‘Father of environmental justice’ to speak at Commencement

President David Fithian has announced that Clark’s 120th Commencement will take place at 10 a.m. on Monday, May 20, at the DCU Center in downtown Worcester.

“Commencement is among our most meaningful and celebratory occasions each year,” Fithian wrote in an announcement to the campus community, “and I am looking forward to sharing this special day with our Clark graduates, families, and friends in a new setting that gives us the space and accessibility to fully celebrate this joyous milestone together.”

In addition to recognizing the achievements of graduating students — undergraduate and graduate — this year’s ceremony will award honorary degrees to four extraordinarily accomplished individuals: a renowned geographer and environmental leader; an internationally recognized biologist, film producer, and award-winning author; a chef who has worked for 40 years to advocate for a more healthful, sustainable food system; and an immunologist who has been a leading scientific voice during the pandemic.

Often called “the father of environmental justice,” Dr. Robert D. Bullard will deliver the 2024 Commencement address. He is the Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy at Texas Southern University, where he founded and directs the Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice. He is also co-founder of the HBCU Climate Change Consortium and the National Black Environmental Justice Network, and in 2021 he was appointed by President Biden to serve on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council. Dr. Bullard has published 18 books that address environmental racism, urban land use, housing, transportation, sustainability, smart growth, climate justice, and community resilience.

Newsweek named Dr. Bullard one of “13 Environmental Leaders of the Century” in 2008, and in 2019 Apolitical named him one of the world’s 100 Most Influential People in Climate Policy. He has received numerous awards and honors, including the Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication from Climate One; the WebMD Health Heroes Trailblazer Award; the Champions of the Earth Lifetime Achievement Award from the United Nations Environment Program; and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. In 2023, Dr. Bullard was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as the California Academy of Sciences and received the Horizon Award from the Environmental Law Society at Harvard Law School and the John E. Gould Medal from the American Geographical Society.

Dr. Bullard earned his doctorate in sociology from Iowa State University, his master’s in sociology from Clark Atlanta University, and his bachelor’s in government from Alabama A&M University.

Professor Rinku Roy Chowdhury will present Dr. Bullard for the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.

Also receiving honorary degrees at Commencement:

Sean B. Carroll, Distinguished University Professor and Balo-Simon Chair of Biology at the University of Maryland and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), is an internationally recognized biologist, award-winning author, Emmy-winning film producer, and educational leader who has been called “the greatest science storyteller of our time.”  He is the author of six books for general audiences, as well as a regular feature for the New York Times Science Times, and in 2016 received the Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science.

Dr. Carroll’s pioneering scientific research has centered on the genes that control animal body patterns and play major roles in the evolution of animal diversity. Awards and honors include the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Sciences, the Stephen Jay Gould Prize for the advancement of the public understanding of evolution, and the Viktor Hamburger Outstanding Educator Award from the Society for Developmental Biology, among others, and he is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the European Molecular Biology Organization, as well as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Carroll was also the architect of HHMI’s filmmaking initiative to bring stories about science and nature to broad audiences, and head of Tangled Bank Studios until late 2023, where he served as executive producer of nearly 50 feature or educational films. He earned his doctorate in immunology from Tufts University Medical School, and his bachelor’s in biology from Washington University in St. Louis.

Professor Néva Meyer will present Dr. Carroll for the degree of Doctor of Science.

Akiko Iwasaki is Sterling Professor of Immunobiology at the Yale University School of Medicine. Her research focuses on the mechanisms of immune defense against viruses at mucosal surfaces, which are a major site of entry for infectious agents.

Dr. Iwasaki has been a leading scientific voice throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and is well known for her Twitter advocacy on women and underrepresented minorities in the science and medicine fields. She is the director of the Center for Infection and Immunity and is at the forefront of several long COVID investigations, including the Mount Sinai-Yale Long COVID study, Yale LISTEN study, and Yale Paxlovid trial. She was named to the 2023 STATUS ultimate list of leaders in life sciences.

Dr. Iwasaki has received many awards and honors, including the 2023 Else Kröner Fresenius Prize for Medical Research, and has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator since 2014. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2018, to the National Academy of Medicine in 2019, and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2021.

She received her doctorate in immunology from the University of Toronto and completed her postdoctoral training with the National Institutes of Health before joining Yale’s faculty in 2000.

Professor Nathan Ahlgren will present Dr. Iwasaki for the degree of Doctor of Science.

Michel Nischan is a four-time James Beard Award-winning chef with more than 40 years of leadership advocating for a more healthful, sustainable food system and championing the farm-to-table concept, even before it had a name. He is co-founder and executive chairman of Wholesome Wave, founder and CEO of Wholesome Crave, and founder and partner of the former Dressing Room Restaurant with the late actor Paul Newman.

In 2007, Mr. Nischan and former USDA Undersecretary of Agriculture Gus Schumacher co-founded Wholesome Wave, a national nonprofit established on the belief that choosing healthy food is a fundamental right for everyone, regardless of race, age, ethnicity, income, or location. He has regularly presented and testified in both houses of Congress, and was a White House guest during the Bush, Obama, and Biden administrations. He was also a stakeholder member of the Biden-Harris Transition team and was invited to participate in the White House Conference on Hunger, Health, and Nutrition. In 2019, Mr. Nischan founded Wholesome Crave, a plant-based food company that provides chef-crafted, plant-based soups to the corporate, higher education, and health care food-service sectors. A percentage of gross revenue sales directly supports Wholesome Wave’s groundbreaking work toward meaningful systems change.

A lifetime Ashoka fellow, Mr. Nischan serves on the board of the Jacques Pepin Foundation and is co-founder of the James Beard Chefs Boot Camps for Policy and Change. He was honored by the James Beard Foundation as the 2015 Humanitarian of The Year for his groundbreaking work with Wholesome Wave.

University Trustee Nancie Julian ’86 will present Mr. Nischan for the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.