2023 Commencement Honorary Degree Recipients
Dear Howard University Community,
I am pleased to announce that the University will confer six honorary doctorate degrees during the 155th Commencement Convocation. The ceremony will take place on the main campus of Howard University’s Upper Quadrangle at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 13, 2023.
Honorary recipients include the Honorable James E. Clyburn, United States representative for South Carolina; Karsh Family Foundation co-founders Martha L. and Bruce A. Karsh; Trinidad and Tobago prime minister Keith Christopher Rowley, PhD; Duke University Health System president and CEO A. Eugene Washington, M.D., MPH, MSc; and Trustee Emerita and former Board vice chair Benaree Pratt Wiley.
Our 2023 honorees are among the leaders in their respective fields, in no small part due to their commitment to our collective humanity and building a better society for us all. Truth and service have been major elements to their lives both personally and professionally, which makes this year’s honorary degree recipients exceedingly qualified to join the Class of 2023.
As we celebrate our 155th Commencement Convocation, we want to spotlight our honorees for their tireless work at Howard University and across the world. They have repeatedly shown and proven their capacity to improve the world, and we honor them for their efforts.
James E. Clyburn will be awarded the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters. Clyburn is the Assistant Democratic Leader in the United States House of Representatives, where he was also the first African American to serve multiple terms as majority whip. A 1961 graduate of South Carolina State, he began his professional career as a public school teacher. In 1971, he joined the staff of Governor John C. West, becoming the first African American advisor to a South Carolina governor. When he came to Congress in 1993, Clyburn was elected co-president of his freshman class. He was subsequently elected chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, vice chair and then chair of the House Democratic Caucus. Clyburn has led efforts to preserve and restore historic buildings on the campuses of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). He sponsored legislation creating the South Carolina National Heritage Corridor, the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, the Congaree National Park, the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park, and expanding the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site. The recipient of 36 honorary degrees, his honors include: the Lyndon Baines Johnson Liberty and Justice for All Award; the Harry S Truman Foundation’s Good Neighbor Award; and the NAACP’s highest honor – the Spingarn Medal. His endorsement of Joe Biden for president in 2020 is credited with setting Biden on path to the presidency. Clyburn and his late wife, Emily England Clyburn, met as college student protestors in an Orangeburg, South Carolina jail in 1960. The encounter led to a 58-year marriage, and they became parents of three daughters and grandparents to four grandchildren.
Martha L. Karsh will be awarded the honorary Doctor of Humanities. Martha Karsh, an attorney, has practiced law, formed an architecture/design firm. She is a leader in the nonprofit world and a longtime supporter of education. In 1998, Martha Karsh co-founded the Karsh Family Foundation, which focuses on supporting education. To date, the Karshes have made gifts and pledges of nearly $300 million to support scholarship and education at all levels. Their largest gifts have been for need-based financial aid at the University of Pennsylvania, Duke, Brown, Spelman, Howard University, and Virginia Law School, as well as for KIPP and Teach for America in K-12. At Howard University, the Karsh Family Foundation donated $10 million in 2020 to create the Karsh STEM Scholars Program at Howard to address the underrepresentation of minorities earning a PhD or combined M.D./PhD in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. They have also supported Howard University with $10 million gift to support the Graduation Retention Access to Continued Excellence (GRACE) grant. Martha Karsh currently serves on the national board of KIPP Foundation, co-chairs the bicentennial “Honor the Future Campaign for the University of Virginia,” and is a trustee emerita of the University of Virginia Law School Foundation. She chairs the KIPP SoCal Public Schools Trustees and successfully led the $70 million growth campaign for KIPP in Los Angeles. Martha Karsh graduated from the University of Virginia in 1978 and Virginia Law School in 1981. In 2016, she published her first book, “The Beatles A Hard Day’s Night: A Private Archive.” She and her husband, Bruce, live in Los Angeles and together have raised three children.
Bruce A. Karsh will be awarded an honorary Doctor of Humanities. Bruce Karsh is a co-chairman and one of the co-founders of Oaktree Capital Management. He also is chief investment officer and serves as portfolio manager for Oaktree’s Global Opportunities, Value Opportunities and Global Credit strategies. Prior to co-founding Oaktree, Bruce Karsh was a managing director of TCW Asset Management Company, and the portfolio manager of the Special Credits Funds from 1988 until 1995. Prior to joining TCW, he worked as assistant to the chairman of SunAmerica, Inc. Previously, he was an attorney with the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers. Before his role at O’Melveny & Myers, Bruce Karsh clerked for the Honorable Anthony M. Kennedy, then of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and retired associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He holds an A.B. degree in economics summa cum laude from Duke University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He also earned a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served as Notes Editor of the Virginia Law Review and was a member of the Order of the Coif. Bruce Karsh serves on the boards of a number of privately held companies. He is a member of the investment committee of the Broad Foundations. He is trustee emeritus of Duke University, having served as trustee from 2003 to 2015, and as chairman of the board of DUMAC, LLC, the entity that managed Duke’s endowment, from 2005 to 2014.
