencement Activities

Ivy Day Activities

Rita Dove at the podium

Rita Dove—recipient of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize in poetry and two-time U.S. poet laureate—delivered the address at Smith College’s Commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 20, 2018.

Honorary degrees were awarded to Dove; Carol T. Christ, chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, and president emerita of Smith College; Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Columbia Law School and a leading authority on civil rights, Black feminist theory, and race, racism and the law; Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, an Academy and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker who graduated from Smith in 2002; and Robert L. Pura, who is retiring this year after nearly two decades as president at Greenfield Community College.

Commencement Activities

Ivy Day Activities

Oprah Winfrey in the Commencement Procession

Global media leader, philanthropist, producer and actress Oprah Winfrey delivered the address at Smith College’s 139th Commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 21, 2017.

In addition to Winfrey, honorary degrees were awarded to Clare Higgins, executive director at Community Action and former mayor of Northampton; Michelle Kwan, Olympic medalist and world and U.S. champion figure skater; Henrietta Mann, Native American education and tribal leader and founding president of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal College; and Erin O’Shea ’88, president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Harvard University professor.

Commencement Activities

Ivy Day Activities

Megan Smith Commencement 2016

Megan Smith, the United States Chief Technology Officer in the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House—and the first woman to hold that post—delivered the address at Smith’s 138th Commencement ceremony, Sunday, May 15, 2016.

In addition to Smith, honorary degrees were awarded to cartoonist, memoirist and MacArthur Genius Award winner Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home and Dykes to Watch Out For; Roslyn Brock, chairman of the NAACP board of directors; Ruchira Gupta, a leader in the international fight against sex trafficking; American soccer icon and Olympic and World Cup champion Abby Wambach; and NASA astronaut Stephanie D. Wilson.

Commencement Activities

Ivy Day Activities

Commencement 2015

Juliet V. García, the first Hispanic woman to lead a U.S. college or university, and the woman whose decades of leadership at the University of Texas at Brownsville expanded educational opportunities for Hispanic and first-generation students, delivered the address at Smith’s 137th Commencement ceremony, Sunday, May 17, 2015.

In addition to García, Smith awarded honorary degrees to six distinguished guests: Mahzarin Banaji, Sally Benson, Marilyn Carlson Nelson ’61, Adelaide Cromwell ’40, Frances Crowe and Deborah Voigt.

Commencement Activities

Ivy Day Activities

Commencement 2014

Ruth J. Simmons, the ninth president of Smith College, the 18th president of Brown University and the first African American woman to head an Ivy League institution, was the speaker at Smith’s 136th commencement, Sunday, May 18, 2014.

When Simmons became Smith’s president in 1995, she galvanized the campus through an ambitious campus-wide self-study process that resulted in a number of landmark initiatives, including Praxis, a program that allows every Smith student the opportunity to elect an internship funded by the college; an engineering program, the first at a women’s college; programs in the humanities that include the establishment of a poetry center and a peer-reviewed journal devoted to publishing scholarly works by and about women of color; and curricular innovations that include intensive seminars for first-year students and programs to develop students’ speaking and writing skills.

In addition to Simmons, Smith awarded honorary degrees to four distinguished guests: Ela Bhatt; Eric Carle; Swanee Hunt; and Evelyn Fox Keller.

Commencement Activities

Ivy Day Activities

 

2013

Commencement 2013

Arianna Huffington, editor-in-chief of the Pulitzer Prize-winning online news website that bears her name, was the speaker at Smith College’s 135th commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 19, 2013.

Huffington is most commonly associated with the news website that she launched in May 2005, redefining web journalism with aggregated content and blogs. The Huffington Post quickly became one of the most widely read, linked to, and frequently cited media brands on the Internet. In 2012, the website won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for a 10-part series about wounded veterans, “Beyond the Battlefield.”

Huffington and three other accomplished women—activist Loretta J. Ross, composer Joan Tower and Melanne Verveer, executive director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security—received honorary degrees prior to the address.

Commencement Activities

Ivy Day Activities

 

2012

Commencement 2012

Emmy and Golden Globe–winning actress Jane Lynch was the speaker at Smith College’s 134th commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 20.

Lynch is currently best known for her role as cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester in the Fox musical-comedy series “Glee.” A veteran of Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater Company and the Second City comedy troupe, Lynch earned a Master of Fine Arts in acting from Cornell University. She has wooed audiences by playing memorable roles in such notable comedies as Best in Show, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Role Models. Her memoir Happy Accidents,published in 2011, recounts the growth of her career from the stage to television and movies.

In addition to Lynch, four additional accomplished women received honorary degrees. They are: Edwidge Danticat, Haitian novelist whose narratives speak about a nation’s plight; Muriel Siebert, pioneering financier; Susan Solomon, atmospheric scientist who identified the cause of the ozone hole; and Brinda Somaya, Smith alumna and premier architect who shapes the landscape of her nation of India.

Commencement Activities

Ivy Day Activities

 

2011

Commencement 2011

Sylvia Earle, the undersea explorer dubbed a “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress, was the speaker at Smith College’s 133rd commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 15, 2011.

Today, Earle is the Explorer in Residence at National Geographic Society. She has led more than 70 expeditions, logging more than 6,500 hours under water. Her journeys include commanding the first team of women aquanauts on a 1970 research expedition in which they lived for two weeks in a small structure on the ocean floor off the Virgin Islands.

In addition to Earle, the following women received honorary degrees from Smith on May 15: Margaret H. Marshall, former chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court; Shiranee Tilakawardane, Supreme Court justice in the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka; and Carrie Mae Weems, photographer and artist.

