Commencement 2023: Elms celebrates 92nd graduating class

The College of Our Lady of the Elms celebrated its 92nd commencement on Saturday, May 20 at the MassMutual Center in Springfield, Mass.

The college awarded a total of some 460 undergraduate and graduate degrees and certificates.

Honorary degrees were presented to Catholic historian and retired Holy Cross professor David O’Brien, Philanthropist Karen Keating Ansara, founder of the Network of Engaged International Donors, and La June Montgomery Tabron, president and CEO of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Tabron, the first woman and first African-American to lead the foundation, delivered the commencement address. W.K. Kellogg is one of the largest private philanthropic organizations in the United States.

Under her leadership, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation seeks to ensure the optimal development of young children from birth to age 8, heal the profound racial inequities in communities, and cultivate community leaders and community-led solutions that support educated kids, healthy kids, and economically secure families. Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation has distributed $1.17 billion to organizations to address the needs of communities around the world, particularly in parts of the United States, and also in Mexico and Haiti.

O’Brien is one of the first historians to focus on American Catholicism and authored seven books on topics ranging from Catholics and the social reforms initiated by the New Deal, the balance between personal faith with public life for American Catholics, and the role of Catholic higher education in American culture.

Ansara founded the Network of Engaged International Donors, a nationwide network of over 180 philanthropists, foundations, and impact investors that explore global issues affecting people in need and fund solutions. In response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, she founded the Haiti Fund at the Boston Foundation that evolved into the Haiti Development Institute, which supports Haitian-led organizations to build solid foundations and connect with funders.

Elms President Dr. Harry Dumay and Board of Trustees chairman Paul Stelzer also delivered remarks. For more information and photographs from the ceremony, please go to Facebook.com/ElmsCollege/photos_albums