Honorary Degree Recipient

Diana Chapman Walsh, president emerita of Wellesley College, served as president from 1993 to 2007. Wellesley, a leading college for women, ranks among the country's top liberal arts colleges. Under her leadership, Wellesley revised and expanded the curriculum, renewed the landscape and buildings, and strengthened campus intellectual life. The value of the college's endowment more than doubled during her tenure and the college raised over $700-million to help support financial aid, expanded programs in global education, internships and service learning, and new interdisciplinary offerings.

Before assuming the Wellesley presidency, Walsh held the Norman Professorship at the Harvard School of Public Health, where she chaired the Department of Health and Social Behavior. Prior to joining the Harvard faculty, she was at Boston University, as a University Professor and, in the School of Public Health, Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences. She served as a Kellogg National Fellow from 1987 to 1990 and has written, edited and co-edited numerous articles and books, including a study of the practice of medicine within corporations.

A 1966 Wellesley graduate, Walsh earned an M.S. in journalism (1971) and a Ph.D. in health policy from the University Professors Program (1983). She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and currently serves on the board of Amherst College and the corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was a director of State Street Corporation from 1999 to 2007. Walsh will receive the Doctor of Humane Letters degree.