Ivy Day

 

2010

Commencement 2010

Rachel Maddow, a political commentator who rose to national prominence after launching her career on local radio, was the speaker at Smith College’s 132nd commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 16, 2010.

On her national television program, Maddow daily analyzes top headlines from the worlds of politics, current events, sports, science, health, crime and the absurd. Her critically acclaimed program, The Rachel Maddow Show, airs on MSNBC. Her interviews with newsmakers have been described as spotlighting “the headlines, and the politics behind the headlines.”

In addition to Maddow, the following women received honorary degrees from Smith on May 16: Martha Myers, renowned dance composer and teacher; Victoria “Tori” Murden McClure ’85, a woman of “firsts”; Peggy M. Shepard, co-founder and executive director of We Act for Environmental Justice; and Princess Basma Bint Talal of Jordan, global advocate for women and children.

 

2009

Commencement 2009

Tammy Baldwin, a Smith College alumna and the first woman to serve in the House of Representatives from her native Wisconsin, was the speaker at the college’s 131st commencement ceremony Sunday, May 17, 2009.

Baldwin graduated from Smith in 1984 with a degree in government and mathematics and in 1989, while serving in her first elected office as a member of the Dane County Board of Supervisors, earned her law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School.

In addition to Baldwin, the following women received honorary degrees from Smith on May 17: Jenny Holzer, internationally recognized installation artist; Charlayne Hunter-Gault, print and broadcast journalist; and Claire Fraser-Liggett, microbiologist.

 

2008

Commencement 2008

Award-winning playwright Margaret Edson, a Smith College alumna who teaches kindergarten in the Atlanta public school system, was the speaker at the college’s 130th commencement ceremony Sunday, May 18, 2008.

Edson graduated from Smith in 1983 with a degree in Renaissance history and afterward pursued a series of odd jobs, including bartending at a rural bar in Iowa, painting the interior of a Dominican convent in Rome and clerking in the cancer and AIDS inpatient unit at a hospital in Washington, D.C. While working at a bicycle shop in 1991, Edson wrote the play Wit, the story of a scholar of 17th-century English poetry who is diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

In addition to Edson, Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s chief international correspondent, and Beate Sirota Gordon, women’s rights advocate, received honorary degrees from Smith.

 

2007

Commencement 2007

Editor, journalist and political activist Gloria Steinem, a tireless promoter of equality for women around the world, was the speaker at Smith College’s 129th commencement ceremony, Sunday, May 20, 2007.

Steinem’s lifelong career as a writer and journalist began when she graduated from Smith in 1956. Her early freelance articles include an investigative piece for Show magazine on the working conditions of Playboy bunnies. By the 1960s, Steinem had gained national attention as the outspoken leader of the women’s movement. In 1971, she co-founded Ms. magazine, which became an influential forum for feminist issues. Around that time, Steinem and several other leading feminists -- including Betty Friedan, Smith Class of 1942 -- also founded the National Women’s Political Caucus.

Steinem received an honorary degree from Smith in 1988 and was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, N.Y., in 1993. She has twice before delivered the commencement address at Smith, in 1971 and 1995. During the latter address, Steinem noted, “Trusting our own experience...may be the single most revolutionary thing we can do.”

Following Steinem’s address, four other accomplished women received honorary degrees: Dr. Helene Gayle, pediatrician, director of health initiatives; Ruth Holmberg, journalist, Smith Class of 1943; Nancy Hopkins, geneticist; and Lauren Lazin, award-winning filmmaker, Smith Class of 1982.

 

2006

Commencement 2006

U.S. Representative Jane Lakes Harman, a leading Congressional expert on terrorism and security issues, was the speaker at Smith College’s 128th commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 21, 2006.

First elected to Congress in 1992, Harman is currently serving her fifth term as representative of the Southern California district that is home to the country’s leading defense contractors. An attorney and an elected official, Harman is a fierce advocate of fiscal responsibility and of opportunity for working families.

Harman’s involvement in the nation’s intelligence issues began before September 11, 2001, when she served on the National Commission on Terrorism. Following the terrorist attacks, she co-wrote a House report examining intelligence failures leading to that tragedy and served on the Committee on Homeland Security. A member of the Smith Class of 1966, previously received an honorary degree from Smith.

Following Harman’s address, four accomplished women received honorary degrees: Jewel Plummer Cobb, scientist, educator and administrator; Paula Deitz, New York literary magazine editor; Ruth Ozeki Lounsbury, filmmaker and author; and Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Prize winner and activist.

Commencement History

Links to Commencement addresses are given if the speaker has granted permission for Smith College to publish the text of their speech.