Keith Christopher Rowley, PhD, will be awarded the honorary Doctor of Letters. Rowley is the Prime Minister of Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Rowley was born in 1949 in Mason Hall, Tobago, and was raised by his grandparents, who were prominent Tobago farmers. Rowley completed his secondary schooling at Bishop’s High School (BHS) in Tobago and his sterling academic performance saw him capture the prestigious Sylvan Bowles Scholarship. He then commenced his studies at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, from where he graduated with a BSc in geology (first class honors) and geography (first class honors), and earned his MSc in volcanic stratigraphy from UWI, St. Augustine. He is a volcanologist who obtained his doctorate in geology, specializing in geochemistry. He is a known nature lover and as a research scientist he held the positions of research fellow and later head of the Seismic Research Unit at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine. He was also the general manager of state-owned National Quarries Company Limited. He first ran for political office in 1981, where he contested the Tobago West seat. Rowley is the Member of the House of Representatives for Diego Martin West in the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago, where he has represented that constituency since 1991 having been re-elected multiple times. He first served in Parliament as an opposition senator from 1987-1990. He later served at cabinet level holding, at various times, the portfolios. Following the People’s National Movement (PNM)’s defeat in the Trinidad and Tobago General Election, 2010, Rowley was appointed leader of the opposition of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and was elected Political Leader of the People’s National Movement in 2010. In 2015, Rowley led the People’s National Movement to general election victory, to become the seventh prime minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Rowley was re-elected to serve as prime minister on August 10, 2020, after winning the 2020 general election.
A. Eugene Washington, MD, MPH, MSc, will be awarded the honorary Doctor of Science. Currently, Washington is Chancellor for Health Affairs at Duke University and president and CEO of the Duke University Health System. Over the past 25 years, Washington has held academic leadership positions and senior executive posts in prominent academic health systems, including the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). During this period, he has stayed actively engaged in educating students, residents, postdoctoral fellows and faculty, practiced medicine, and maintained a productive research program. In addition, Washington has played a role in shaping national health policy and health care practice. A respected clinical investigator and health policy scholar, Washington has been a national leader in assessing medical technologies, developing clinical practice guidelines and establishing disease prevention policies, particularly for women’s health. He has published extensively in his major areas of research, which include prenatal genetic testing, cervical cancer screening and prevention, noncancerous uterine conditions management, reproductive tract infections, quality of health care and racial/ethnic disparities in health outcomes. Washington is founding chair of the board of governors of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, a national research organization dedicated to the support and promotion of comparative clinical effectiveness research, which was authorized by the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. He serves as a director of Johnson and Johnson and is on the Boards of Directors of the Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. He has served on a number of professional and government boards and committees, including on the board of trustees of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. A 1976 graduate of the UCSF School of Medicine, Washington completed graduate studies at both University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard schools of public health and residency training at Stanford University.
Benaree Pratt Wiley will be awarded the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters. Benaree Pratt Wiley is a corporate director and trustee. For fifteen years, Wiley was the president and chief executive officer of The Partnership, Inc., an organization that strengthened Greater Boston’s capacity to attract, retain, and develop talented professionals of color. Wiley serves currently as director on boards of the BNY Mellon Mutual Funds and CBIZ. She has served as the chair of PepsiCo’s African American advisory board, and on the boards of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and First Albany. Her civic activities include serving on the boards of Dress for Success Boston, Spaulding Hospital, the Black Economic Alliance and formerly Howard University where she served as vice chair. In 2022, the National Association of Corporate Directors New England awarded Wiley the Director of the Year Award in Nonprofit Leadership. She is a frequent speaker on leadership, diversity and professional development and has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors and four honorary doctorates including from Boston College and New England School of Law. Among her many honors are induction into the Academy of Distinguished Bostonians; the Pinnacle Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce; and Harvard Business School Distinguished Alumni Award from the African American Student Union. Bennie also had the honor of being featured on the cover of Boston magazine as one of Boston’s most powerful women; and she was the subject of a Harvard Business School case, “Bennie Wiley and The Partnership.” In 2023, the Biden-Harris Administration appointed Wiley to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans.
Excellence in Truth and Service,
Wayne A. I. Frederick, M.D., MBA
Charles R. Drew Professor of Surgery
President