Saint Mary’s College president Katie Conboy announced the class of 2025 commencement speaker and this year’s honorary degree recipients Thursday afternoon via email.
Former president of Ireland Mary McAleese will deliver the commencement address during the College’s 178th graduation ceremony on May 17 on Le Mans Green. This will be her second visit to Saint Mary’s, after speaking at an event sponsored by the Center for Women’s Intercultural Leadership in 2015.
“We are honored to welcome Dr. Mary McAleese, former president of Ireland, back to Saint Mary’s, 10 years after her first visit,” Conboy said. “She has continued to build bridges as an advocate for justice, particularly around issues important to women. And her emphasis on peace-building is as important now as it ever was.”
Saint Mary’s College will also award McAleese with an honorary doctorate degree in law.
McAleese, who served as Ireland’s eighth president from 1997 to 2011, was the nation’s first president to come from Northern Ireland and worked towards peace-building and reconciliation with her homeland during her tenure. She is currently a member of the Council of Women World Leaders, an international organization of present and former women prime ministers and presidents. She also is the chairperson of the European Union High Level Group on the modernisation of higher education and patron of the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology in Cambridge, England.
After serving as president of Ireland, McAleese pursued a doctorate degree in canon law from Gregorian University Rome, adding to her master’s degree in canon law from National University of Ireland. McAleese is also the recipient of numerous awards including the Tipperary Peace Prize.
Sister Helen Prejean will receive a doctorate degree of humane letters for her work against the death penalty, including her book “Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate.”
A comic book adaptation of the book will be published later in the year and is based on her role as a spiritual advisor to two convicts on death row. The book sparked a nationwide discussion on abolishing the death penalty and was given its own movie in 1995 that won an Academy Award. It was later rewritten into an opera that premiered in 2000 and a play in 2002.
As a recipient of various honorary degrees and a nominee of the Nobel Peace Prize, Prejean pushed the Catholic Church toward opposing executions. Through her meeting with Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis, she contributed to the Church’s revision of the Catechism in 2018 on the death penalty. Now, she continues this work by consoling inmates on death row, speaking about the death penalty and working with families of murder victims.
Sylvia Acevedo will receive an honorary doctorate degree in science. She has piloted a wide range of careers, starting as a rocket scientist at NASA; a tech executive at IBM, Apple, and Dell; then as a White House Commissioner for early childhood education and leadership. Acevedo also served as the chief executive officer of Girl Scouts from 2016 to 2020, where she accomplished the “largest programmatic expansion” for the nonprofit organization and oversaw over one million STEM badge achievements awarded to Girl Scout members.
Acevedo earned her bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from New Mexico State University and was one of the first Hispanics to earn a master’s degree from Stanford University. She has also been listed on Bloomberg’s Top 100 Influential Latinos and Forbes’ Top 50 Women in Tech.