2023: Reshma Saujani

2022: Beverly Daniel Tatum

2021: Joy Harjo

2020: Nancy Pelosi

2019: Ai-jen Poo LHD ’19

2018: Rita Dove DFA ’18

2017: Oprah Winfrey DFA ’17

2016: Megan Smith SCD ’16

2015: Juliet García LHD ’15

2014: Ruth J. Simmons LHD ’14

2013: Arianna Huffington LTD ’13

2012: Jane Lynch DFA ’12

2011: Sylvia A. Earle SCD ’11

2010: Rachel Maddow LLD ’10

2009: Tammy Baldwin ’84 LLD

2008: Margaret Edson ’83 LTD

2007: Gloria Steinem ’56 LTD ’88

2006: Jane Lakes Harman ’66 LLD ’94

2005: Rochelle Lazarus ’68 LHD ’05

2004: Judy Woodruff LHD ’04

2003: Madeleine Albright LLD ’03

2002: Lani Guinier LLD ’99

2001: Toni Morrison LTD ’91

2000: Judy Chicago DFA ’00

1999: Jane Alexander DFA ’99

1998: Elizabeth Dole LHD ’98

1997: Marian Wright Edelman LLD ’69

1996: Anna Quindlen LHD ’96

1995: Gloria Steinem '56 LTD ’88

1994: Jane Lakes Harman '66 LLD ’94

1993: Ellen Holtz Goodman LHD ’93

1992: Ann Willis Richards LLD ’92

1991: Robert Fulghum

1990: Helen Caldicott LLD ’90

1989: John Kenneth Galbraith LLD ’89

1988: Jill Ker Conway LTD ’88

1987: Garry B. Trudeau LHD ’87

1986: Joan Ganz Cooney

1985: Beverly Sills LHD ’85

1984: Elizabeth Hardwick LTD ’75

1983: Thomas Mendenhall LLD ’78

1982: Elizabeth Holtzman MSW ’68 LLD ’82

1981: Betty Friedan '42 LittD ’75

1980: Maya Angelou LTD ’75

1979: Adrienne Rich LTD ’79

1978: Margaret Costanza

1977: Madeleine L'Engle ’41

1976: Shana Alexander

1975: Shirley Chisholm LLD ’75

1974: Patricia Roberts Harris

1973: Pauline Kael LTD ’73

1972: Dorothy Nepper Marshall ’35 LLD ’72

1971: Gloria Steinem ’56 LTD ’88

1970: Alan Frank Guttmacher

1969: Thomas Grey Wicker

1968: Edward J. Logue

1967: Nicholas deB. Katzenbach

1966: Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

1965: Archibald MacLeish

1964: Dean Rusk

1963: Rev. Theodore Ferres

1962: Francis T. P. Plimpton

1961: James Barrett Reston

1960: Chester Bowles

1959: Sir Leslie Munro

1958: John F. Kennedy

1957: Ralph Johnson Bunche

1956: Archibald MacLeish

1955: Adlai Ewing Stevenson

1954: Alistair Cooke

1953: John Jay McCloy

1952: Sir Oliver Shewell Franks

1951: John Huston Finley, Jr.

1950: Herbert Davis

1949: Robert F. Bradford

1948: William Clyde DeVane

1947: Edward R. Murrow

1946: C.E. Kenneth Mess

1945: Leverett Saltonstall

1944: Mildred H. McAfee

1944: Max Lerner

1943: Vera Micheles Dean

1943: Herbert Davis

1942: Archibald MacLeish

1941: Roy Dickinson Welch

1940: Wystan Hugh Auden

1939: William Allan Neilson LLD ’42

1938: George Lyman Kittridge

1937: Walter Lippman

1936: William Ernest Hocking

1935: Chauncey Brewster Tinker

1934: Christian Gauss

1933: Alanson Bigelow Houghton

1932: Ralph Barton Perry

1931: Norman Thomas

1930: William Ernest Hocking

1929: Raymond Blaine Fosdick

1928: William Lyon Phelps

1927: Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick

1926: Paul Shorey

1925: Ada Louise Comstock 1897

1924: Chauncey Brewster Tinker

1923: Rt. Rev. Charles Lewes Slatte

1922: Rev. Samuel McChord Crothers

1921: Roscoe Pound

1920: Frederick James Eugene Woodbridge

1919: Virginia Crocheron Gildersleeve

1918: Bliss Perry

1917: George Edgar Vincent

1916: Charles Summer Whitman

1915: John Huston Finley

1914: Charles E. Jefferson

1913: Henry Churchill King

1912: Bliss Perry

1911: Washington Gladden

1910: Rev. Hugh Black

1909: Rev. George A. Gordon

1908: Hugh Black

1907: Samuel McChord Crothers

1906: Hon. Samuel W. McCall

1905: Felix Adler

1904: Rev. Dr. Henry van Dyke

1903: Bliss Perry

1902: Edward Everett Hale

1901: James Hulme Canfield

1900: Hamilton W. Mabie

1899: Rev. Richard Salter Storrs

1898: Rev. Kinsley Twining

1897: Rev. John Henry Barrows

1896: Rev. Washington Gladden

1895: William J. Tinker

1894: William DeWitt Hyde

1893: Hjalmar H. Boyesen

1892: John Bascom

1891: Jacob G. Schurman

1890: John Dewey

1889: Rev. Brooke Herford

1888: Col. Thomas W. Higginson

1887: Rev. Francis G. Peabody

1886: Rev. William R. Huntington

1885: Andrew P. Peabody

1884: Charles Dudley Warner

1883: Francis A. Walker

1882: George P. Fisher

1881: Rev. Alexander McKenzie

1880: Daniel C. Gilman

1879: Charles W. Elliot

Key

  • DD = Doctor of Divinity
  • DFA = Doctor of Fine Arts
  • LTD = Doctor of Letters
  • LHD = Doctor of Humane Letters
  • LLD = Doctor of Laws
  • MUS = Doctor of Music
  • SCD = Doctor of Science

