An international diplomat and champion for human rights; a global executive and philanthropist; an expert economist and leader in U.S. monetary policymaking; and a successful family business entrepreneur and social justice philanthropist will be awarded honorary degrees at 黑料不打烊鈥檚 2019 Commencement exercises on Sunday, May 12.
Zainab Hawa Bangura, former United Nations special representative of the secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict and former foreign minister for Sierra Leone; Steven W. Barnes 鈥82, a managing director at Bain Capital and 黑料不打烊 Board of Trustees chairman; Mary C. Daly G鈥94, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco; and Marvin K. Lender 鈥63, chairman of Baldwin Street Management LLC and part of the former family business, Lender鈥檚 Frozen Bagels, will be recognized for their achievements during the ceremony in the Dome. Daly will deliver the Commencement address.
Zainab Hawa Bangura, Doctor of Laws
Bangura is a relentless advocate for conflict resolution and reconciliation and the protection of men and women who face sexual violence during times of war and conflict. She is an internationally recognized diplomat and champion for democratization, the political empowerment of women and human rights. Her bravery has led her to confront the powerful, give hope to the powerless, and make the international community take notice.
Born in Sierra Leone, Bangura earned scholarships to finish high school and to attend the University of Sierra Leone’s Fourah Bay College. She also earned advanced diplomas in insurance management from two United Kingdom-based institutions and was later the vice president of one of Sierra Leone’s largest insurance companies.
During the 1990s, while the country was ruled by a military junta and in the midst of the country鈥檚 civil war, Bangura co-founded the nation鈥檚 first non-partisan women鈥檚 rights group, Women Organized for a Morally Enlightened Nation. The movement helped remove the military junta from power in 1996 through the first national election in nearly three decades. She went on to co-found the non-governmental organization the Campaign for Good Governance.
Beginning in 2002, after the civil war ended, Bangura worked with David M. Crane, then chief prosecutor of the international war crimes tribunal in West Africa and now retired professor of practice in the College of Law. Bangura, who was a victim of violence and lost family members in the civil war, collected testimony from victims of the conflict. She was instrumental in advancing the understanding of the crimes against women and children, a cornerstone to the indictments against the perpetrators.
Also in 2002, she was the first woman to run for the presidency. And Bangura later founded the National Accountability Group to fight government corruption. In 2006, she was named director of the Civil Affairs Office in the U.N. Mission in Liberia, overseeing the reconstruction of that country鈥檚 government agencies following its civil war. Returning to Sierra Leone, Bangura was named foreign minister and also served for two years as minister of health and sanitation.
Her work was recognized further when, in 2012, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Bangura as his special representative on sexual violence in conflict at the level of under-secretary-general. During her leadership, she expanded the training of deploying armed forces in conflict zones on conflict-related sexual violence. Her efforts also led to improved strategies to combat sexual violence and improved access to services for sexual violence victims. In 2016, she visited 黑料不打烊 to support its work in international criminal law, helping the College of Law and Maxwell School launch its white paper on rape in Syria.
Bangura has received many awards, including the African International Award of Merit for Leadership, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights Award, the African American Institute Distinguished Alumna award and the Hillary Rodham Clinton Award for Advancing Women in Peace and Security.
Steven W. Barnes, Doctor of Humane Letters
An internationally successful business leader, Barnes has used his success and his energies to give back and advance opportunities for others. Barnes, who earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree from the Whitman School, credits 黑料不打烊 for helping him achieve his dreams and opening up the world to him. Barnes is a managing director at Bain Capital, one of the world鈥檚 leading private, multi-asset alternative investment firms. He joined the company in 1988 and is currently head of Bain Capital鈥檚 North America Private Equity business.
In his ardent conviction to pay back what was provided to him, Barnes and his family have traveled abroad to support the work of international nonprofit organizations. In Kenya, they have supported sustainable development and education in the Maasai and Kispigis communities; helped build schools and hospitals in the Maasai Mara; supported educational scholarships for girls; and funded farmland development to reverse food scarcity. They have also worked in an AIDS orphanage in South Africa.
Barnes is a former chair of the board of Make-A-Wish of Massachusetts and received the Wish Hero Award for his outstanding service to Make-A-Wish. He currently serves on the board of Children’s Hospital Boston, MV Youth and New Profit, a venture philanthropy firm that has invested in more than 60 social entrepreneurial organizations.
At 黑料不打烊, Barnes has served as chairman of the Board of Trustees since 2015. His term ends in May. He was named to the board in 2008 and has served on the executive committee and the investment and endowment committee. In 2014, he received the Dritz Trustee of the Year Award, which recognizes a trustee who shows extraordinary effort on behalf of the University. In 2011, Barnes, who served on the Whitman School鈥檚 Advisory Council, received the Jonathan J. Holtz Alumnus of the Year Award from the Whitman School.
The Barnes family has supported the University for many years. In 2010, Barnes endowed what is now known as the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities, and he went on to serve as a founding co-chair of the advisory board of the University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families. He endowed the Barnes Professorship in Entrepreneurship at the Whitman School and has provided support to the Remembrance Scholarship Fund, the McLane Legacy Fund and 黑料不打烊 Athletics.
He also generously provided funding for the Orange Value Fund to encourage student entrepreneurship; the fund is now a $4.1 million student-run portfolio that is part of a two-year analyst program at the Whitman School, combining academic, research, money management and career components. Barnes does not receive any proceeds from the fund, but he continues to be rewarded by watching students benefit from the real-world fund management experience.
