2015 Honorary Degree Recipients

During its 2015 Commencement exercises, Grinnell College conferred honorary degrees upon people involved in environmentalism, science, education, and business.

This year’s Commencement speaker was Bill McKibben, one of the nation’s most outspoken activists on global warming. He has written extensively about climate change, alternative energy, and genetic engineering. His 2006 book, The End of Nature, is considered to be the first book about climate change written for a general audience. His more recent works address social movements, consumerism, and shortcomings of the growth economy. He received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree.

Mary Seely, a visionary scientist and teacher, served as director of the Desert Research Foundation of Namibia for 16 years and has received numerous awards for her work on desert research and conservation. Her passion for fostering international cooperation has been critical to the establishment and continued success of the Grinnell Corps program in Namibia. She received an honorary doctor of science degree.

Nominated for an honorary doctor of social studies degree by Rebecca Garner ’15, Kit Abel Hawkins is founder and director of the Arbor School of Arts and Sciences, a private K–8 school in Tualatin, Ore. She also established the Arbor Center for Teaching, a two-year apprenticeship program in partnership with Marylhurst University in Oregon for six people to receive their masters of arts degrees in teaching.

Penny Bender Sebring ’64 is a senior research associate at the University of Chicago and co-director of the Consortium of Chicago School Research. Sebring is widely published on a variety of topics including urban education, course-taking patterns, and school leadership and is a life trustee of Grinnell College. She received an honorary doctor of laws degree.

Grinnell conferred an honorary doctor of laws degree to Sebring’s husband Charles Lewis, chairman of the Lewis-Sebring Family Foundation and managing general partner of Coach House Capital. Lewis and Sebring (for whom Sebring-Lewis Hall in Bucksbaum Center for the Arts is named) helped make possible the Grinnell Careers in Education Professions program, which is designed to help students think about the long-term possibilities in the field.