Recipients

  • Berenice Abbott DFA 1973
  • Jane Addams LLD 1910
  • Stella Adler DFA 1987
  • Gwen Agna LHD 2020
  • Dorothy Ainsworth 1916 SCD 1956
  • Fay Ajzenberg-Selove SCD 1995
  • Madeleine Korbel Albright LLD 2003
  • Elizabeth Alexander DFA 2019
  • Jane Alexander DFA 1999
  • Florence Ellinwood Allen LLD 1925
  • Hope Emily Allen LHD 1946
  • Christiane Amanpour LHD 2008
  • Marian Anderson MUS 1944
  • Mary Anderson LLD 1941
  • Maya Angelou LTD 1975
  • Gladys Anslow 1914 SCD 1950
  • Hannah Arendt LLD 1966
  • Margaret Arnstein 1925 SCD 1950
  • Helen Atwater 1897 SCD 1943
  • Margaret Atwood LTD 1982
  • Tammy Baldwin '84 LLD 2009
  • Mahzarin Banaji SCD 2015
  • Ana Marie Barrenechea LTD 1967
  • Nita Barrow LLD 1991
  • Leona Baumgartner SCD 1956
  • Rose Fairbank Beals 1895 SCD 1934
  • Mary Beard LLD 1945
  • Alison Bechdel DFA 2016
  • Bodil Begtrup LLD 1949
  • M. Kathleen Bell 1944 AM 1959
  • Sally Benson SCD 2015
  • Mary Lathrap Benton LHD 1914
  • Charlotte Bequignon-Lagarde LLD 1949
  • Mildred Jeanmaire Berendsen 1949 LHD 1991
  • Mary Berry LLD 1990
  • Ela Bhatt LHD 2014
  • Deborah Bial LHD 2021
  • Princess Basma Bint Talal of Jordan LLD 2010
  • Elizabeth Bishop LTD 1968
  • Barbara Black LLD 1988
  • Albert F. Blakeslee SCD 1952
  • Elizabeth Blanchard AM 1888
  • Sarah Gibson Blanding LLD 1949
  • Frances Bradshaw Blanshard 1916 LLD 1946
  • Charles Blitzer LLD 1989
  • Mabel Thorp Boardman LLD 1916
  • Jean Sutherland Boggs LLD 1975
  • Nadia Boulanger DFA 1958
  • Helen Childs Boyden 1904 LHD 1934
  • Muriel Clara Bradbrook LLD 1965
  • Anna Branch 1897 AM 1934
  • Germaine Bree LTD 1960
  • Vivion Lenon Brewer 1921 LHD 1961
  • Hari Brissimi 1948 LLD 2005
  • Roslyn Brock LHD 2016
  • Anita Brookner LTD 1989
  • Gwendolyn Brooks LTD 1997
  • Adelaide Brown 1888 SCD 1939
  • Ann Winkelman Brown 1959 LLD 2000
  • Nina Browne 1882 LTD 1930
  • Elizabeth T. Bunce 1937 SCD 1971
  • Mary Bunting-Smith LLD 1960
  • Eleanor Margaret Peachy Burbidge SCD 1963
  • Barbara Pierce Bush 1947 LHD 1989
  • Helen Caldicott LLD 1990
  • Sarah Caldwell DFA 1974
  • Mary Calkins 1885 LLD 1910
  • Ruth Brooks Calkins 1921 AB 1939
  • Helen Maud Cam LLD 1949
  • Joanne Campbell LHD 2021
  • Eric Carle LTD 2014
  • Giuseppina Carmirelli MUS 1982
  • Rachel Carson LTD 1953
  • Eunice Hunton Carter 1921 LLD 1938
  • Gwendolen M. Carter LLD 1979
  • Eleanora Carus-Wilson LLD 1968
  • Willa Sibert Cather LHD 1933
  • Carrie Chapman Catt LLD 1925
  • Victoria Chan Chan-Palay 1965 SCD 1979
  • Gloria Chandler 1919 LHD 1968
  • Mary Ellen Chase LTD 1949
  • Judy Chicago DFA 2000
  • Julia McWilliams Child 1934 LHD 1985
  • Constance Chilton 1926 AM 1951
  • Shirley Chisholm LLD 1975
  • Carol T. Christ LHD 2018
  • Margaret Clapp LLD 1949
  • Annetta Clark 1904 AM 1929
  • Catherine Cleary LLD 1973
  • Jewel Plummer Cobb SCD 2006
  • Hazel Winans Coe 1921 LHD 1962
  • Johnnetta B. Cole LLD 2000
  • Rita Rossi Colwell SCD 2004
  • Grace Hazard Conkling 1899 AM 1930
  • Silvio Conte LLD 1991
  • Jill Ker Conway LTD 1988
  • Alison Cook Cook 1918 AM 1954
  • Constance Eberhardt Cook LLD 1971
  • Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge AM 1927
  • Grace Goodhue Coolidge LLD 1929
  • Joan Cooney LLD 1986
  • Gerty T. Cori SCD 1949
  • Katherine Cornell LHD 1937
  • Louise Frances Cowles AM 1893
  • Cheryl A. Crawford 1925 DFA 1962
  • Joanne V. Creighton LLD 1996
  • Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw LLD 2018
  • Adelaide Cromwell 1940 LTD 2015
  • Otelia Cromwell 1900 LLD 1950
  • Elizabeth C. Crosby SCD 1967
  • Frances Crowe LHD 2015
  • Rachel Eleanor Crowdy LLD 1926
  • Marie Curie SCD 1921
  • Anna Cutler 1885 LHD 1952