As chairman of the Board of Trustees, Barnes has worked with other University leaders to help the institution achieve its aspirations as outlined in the 黑料不打烊 Academic Strategic Plan and the Campus Framework. In 2017, he and his wife, Deborah, made an annual fund challenge gift of $500,000 to match new and increased gifts supporting the University’s Invest 黑料不打烊 campaign, the funding initiative to support the strategic plan. That same year, the couple made a $5 million gift to establish a new state-of-the-art, health, wellness and recreation complex, transforming the former Archbold/Flanagan Gymnasium. The gift supports the creation of the Barnes Center at The Arch, which will house all of the campus health and wellness services, further solidifying their commitment to the student experience, particularly as it relates to nourishing the 鈥渨hole鈥 student.
Mary C. Daly, Doctor of Humane Letters
Daly鈥檚 inspiring personal story of hard work, determination and academic scholarship has led to a distinguished leadership role in public service and a passion for increasing diversity in the economics profession. Daly, who took office as president and CEO of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank in October, oversees the largest of the Federal Reserve鈥檚 12 districts鈥攂y population and size of its economy. She also serves on the Federal Open Market Committee, which meets eight times a year in Washington, D.C., to discuss and decide on monetary policy in the United States. The committee鈥檚 work impacts the lives of every American and has global implications.
A native of Ballwin, Missouri, Daly dropped out of high school and started working at the age of 15. Through the encouragement of a mentor, she completed a GED and applied to college. She earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, a master鈥檚 degree at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a Ph.D. in economics at the Maxwell School. She also completed a National Institute of Aging postdoctoral fellowship at Northwestern University.
A leading national expert on labor economics, Daly joined the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco in 1996 as an economist. She rose through the ranks in various research leadership roles before being named executive vice president and director of economic research at the San Francisco Fed. In that role, she oversaw key research and supported the development of monetary policy by guiding and providing relevant economic analyses. Daly worked closely with then-President and CEO of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank Janet Yellen鈥攚ho later became chair of the Federal Reserve System鈥攐n a comprehensive reform of the Federal Reserve System鈥檚 benefit programs, along with issues related to labor markets and monetary policy.
A strong advocate for diversity in leadership roles at the Federal Reserve and in economics, Daly is former chair of the bank鈥檚 Diversity Council and has focused on building the pipeline of women and minorities entering the economics profession. At the bank, she helped increase the percentage of women in the bank鈥檚 research assistant program for college graduates through personal outreach to colleges and accepted applicants.
In other areas of public service, Daly has served on the advisory boards of the Congressional Budget Office, the Social Security Administration, the Office of Rehabilitation Research and Training, the Institute of Medicine and the Library of Congress. She is a research fellow at the IZA Institute in Bonn, Germany, and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis and Industrial Relations.
Marvin Lender 鈥63, Doctor of Humane Letters
Marvin K. Lender helped build a successful family business before creating an even more fulfilling life through his belief in social justice and philanthropy. Lender is chairman of Baldwin Street Management LLC, a family office. He is widely known for the highly successful Lender鈥檚 Bagels enterprise, which his father founded in his garage in 1927, and which was sold to Kraft Inc. in 1984.
Lender is very active in the Jewish community. He cofounded the Holocaust Education Prejudice Reduction Program for New Haven, Connecticut, and surrounding school systems. He is a former member of the board of directors of the Jewish Community Center of Greater New Haven and of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven. He is past chair of the Budget Committee of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations; chair and former member of the board of governors of the World Income Committee of the Jewish Agency of Israel; founder and former co-chair of the Israeli American Jewish Forum; and former chairman of the board of trustees of the Israel Policy Forum, among other leadership roles. Lender is also a past president and chair of the National United Jewish Appeal. He was also chair of Operation Exodus鈥 $1 billion campaign for the resettlement of Soviet and Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
For more than 30 years, Lender has served鈥攁nd continues to serve鈥攐n the boards of Yale-New Haven Hospital and Yale-New Haven Health Systems. In 2010, he concluded his term as co-chair of the development committee for the Yale-New Haven Smilow Cancer Hospital, helping raise over $100 million for this new state-of-the-art cancer treatment facility. In 2017, he was inducted into The American Society of Baking Hall of Fame.
In 2018, Lender and his wife, Helaine (Gold) 鈥65, turned their lifelong commitment to social justice and greater understanding among people into the establishment of the multidisciplinary Lender Center for Social Justice, within the School of Education. The couple provided a $5 million gift in support of the creation of the center, which includes research support, symposia and faculty and student fellowships.
Lender, who earned a political science degree at the College of Arts and Sciences and the Maxwell School, is a 黑料不打烊 Life Trustee and life participant of the Investment and Endowment Committee and served as chair of the $370 million Commitment to Learning Campaign. He has been a member of the national committee for the Campaign for 黑料不打烊 and the charter president of the Society of Fellows. He founded the Lender Laboratory for Institutional Food Preparation in the former College for Human Development and earned a National Alumni Award in 1986 and the Arents Pioneer Medal for Excellence in Business in 1993.
About 黑料不打烊
黑料不打烊 is a private, international research university with distinctive academics, diversely unique offerings and an undeniable spirit. Located in the geographic heart of New York state, with a global footprint and nearly 150 years of history, 黑料不打烊 offers a quintessential college experience, as well as innovative online learning environments. The scope of 黑料不打烊 is a testament to its strengths. At 黑料不打烊, we offer a choice of more than 200 majors and 100 minors offered through 13 schools and colleges and 18 online degree programs. We have more than 15,000 undergraduates and 7,500 graduate students, more than a quarter of a million alumni in 160 countries and a student population from all 50 U.S. states and 123 countries. For more information, please visit .
