Freeman Hrabowski, Educator and Civil Rights Champion, to Address Rutgers University Commencement
Tariq Trotter named Rutgers-Newark commencement speaker and Brian Bridges to address Rutgers-Camden graduates
Freeman Hrabowski III, a renowned educator, mathematician and president emeritus of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will be awarded an honorary doctor of letters degree when he addresses graduates at the 258th anniversary commencement of Rutgers University-New Brunswick and Rutgers Health on May 12, 2024, the Rutgers Board of Governors approved today.
The board also approved an honorary doctor of letters degree for Rutgers alumnus Jelani Cobb, dean of the Columbia Journalism School and an award-winning author; an honorary doctor of laws degree for William Best, chair of the Rutgers Board of Governors and senior vice president at PNC Bank; and an honorary doctor of science degree to Admiral Rachel L. Levine, the 17th assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Rutgers University Student Assembly Vice President Aarushi Fernandez will deliver remarks during the 10 a.m. ceremony at SHI Stadium in Piscataway.
“I am thrilled to welcome our esteemed commencement speakers and honorary degree recipients to celebrate our remarkable 2024 graduating class,” said President Jonathan Holloway. “Our students have demonstrated unwavering fortitude, adaptability and commitment on their extraordinary journey to academic success. We are excited to be putting the final touches on uplifting commencement festivities that will celebrate their achievements in style.”
Tariq Trotter, also known as Black Thought, a Philadelphia-raised rapper, singer, actor and cofounder of the Grammy Award-winning hip-hop group The Roots, will deliver remarks at Rutgers University-Newark’s commencement ceremony on Wednesday, May 15, 2024, at the Prudential Center in Newark. The board also confirmed an honorary doctor of fine arts degree for Trotter.
The Rutgers University-Camden and Graduate School commencement will be Tuesday, May 14, 2024, at the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion. New Jersey Secretary of Higher Education Brian Bridges will deliver the keynote address at the ceremony.
Freeman Hrabowski
Hrabowski, a highly regarded educator and champion for civil rights, served as president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County from 1992 to 2022, where he is credited with elevating the institution’s reputation for innovation and expanding student diversity. He has been hailed as one of America’s Best Leaders by U.S. News & World Report, one of America’s 10 Best College Presidents and one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World, both by Time.
Born in 1950 in Birmingham, Alabama, Hrabowski’s experience as a civil rights advocate dates back to his childhood when he participated in the Children's Crusade in 1963 at age 12. During an event that altered the course of history, he was one of the many children swept up in a mass arrest at the march. The violent treatment of children during a peaceful protest triggered outrage worldwide.
The son of two educators, Hrabowski graduated from Hampton Institute with highest honors in mathematics and received his master’s degree in mathematics and doctoral degree in higher education administration and statistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A lifelong scholar, his research focuses on science and math education, with a special emphasis on minority participation and performance in STEM education. He has coauthored five books, chaired the National Academies’ committee that produced the 2011 report “Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation: America’s Science and Technology Talent at the Crossroads,” and was appointed in 2012 by President Barack Obama to chair the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans.
In 2022, Hrabowski was named the inaugural Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Lecture Speaker by Harvard and the inaugural ACE Centennial Fellow, and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute also launched a $1.5 billion Freeman Hrabowski Scholars Program to help build a scientific workforce that more fully reflects our increasingly diverse country. In April 2023, the National Academy of Sciences awarded Hrabowski the Public Welfare Medal, the academy’s most prestigious recognition, and inducted him as a member for his extraordinary use of science for the public good.
He serves as a consultant to the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the National Academies and to universities and school systems nationally. He has also served on the boards of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, France-Merrick Foundation, T. Rowe Price Group, McCormick & Company and the Baltimore Equitable Society.
Jelani Cobb to Receive an Honorary Doctor of Letters Degree
Jelani Cobb is an award-winning writer, commentator, educator and Rutgers alumnus whose journalism examines crucial social and cultural concerns.
In 2016, he joined the faculty of Columbia Journalism School as the founding director of the Lipman Center for Journalism and Civil and Human Rights before becoming the school’s Henry R. Luce Professor of Journalism and its 14th dean. He has dedicated his deanship to paving pathways to greater access to a journalism education, including Columbia Journalism School’s Loan Repayment Assistance Program – the first of its kind for the journalism industry – as well as landmark events.
A staff writer at The New Yorker since 2015, Cobb has explored the intersection of race and policing, covered the aftermath of mass shootings and chronicled national politics. He is the editor or coeditor of several volumes including The Matter of Black Lives: Writing from The New Yorker and The Essential Kerner Commission Report.
Cobb has also coproduced and written several documentaries including Lincoln’s Dilemma, The Riot Report, and Policing the Police and authored books including The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress and To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic.
Cobb received a Peabody Award for his 2020 PBS Frontline film Whose Vote Counts, which took a hard look at issues of voter access ahead of the presidential election, and he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Commentary in 2018. He has also been a political analyst for MSNBC since 2019 and a featured commentator on National Public Radio, CNN, Al-Jazeera, CBS News and other national broadcast outlets.
Literacy and education were valued highly in Cobb’s childhood household. Both of his parents had migrated from the South, where they did not have access to high-quality schools. He recounted being taught to write at an early age by his father, Willie Lee Cobb, and has been writing ever since.