  • M. Elizabeth Czarnomska AM 1904
  • Marie-Therese d'Alverny LTD 1977
  • Edwidge Danticat LTD 2012
  • Herbert John Davis LLD 1949
  • Natalie Zemon Davis 1949 LHD 1977
  • Katrina de Hirsch SCD 1984
  • Fe del Mundo SCD 1970
  • Maria de Maeztu LLD 1919
  • Maria-Rosa Lida de Malkiel LTD 1955
  • Agnes George De Mille LHD 1954
  • Charlotte DeForest 1901 LHD 1921
  • Vera Micheles Dean LLD 1944
  • Paula Deitz 1959 LHD 2006
  • Sirarpie Der Nersessian LHD 1957
  • Ninette de Valois DFA 1957
  • Colleen Dewhurst DFA 1989
  • Marion Dodd 1906 AM 1936
  • Elizabeth Dole LHD 1998
  • Marion Graffin Donhoff LHD 1962
  • Rhoda Mary Dorsey 1949 LLD 1979
  • Rita Dove DFA 2018
  • Ruth Draper LHD 1947
  • Mildred Dresselhaus SCD 1980
  • Elizabeth Drew LTD 1962
  • Sophie Drinker MUS 1949
  • Eleanor Shipley Duckett LHD 1949
  • Esther Cloudman Dunn LTD 1956
  • Mary Maples Dunn LTD 1998
  • Sylvia A. Earle SCD 2011
  • Marian Wright Edelman LLD 1969
  • Margaret Edson 1983 LTD 2008
  • Amelia Blanchard Edwards LLD 1886
  • Martha M. Eliot SCD 1949
  • Katharine Asher Engel 1920 AM 1950
  • Katherine Woodruff Fanning 1949 LTD 1988
  • Beatrix Cadwalader Jone Farrand LHD 1936
  • Drew Gilpin Faust LHD 2019
  • Marion Spencer Fay SCD 1964
  • Sidney Bradshaw Fay LHD 1929
  • Honor Bridget Fell SCD 1962
  • Yen-Tsai Feng LHD 1982
  • Mercedes Fermin-Gomez LLD 1970
  • Zelda Fichandler DFA 1977
  • Marian Ropes Fielding 1924 SCD 1965
  • Mary Peters Fieser SCD 1969
  • Christiana Figueres LLD 2020
  • Vigdis Finnbogadottir LLD 1988
  • Dorothy Canfield Fisher LHD 1954
  • Minnie Maddern Fiske AM 1926
  • Janet Flanner LLD 1958
  • Edna Foley 1901 SCD 1928
  • Florence Whitney Fosdick 1900 LHD 1950
  • Julie Foudy LLD 2005
  • Renee C. Fox 1949 LHD 1975
  • Helen Frankenthaler DFA 1973
  • Claire M. Fraser-Liggett SCD 2009
  • Yvonne Freccero LHD 2019
  • Betty Goldstein Friedan 1942 LHD 1975
  • Ellen Futter LLD 1995
  • John Kenneth Galbraith LLD 1989
  • Cecelia Payne Gaposchkin SCD 1951
  • Juliet V. García LHD 2015
  • Harry Norman Gardiner LHD 1924
  • Helene D. Gayle SCD 2007
  • Carel Bailey Germain LHD 1993
  • Anne Angen Gershon 1960 SCD 1993
  • Eleanor Jack Gibson 1931 SCD 1972
  • Lillian Moller Gilbreth SCD 1945
  • Virginia Crocheron Gildersleeve LHD 1936
  • Carol Gilligan LTD 1999
  • Florence Gilman SCD 1923
  • Ruth Bader Ginsburg LLD 1994
  • Nikki Giovanni LTD 1975
  • Catherine Crozier Gleason MUS 1965
  • Ellen Gleditsch SCD 1914
  • Thelma Golden 1987 DFA 2004
  • Winifred Goldring SCD 1957
  • Ellen Goodman LHD 1993
  • Nadine Gordimer LTD 1985
  • Beate Sirota Gordon LLD 2008
  • Katharine Graham LLD 1975
  • Martha Graham DFA 1969
  • Evelyn Boyd Granville 1945 SCD 1989
  • Ella Tambussi Grasso LLD 1976
  • Hanna Gray LLD 1986
  • Constance McLaughlin Green 1919 LTD 1963
  • Edith Green LLD 1966
  • Meg E. Greenfield 1952 LHD 1978
  • Jocelyn Crane Griffin 1930 MSS 1947
  • Martha Wright Griffiths LLD 1976
  • Tatyana Grosman DFA 1973
  • Lani Guinier LLD 1999
  • Ruchira Gupta LHD 2016
  • Julia Gulliver 1879 LLD 1910
  • Ute Hagen DFA 1978
  • Helen Hall LHD 1969
  • Mira Hall 1883 LHD 1933
  • Alice Hamilton SCD 1927
  • Gordon Hamilton LHD 1953
  • Nancy Hanks LHD 1978
  • Elizabeth Hardwick LTD 1975
  • Joy Harjo DFA 2021
  • Jane Lakes Harman 1966 LLD 1994
  • Julie Harris AM 1956
  • Patricia Harris LLD 1974
  • Rosemary Harris DFA 1968
  • Anna Harrison SCD 1975
  • Ann Hartman 1954 LLD 1995
  • Emelyn Battersby Hartridge LHD 1928
  • Constance R. Harvey 1927 LLD 1952
  • Harriet Boyd Hawes 1892 LHD 1910
  • Elizabeth D. Hay 1948 SCD 1973
  • Helen Hayes LHD 1940
  • Charles Downer Hazen LLD 1937
  • Dorothy Height LHD 1975
  • Carolyn G. Heilbrun LTD 1989
