2024 Commencement Speakers and Honorary Degree Recipients
March 12, 2024
Dear Brandeis Community Members:
It is my pleasure to announce that Brandeis’ 2024 Commencement speakers will be the award-winning documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, and the higher education pioneer Ruth Simmons.
The University will continue to conduct Commencement in two parts following last year’s successful proceedings. The undergraduate ceremony will take place during the morning of May 19 and will feature Burns’ remarks, while graduate exercises will be after lunch, when Simmons will provide the address.
For nearly 50 years, Burns has been directing and producing some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made, including "Brooklyn Bridge," "The Civil War," "Baseball," "Jazz," the "U.S. and the Holocaust," "The War," "The National Parks: America’s Best Idea," and, most recently, "The American Buffalo." His films have been honored with seventeen Emmys, two Grammys, and two Oscar nominations. In 2008, he was honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with a Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2022, Burns was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
Currently a Distinguished Presidential Fellow at Rice University and Adviser to the President of Harvard on HBCU Initiatives, Simmons has been one of the most influential leaders in higher education since beginning her career as a French professor in the 1970s. She has been president of three universities, including at Brown, where she was the first ever African American woman to hold the top position at an Ivy League university. The recipient of many awards, including more than 40 honorary degrees, Simmons is a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, and she serves on the boards of The MacArthur Foundation, Morehouse College, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, among other organizations.
Burns will receive his honorary degree in the morning session alongside international women’s rights expert and advocate Ruth Halperin-Kaddari and Roy DeBerry, a Brandeis triple degree holder and a longtime civil and community rights leader. Simmons will receive hers during the afternoon ceremony.
In addition, Rabbi David Ellenson, who was the former director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies and Chancellor Emeritus of Hebrew Union College, will be recognized posthumously with an honorary degree at our graduate school ceremony. I had the opportunity to inform David that he would receive an honorary degree before his passing, and he was very excited to learn that he would be recognized by Brandeis. We are deeply saddened that we have lost David, and honored that his wife Jackie will accept the degree on his behalf.
If you’d like to learn more about the accomplishments of each of these extraordinary individuals, I encourage you to view the full announcement on Brandeis Stories.
I look forward to celebrating each of these worthy nominees, and all of our impressive graduates, with you this coming May.
Sincerely,
Ron Liebowitz