He was educated at Jamaica High School in Queens, N.Y.; Howard University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in English; and Rutgers University, where he completed his master’s degree. and doctorate in American history in 2003. His research concentrates on the linkages and relationship between the Cold War and the Civil Rights Movement. He currently serves on the board of directors of the American Journalism Project, New York Public Library and Gordon Parks Foundation. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2023.
William Best to Receive an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree
Rutgers Board of Governors Chair William Best is senior vice president, Northeast market manager at PNC. During his tenure with PNC, Best has championed the bank’s commitment to low- to moderate-income populations, including community and economic development corporations, small businesses, and women- and minority-owned enterprises in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and Boston.
Previously, as chair of the International Economic Development Council, Best ensured organizational effectiveness by codifying ethics policies, establishing partnerships, and planning for recession recovery. Best returned to PNC after his governor-appointed role as the first executive director of the New Jersey Redevelopment Authority, a state-financing agency, where he served six years under three administrations. As CEO, Best established public-private partnerships, infrastructure capitalization, and organizational talent to transform the Redevelopment Authority from a one-year appropriation to a sustainable agency investing $1.3 billion of financial and technical resources into urban neighborhood redevelopment projects.
As vice chair of Rutgers Board of Governors, Best helped lead the search committee selecting the 21st university president, Jonathan Holloway. He was also unanimously elected to serve two terms as chair of Rutgers Board of Trustees, commissioning a Student Aid Task Force resulting in a sustainable fund supporting low-income student educational opportunities and his election to Trustee Emeritus.
Best earned his bachelor of science degree in business administration from North Carolina Central University and completed Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government’s Senior Executive Leadership Program.
Rachel L. Levine to Receive an Honorary Doctor of Science Degree
Admiral Rachel L. Levine strives every day to improve the health and well-being of all Americans as the 17th assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
After being nominated by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2021, Levine got to work helping our nation overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and building a stronger foundation for a healthier future. She also leads the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, one of the eight uniformed services.
After graduating from Harvard College and Tulane University School of Medicine, Levine completed her training in pediatrics and adolescent medicine at the Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York City. As a physician, she focused on the intersection between mental and physical health, treating children, adolescents, and young adults. Levine was a professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the Penn State College of Medicine. Her previous posts included vice chair for clinical affairs for the Department of Pediatrics and chief of the Division of Adolescent Medicine and Eating Disorders at the Penn State Hershey Medical Center.
In 2015, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf nominated Levine to be Pennsylvania’s physician general and she was unanimously confirmed by Pennsylvania’s State Senate. In March 2018, Levine was named Pennsylvania’s secretary of health. During her time in state government, Levine worked to address Pennsylvania’s opioid crisis, focus attention on maternal health, and improve immunization rates among children. Her decision to issue a standing order for the anti-overdose drug Naloxone saved thousands of lives by allowing law enforcement to carry the drug and Pennsylvanians to purchase it without a prescription from their doctor.
Levine is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine, and the Academy for Eating Disorders. She was also president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. In addition to her recent posts in medicine and government, Levine is an accomplished speaker and author of numerous publications on the opioid crisis, adolescent medicine, eating disorders, and LGBTQ medicine.
Rutgers-Newark Names Commencement Speaker
Tariq Trotter – also known as Black Thought – founder of The Roots, who has won acclaim as a musician, author, actor and producer, will be the keynote speaker at Rutgers University-Newark’s commencement ceremony, where he will also receive an honorary doctor of fine arts degree.
Trotter, 51, was hailed by The New York Times as “hip-hop’s Dostoyevsky” who writes with “a refined literary fire from the soulful furnace of pain and suffering.’’ He has won three Grammy Awards and three NAACP Image Awards in addition to garnering awards and critical praise as an actor, writer and film producer.
Raised in Philadelphia and currently residing in Maplewood, N.J., Trotter cofounded The Roots in 1993 with drummer Questlove. They were one of the first successful rap groups to feature live instrumentation, breaking ground in a medium that has relied on samples and synthesized beats. The group has released 11 albums, a body of work that is among the most revered of the rap genre. For the past decade, The Roots have been the house band on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon.
In addition to his work in the recording industry, Trotter became the composer, lyricist and lead actor of the 2022 Off-Broadway production “Black No More,” based on Harlem Renaissance writer George Schuyler’s novel. As an actor, he appeared in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s feature directorial debut, “Tick, Tick... Boom!” and performed in the Apollo Theater’s stage adaptation of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “Between the World and Me.”
Rutgers-Camden Names Commencement Speaker
Rutgers University-Camden will hold the Rutgers University-Camden and Graduate School commencement on Tuesday, May 14, 2024, at the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion. New Jersey Secretary of Higher Education Brian Bridges will deliver the keynote address at the ceremony, where he will also receive an honorary doctor of letters degree.
In his role, Bridges is responsible for developing policy and coordinating higher education activities for the state. He also coordinates initiatives to improve college affordability in New Jersey through the State Plan for Higher Education.
Throughout his career, Bridges has provided expert perspective and analysis on numerous panels and advisory committees on issues related to student engagement, HBCUs, learning environments at minority-serving institutions and success factors for African American college students at predominantly white institutions.
Rutgers University-Camden will also hold commencement ceremonies Wednesday, May 15, at the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion for the School of Business-Camden, where Brian Schaller, president of Wawa, Inc., will deliver a keynote address; and the School of Nursing-Camden, where Helene Burns, chief nurse executive at AtlantiCare, will speak to graduates.
Associate Justice Fabiana Pierre-Louis of the New Jersey Supreme Court will speak to Camden graduates of Rutgers Law School during their commencement ceremony, Thursday, May 16.