  • Lillian Hellman LTD 1974
  • Julia Henderson LLD 1967
  • Helen Margaret Hewitt LTD 1968
  • Clare Higgins LLD 2017
  • Anita F. Hill LLD 2002
  • Edith N. Hill 1903 AM 1928
  • Justina Hill 1916 SCD 1941
  • Gertrude Himmelfarb LTD 1977
  • Marion Hines 1913 SCD 1943
  • Oveta Culp Hobby LLD 1954
  • Ellen Dorrit Hoffleit SCD 1984
  • Malvina Hoffman LHD 1951
  • Louise Adams Holland LTD 1965
  • Florence Hollis 1931 LHD 1967
  • Ruth Sulzberger Holmberg 1943 LHD 2007
  • Rebecca Wilder Holmes MUS 1936
  • Vera Brown Holmes LTD 1960
  • Jenny Holzer DFA 2009
  • Elizabeth Holtzman LLD 1982
  • Louise Homer AM 1931
  • Donald C. Hood SCD 2000
  • Nancy Hopkins SCD 2007
  • Grace Hopper LLD 1984
  • Karen Horn LLD 1992
  • B. Elizabeth Horner SCD 2006
  • Matina Horner LLD 1979
  • Dorothy Millicent Horstmann SCD 1961
  • Mildred Helen McAfee Horton LLD 1944
  • Julia Ward Howe LLD 1910
  • Arianna Huffington LTD 2013
  • Shirley Hufstedler LLD 1982
  • Eleanor Humphreys 1917 SCD 1967
  • Harriet Hunt 1913 AM 1949
  • Swanee Hunt LHD 2014
  • Charlayne Hunter-Gault LHD 2009
  • Ada Louise Huxtable LHD 1968
  • Gwen Ifill LHD 2005
  • Barbel Inhelder SCD 1975
  • Elizabeth Skinner Jackson 1910 AM 1950
  • Shirley Ann Jackson SCD 2002
  • Tano Jodai LLD 1962
  • Laura Johnson LLD 1976
  • Sir Robert Jones SCD 1921
  • Mary Augusta Jordan LHD 1910
  • Sara Murray Jordan SCD 1935
  • Mother Mary Rogers Joseph 1905 LHD 1950
  • Pauline Kael LTD 1973
  • Amanda Bryan Kane 1927 LHD 1955
  • Marie F. Kapp AM 1904
  • Nancy Kassebaum LLD 1990
  • Rajkumari Amrit Kaur LLD 1956
  • Evelyn Fox Keller SCD 2014
  • Florence M. Kelley 1934 LLD 1960
  • Elizabeth Kennan LLD 1984
  • Dorothy Kenyon 1908 LLD 1948
  • Nannerl Keohane LLD 1987
  • Everett Kimball LLD 1947
  • Mary-Claire King SCD 1994
  • Reatha Clark King LLD 1993
  • Mary Kirkbride SCD 1932
  • Helen Paull Kirkpatrick 1931 MA 1948
  • Charlotte Kohler LTD 1971
  • Wendy Kopp LLD 2001
  • Stella Kramrisch LHD 1982
  • Otto F. Kraushaar LLD 1948
  • Mathilde Krim SCD 1996
  • Afroditi K. Krokodilou AM 1948
  • Michelle Kwan LHD 2017
  • Madeleine L'Engle 41 LTD 1986
  • Florence Corliss Lamont 1893 LLD 1952
  • Julie Clifford Lathrop LLD 1928
  • Lauren Beth Lazin 1982 DFA 2007
  • Rochelle Lazarus 1968 LHD 2005
  • Eva Le Galliene LHD 1930
  • P. Leelavathy 1970 LLD 1997
  • Dorothy F. Leet LTD 1954
  • Elma Lewis DFA 1976
  • Maya Lin DFA 1993
  • Anne Morrow Lindbergh 1928 AM 1935 LTD 1970
  • Mary Pillsbury Lord 1927 LLD 1953
  • Ruth Ozeki Lounsbury 1980 LHD 2006
  • Jane Lynch DFA 2012
  • Isabel Gamble MacCaffrey LHD 1978
  • Florence I. Macdonald 1932 AM 1976
  • Jean Kenyon Mackenzie AM 1927
  • Rachel Maddow LLD 2010
  • Margaret E. Mahoney LLD 1985
  • Nancy Weiss Malkiel 1965 LTD 1997
  • Wilma Pearl Mankiller LLD 1998
  • Henrietta Mann LHD 2017
  • Margaret Mitchell Marsh 1922 AM 1939
  • Dorothy Nepper Marshall '35 LLD 1972
  • Margaret H. Marshall LLD 2011
  • Anne Helen Martikainen SCD 1969
  • Anne C. Martindell '02 AC LLD 2002
  • Maria Goeppert Mayer SCD 1961
  • Veronica Maz LHD 1980
  • Helen McAfee 1903 LHD 1935
  • Mildred Helen McAfee LLD 1944
  • Mary McBee 1906 LHD 1936
  • Katherine McBride LLD 1947
  • Mary McCarthy LHD 1988
  • Kenneth McCartney MSW 1973
  • Barbara McClintock SCD 1958
  • Ellen Zinsser McCloy 1918 LLD 1953
  • Isabel Platt McClumpha 1917 AM 1960
  • Victoria Murden McClure 1985 LHD 2010
  • Anne O'Hare McCormick LLD 1939
  • Henry Noble McCracken LLD 1915
  • Audra McDonald DFA 2021
  • Sallie McFague 1955 LTD 1977
  • Phyllis McGinley LTD 1964
  • Monica McGoldrick 1969 LHD 1991
  • Millicent Carey McIntosh LLD 1940
  • William McKinley LLD 1899
  • Mary McLeod LHD 1994
