As the Class of 2024 receives their undergraduate degrees and prepares to depart campus to be conduits of change in the world this May, they will join Gettysburg College in recognizing the outstanding contributions to society being made by our alumni and friends with the awarding of Honorary Degrees and Distinguished Alumni Awards, marking two of the highest individual honors given out by the institution.
Leading lives of consequence and meaning in their respective communities, two remarkable individuals will receive Honorary Degrees: Debra Martin Chase, this year’s keynote speaker and an award-winning producer, and Andrew Delbanco, the Alexander Hamilton Professor of American Studies at Columbia University and president of the Teagle Foundation.
Chase and Delbanco will be recognized as part of the main Commencement Ceremony on May 18. Chase will receive an Honorary Doctorate of Letters, while Delbanco will be the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters. Honorary degrees are typically awarded at Commencement to persons whose contributions are outstanding in specific fields such as The Arts, Public Life and Government, The Humanities and Social Sciences, and The Natural and Applied Sciences.
Additionally, on May 17 at Spring Honors Day inside Christ Chapel, four Gettysburgians will receive Distinguished Alumni Awards for their professional and/or civic accomplishments after graduating from Gettysburg: military veteran and doctor J. Thomas Hardy ’66, fashion and television personality Carson Kressley ’91, nonprofit leader Cheryl Ennis Self ’73, and longtime psychology professor William Swann ’74.
Read more about this year’s recipients below.
Honorary Degree Recipients
Debra Martin Chase
Tony Award-winning producer Debra Martin Chase is an entertainment industry trailblazer. She was the first Black woman to have a producing deal at a major movie studio and her films have grossed over a half billion dollars. Her company, Martin Chase Productions, currently has an overall deal with Universal Television, a division of the NBCUniversal Television Group, and previously had one with The Walt Disney Company from 2001 to 2016. Prior to that, Chase ran Whitney Houston’s BrownHouse Productions from 1995 to 2000 and Denzel Washington’s Mundy Lane Entertainment from 1992 to 1995.
Chase is the executive producer of “The Equalizer” on CBS, and her numerous film credits include “The Princess Diaries,” “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” and “Harriet.” She won two Tony Awards for “A Strange Loop” and “Topdog/Underdog.” She is a strong believer in helping the next generation of students find opportunities for success and be conduits of change.
“As a graduate and former trustee of Mount Holyoke College, we share a firm belief in the tremendous value of a liberal arts education as A Consequential Education, which provides the essential tools for living a consequential life,” said Chase when she was announced as this year’s Commencement speaker in early March.
Andrew Delbanco
Dr. Andrew Delbanco is an accomplished educator and author, as well as a leading proponent of the value of a liberal arts education. In 2012, he was awarded a National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama, and in 2021 and 2022, he served as president of the Society of American Historians. In 2022, he delivered the Jefferson Lecture, the highest honor the federal government bestows for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities.
Delbanco’s essays have appeared in The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Nation, and other periodicals, on topics ranging from American literature and history to contemporary issues in higher education. His most recent book, “The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America’s Soul,” was awarded the Anisfield-Wolf prize for books that have made important contributions to our understanding of racism and human diversity. He is a graduate of Harvard University and was named “America’s Best Social Critic” by Time Magazine in 2001.
Said Delbanco about receiving an honorary degree from Gettysburg College, “I am honored by this recognition from a distinguished institution with a long history of inviting young people to experience the kind of education that opens the heart as well as the mind."
Distinguished Alumni Award Recipients
J. Thomas Hardy ’66
After graduating from Gettysburg with a degree in history, Dr. Thomas Hardy entered the U.S. Army in June 1966 and went on to serve two tours in Vietnam as a platoon leader. After discovering a passion for helping people, he entered medical school at the age of 31 and served in the Army Medical Corps until his retirement from military life in 1996.
Hardy became vice president of medical affairs at Kettering Health Network in Dayton, Ohio, before being named chief of staff at the Dayton Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center in 2012. At the Dayton Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center, Hardy was responsible for all clinical operations, medical education, ambulatory care centers, veteran outreach programs, and 300-plus physicians. He additionally was appointed as the associate dean for veterans affairs at the Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University in 2013. Dr. Hardy retired as the chief of staff at the Dayton Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center in October 2023.
Carson L. Kressley ’91
Carson Kressley is a television entertainer, stylist, author, and fashion designer. A management major at Gettysburg, Kressley started his career as an independent stylist for designers like Ralph Lauren. He made his debut in television in 2003 on “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.” He later starred in “Carson-Nation,” which appeared on Oprah’s OWN Network. He has also participated in reality shows like “Dancing with the Stars” and “Celebrity Big Brother” and starred in the movie “The Perfect Man.”
Kressley is a New York Times best-selling author who focuses on instilling self-confidence and self-esteem in men and women who are insecure with their bodies. He previously sat on the board of trustees of the True Colors Fund Inc, a nonprofit organization founded by Cyndi Lauper. The organization focuses on the unique experiences of LGBTQ youth and addresses the issue of youth homelessness in the U.S. He has also helped to further the missions of the Trevor Project, The Human Rights Campaign, AIDS WALK, ADRLF (the Al D. Rodriguez Liver Foundation), The American Saddle Bred Museum, and Philadelphia University. In 2004, he was the recipient of Gettysburg College’s Young Alumni Achievement Award for Career Development.
Cheryl Ennis Self ’73
As an accomplished business consultant, Cheryl Ennis Self has acted as a strategic partner to startups, mid-sized organizations, and Fortune 100 corporations. She is an expert in guiding organizations through the challenges of fundraising and development, with a strong focus on nonprofits, non-governmental organizations, corporations, and government entities. Self, who majored in French at Gettysburg, founded Funding for Change in 2016 to provide expert guidance on the path between an organization's vision and mission, and the attainment of its sustainable resources for effective growth and change.
Self previously served at World Vision for 16 years in a variety of positions, most recently as executive director of global social partnerships. In this role, she was responsible for establishing and building longterm global partnerships between World Vision and Fortune 100 corporations, plus engaging diverse stakeholders in complex, large-scale social partnerships. The Association of Fundraising Professionals, the largest community of professional fundraisers in the world, awarded Self its highest professional certification, the Advanced Certified Fundraising Executive (ACFRE) in 2013.
William B. Swann, Jr. ’74
A psychology major at Gettysburg, Bill Swann is a professor of social and personality psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, where he has worked since 1978. His primary appointment is in the social-personality area of the psychology department, but he also has appointments in clinical psychology and in the school of business. Swann is best known for developing the self-verification theory, which focuses on people’s desire to be known and understood by others.
Swann was named a fellow with the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in 1988 and 1989, as well as with the American Psychological Society and the American Psychological Association in 1990. He is a member of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology and the International Society of Self and Identity. With the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, he served on the executive committee from 2007-10 and as president in 2010. He has received multiple research scientist development awards from the National Institutes of Mental Health, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Mental Health, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. In 2016, he received the Distinguished Lifetime Career Award from the International Society for Self and Identity.
This year’s Commencement exercises will take place rain or shine on Saturday, May 18, beginning at 11 a.m. on the Beachem Portico on the north side of Pennsylvania Hall. For more information about Commencement for the Class of 2024, please visit the Commencement website.
By Corey Jewart
Photos courtesy Jason Minick, Matt Monath (Kressley), and other subjects
Posted: 04/18/24