  • Mary McMillan 1916 AM 1941
  • Mary P. McPherson 1957 LLD 1981
  • Elizabeth Storrs Mead LHD 1900
  • Golda Meir LLD 1960
  • Lise Meitner SCD 1946
  • Gwendolyn Grant Mellon 1934 LHD 1959
  • Dorothy Reed Mendenhall 1895 SCD 1930
  • Thomas Corwin Mendenhall LLD 1978
  • Soia Mentschikoff LLD 1967
  • Hanan Mikhail-Ashrawi LHD 1999
  • Helen Kirkpatrick Milbank 1931 AM 1948
  • Dorothy Canning Miller 25 LTD 1959
  • Josephine Milligan 1882 SCD 1930
  • Jessica Mitford LTD 1974
  • Agnes Mongan 1929 LHD 1941
  • Elizabeth Mongan LHD 1985
  • Marianne Moore LHD 1955
  • Cathleen Morawetz SCD 1982
  • Cristina Jiménez Moreta LLD 2020
  • Edmund S. Morgan LLD 1996
  • Erica Morini MUS 1955
  • Grace McCann Morley LHD 1957
  • Ann Axtell Morris 1922 AM 1935
  • Toni Morrison LTD 1991
  • Elizabeth Cutter Morrow 1896 LHD 1937
  • Frances Hulett Morton 32 LLD 1957
  • Cynthia Moss 1962 SCD2002
  • Constance Baker Motely LHD 1965
  • Thea Musgrave MUS 1979
  • Ng'endo Mwangi 1961 SCD 1987
  • Martha Myers DFA 2010
  • Diana S. Natalicio LLD 2001
  • Elisabeth Muser Neilson LHD 1939
  • Nellie Neilson LHD 1938
  • William Allan Neilson LLD 1942
  • Marilyn Carlson Nelson 1961 LHD 2015
  • Zara Nelsova MUS 1992
  • Wilhelmina of The Netherlands LLD 1949
  • Louise Nevelson DFA 1973
  • Mabel Newcomber LLD 1945
  • Marjorie Hope Nicolson LLD 1941
  • Jessye Norman MUS 1998
  • Eleanor Norton LLD 1983
  • Ada Comstock Notestein 1897 LHD 1922
  • Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy 2002 DFA 2018
  • Cornelia Hahn Oberlander 1944 LHD 2003
  • Flannery O'Connor LTD 1963
  • Katherine Brownell Oettinger 1925 LLD 1957
  • Sadako Ogata LLD 1980
  • Mildred Scott Olmsted 1912 LHD 1974
  • Marchesa Iris Origo LTD 1964
  • Erin O’Shea ’88 SCD 2017
  • Helenka Pantaleoni LTD 1975
  • Marion Edwards Park LLD 1925
  • Mary Prescott Parsons 1908 LHD 1958
  • Martha Lucas Pate LHD 1971
  • Mary Mills Patrick LLD 1914
  • Ludella L. Peck AM 1904
  • Nancy Pelosi LLD 2021
  • Ellen Fitz Pendleton LLD 1925
  • Mary Locke Petermann SCD 1966
  • Esther Eggersten Peterson LLD 1963
  • Marjorie Phillips DFA 1973
  • Harvey Picker 1942 LLD 1997
  • Helen Sinclair Pittman 1921 SCD 1966
  • Katha Pollitt LHD 2002
  • Ai-jen Poo LHD 2019
  • Edith Porada LTD 1967
  • Katherine Anne Porter LLD 1958
  • Sylvia Porter LLD 1976
  • Louise Pound LHD 1928
  • Anne Prache LHD 1992
  • Harriet Barnes Pratt 1900 LHD 1940
  • Ruth R. Puffer 1929 SCD 1970
  • Robert L. Pura LHD 2018
  • Bertha Haven Putnam LLD 1945
  • Anna Quindlen LHD 1996
  • Lea Rabin LHD 1998
  • Mamphela Aletta Ramphele LHD 2000
  • Judith Raskin Raskin 1949 AM 1963
  • Dixy Lee Ray SCD 1975
  • Mary Raymond 1891 LHD 1934
  • The Dowager Marchioness of Reading LLD 1956
  • C. Eric Reeves LLD 2008
  • Helen Rogers Reid LLD 1948
  • Harriet Seelye Rhees 1888 AM 1930
  • Adrienne Rich LTD 1979
  • Ann Richards LLD 1992
  • Ellen Henrietta Richards SCD 1910
  • Mary Ellen Richmond AM 1921
  • Gisela Maria Augusta Richter LHD 1935
  • Maria Elena Rincon LHD 1949
  • Caroline Robbins LLD 1971
  • Julia Robinson SCD 1979
  • Mary Robinson 1890 AM 1925
  • Josephine Roche LLD 1932
  • Barbara Honeyman Roll 1932 LHD 1989
  • Eleanor Roosevelt LLD 1949
  • Cicely Kershaw Rosenberry 1930 AM 1962
  • Elisabeth Kubler Ross SCD 1975
  • Loretta June Ross LHD 2013
  • Vera C. Rubin SCD 2001
  • Florence Sabin 1893 SCD 1910
  • Jane Kelly Sabine 1888 SCD 1938
  • Irma Salas LHD 1964
  • Margaret Sanger LLD 1949
  • Sophie Satin SCD 1944
  • Laura Lord Scales 1901 LHD 1931
  • Josephine Schain LLD 1937
  • Berta Scharrer SCD 1980
  • Albert Schinz LHD 1928
  • Felice Nierenberg Schwartz 1946 LHD 1981
  • Vida Scudder 1884 LHD 1922
  • Emma Sebring 1889 LHD 1925
  • Laurenus Clark Seelye LLD 1913
  • Donna E. Shalala LLD 2001
  • Peggy M. Shepard SCD 2010
  • Mary Kimberly Shirk 1904 LTD 1950
  • Muriel Siebert LLD 2012
  • Beverly Sills LHD 1985
  • Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch LLD 1951
  • Mary Simmonds 1971 SCD 2005
  • Adele Simmons LLD 1989
  • Ruth J. Simmons LHD 2014
  • Ase Gruda Skard LHD 1983
  • Anna Deavere Smith DFA 2003
  • Margaret Chase Smith LLD 1949
  • Megan Smith SCD 2016
  • Olive Watkins Smith SCD 1951
  • Florence H. Snow 1904 AM 1925
  • Susan Solomon SCD 2012
  • Brinda Somaya DFA 2012
  • Theodate H. Soule 1917 LHD 1963
  • Emma Bailey Speer AM 1925
  • Lois Harkrider Stair 1944 LHD 1981
  • Gloria Steinem 1956 LTD 1988
  • Rise Stevens DFA 1970
  • Eleanor Bumstead Stevenson 1923 AM 1946
  • George Stanley Stevenson LLD 1949
  • Helen Osborne Storrow AM 1934
  • Dorothy C. Stratton LLD 1952
  • Ethel Grey Stringfellow LHD 1960
  • Lucy Stuart Sutherland LLD 1964
  • Helen Suzman LLD 1977
  • Mary Elizabeth Switzer LLD 1967
  • Irene Barnes Taeuber LLD 1960
  • Maria Tallchief DFA 1981
  • James M. Taylor LLD 1913
  • Lily Rose Taylor LTD 1961
  • Sallie McFague TeSelle LTD 1977
  • Clara Murphy Tead 1913 LLD 1950
  • Romila Thapar LTD 1999
  • Caroline Bedell Thomas 1925 SCD 1955
  • Helen Elizabeth Thompson LHD 1929
  • Margaret Farrand Thorp 1914 LTD 1957
  • Shiranee Tilakawardane LLD 2011
  • Anna Maria Petrioli Tofani LLD 1990
  • Dominique Toran-Allerand 1955 SCD 1998
  • Joan P. Tower DFA 2013
  • Gertrude Townsend AM 1947
  • Garry B. Trudeau LHD 1987
  • Dwight William Tryon AM 1923
  • Nicola Sauvage Tsongas ’68 LLD 2019
  • Barbara Tuchman LTD 1974
  • Henry Mather Tyler LHD 1926
  • Laura D'Andrea Tyson 1969 LLD 1994
  • Liv Ullmann DFA 1980
  • Laurel Ulrich LTD 1995
  • Eliza Parker Underhill AM 1892
  • Sigrid Undset LTD 1943
  • Richard P. Unsworth LLD 1992
  • Lida Josephine Usilton SCD 1953
  • Irita Van Doren LTD 1955
  • Miriam Van Waters LLD 1932
  • Helen Vendler LTD 1980
  • Emily Townsend Vermeule LTD 1972
  • Melanne Verveer LLD 2013
  • Berthe Vincens AM 1910
  • Deborah Voigt MUS 2015
  • Lillian D. Wald LLD 1949
  • Sima Wali LHD 2002
  • Julia Walsh LHD 1983
  • Abby Wambach LHD 2016
  • Pearl Anderson Wanamaker LHD 1956
  • Barbara Ward LLD 1949
  • Bennetta Bullock Washington LLD 1970
  • Wendy Wasserstein DFA 1996
  • Hyla S. Watters 1915 SCD 1950
  • Margaret Webster LHD 1945
  • Cynthia Clark Wedel LHD 1972
  • Cicely V. Wedgewood LLD 1962
  • Carrie Mae Weems DFA 2011
  • Marguerite Wells 1895 LLD 1935
  • Eudora Welty LTD 1956
  • Cornel West LHD 2001
  • Jaqueline Grennen Wexler LLD 1975
  • Helen Constance White LTD 1947
  • Rev. Gloria White-Hammond DD 2020
  • Anna Young Whiting 1916 SCD 1964
  • Suvia Paton Whittemore 1919 LHD 1977
  • Charlotte Elizabeth Whitton LLD 1955
  • Sheila Widnall SCD 1990
  • Richard Wilbur LTD 1996
  • Elizabeth Mary Wilkinson LLD 1966
  • Charlotte Willard 1883 LHD 1922
  • Cicely Delphine Williams SCD 1976
  • Jody Williams LLD 2006
  • Patricia J. Williams LLD 2004
  • Margaret Wilson LLD 1978
  • Mary Wilson 1891 LHD 1931
  • Mira B. Wilson 1914 LLD 1938
  • Stephanie Wilson SCD 2016
  • Oprah Winfrey DFA 2017
  • Dorothy Wolff 1918 SCD 1963
  • Helen Wolff LHD 1978
  • Edith Elmer Wood 1890 LLD 1940
  • Judy Woodruff LHD 2004
  • Mary Emma Woolley LLD 1910
  • Jane Worcester 1931 SCD 1968
  • Mary Clabaugh Wright LLD 1968
  • Chien Shiung Wu SCD 1959
  • Yi-Fang Wu LLD 1943
  • Xie Hsieh Xide 1949 SCD 1981
  • Caroline Ardelia Yale LHD 1910
  • Rosalyn Yalow SCD 1994
  • Hanya Yanagihara ’95 DFA 2020
  • Jane Yolen 1960 LTD 2003
  • Marguerite Yourcenar LTD 1961
  • Elizabeth Rosenberg Zetzel 1928 SCD 1968