PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — During its Commencement and Reunion Weekend from May 22-24, 2026, Brown University will confer honorary doctorates on six candidates who have achieved great distinction in a variety of fields. The candidates are:
- Joseph F. Dunford Jr. — Military and national security leader
- Richard A. Friedman and Susan Pilch Friedman (joint degree) — Business leader and champion of Brown, community leader and champion of Brown, respectively
- Peter Howitt — Nobel Prize-winning economist
- Sherrilyn Ifill — Civil rights lawyer
- Fei-Fei Li — Artificial intelligence pioneer
Recipients will receive prominent recognition at the University Ceremony on Sunday, May 24.
Honorary degrees are awarded by the Board of Fellows of the Corporation of Brown University and are conferred by University President Christina H. Paxson during Commencement exercises.
While the Board of Fellows awards the degrees, many of the recipients each year are recommended by the Advisory Committee on Honorary Degrees, a faculty and student committee chaired this year by Professor of Physics Greg Landsberg. The committee offered recommendations for leaders who have demonstrated excellence in a variety of fields, including based on nominations received from Brown faculty, staff and students.
At Brown, honorary degree recipients do not serve as Commencement speakers; since its earliest days, the University has reserved that honor for members of the graduating class. On Saturday, May 23, Class of 1999 graduate Xochitl Gonzalez will address Class of 2026 undergraduates during the Baccalaureate service.
Additional details on Commencement forums and other events during the weekend are available on Brown’s Commencement website.
Honorary degree candidates
Joseph F. Dunford Jr.
Doctor of Laws
Military and national security leader
Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. is a U.S. military leader who has dedicated four decades of military and public service to the nation.
As the 19th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2015 to 2019, he served as the nation’s highest-ranking military officer and principal military adviser to the president, secretary of defense and National Security Council. A member of the U.S. Marine Corps since 1977, Dunford was the 36th commandant of the Marine Corps and commander of all U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. He retired from military service in 2019.
A leading expert in national security and geopolitics, Dunford begins a new role this spring as CEO of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and chairs the board for the Adams Presidential Center.
Dunford is a dedicated advocate for military veterans and active-duty service members. He is chairman of the board for Semper Fi & America’s Fund, which supports wounded and ill service members. He also serves on the board of the Travis Manion Foundation.
Dunford earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at Saint Michael’s College, a master’s in government at Georgetown University and a master’s in international relations at Tufts University.
Richard A. Friedman
Doctor of Humane Letters
Business leader and champion of Brown
Richard A. Friedman is an adept, innovative business leader who serves as secretary of the Corporation of Brown University. He earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematical economics from Brown in 1979.
Friedman joined Goldman Sachs in 1981, became a partner at the multinational investment bank and financial services company, and serves now as chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Prior to his current role, he was global head of the company’s Merchant Banking Division for 21 years.
At Brown, Friedman has served on the Corporation for 21 years, including nine years as secretary. Brown University’s Friedman Hall, which opened in 2018 following a major renovation that transformed a historic building into a flagship classroom facility on the College Green, is named in recognition of the generosity of Friedman and his wife, Susan.
A leading supporter of education, hospitals and Jewish causes, Friedman is co-chairman emeritus of the board of trustees of the Mount Sinai Health System. The Friedman Brain Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is named in recognition of the Friedmans’ support.
In addition to his degree from Brown, Friedman holds an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Susan Pilch Friedman
Doctor of Humane Letters
Community leader and champion of Brown
An accomplished community leader and philanthropist in education, health care and interests of the Jewish community, Susan Pilch Friedman is a longtime champion of Brown who earned her bachelor’s degree in political science from the University in 1977.
Following a management career in consulting with Cresap, McCormick and Paget, Friedman became a volunteer nonprofit leader who served on the board of the Hewitt School and the MorseLife Health System. At Brown, she is a founding member and chair emerita of the Women’s Leadership Council, and she helped to institutionalize one-on-one mentoring for students by alumnae through Brown’s Women’s Launchpad mentoring program.
Friedman served as honorary chair of the 120 Years of Women at Brown celebration, which welcomed more than 500 alumnae from across the generations to campus in 2012. At the 125 Years of Women at Brown celebration in 2017, she was awarded the President’s Medal for her promotion of women’s leadership and extraordinary support of the University.
Each year, a senior who has demonstrated exemplary leadership at Brown is awarded the Susan Pilch Friedman ’77, P’08 Excellence Award in Women’s Leadership.
In addition to her degree from Brown, she holds an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
Peter Howitt
Doctor of Humane Letters
Nobel Prize-winning economist
Nobel Prize-winning economist Peter Howitt is a professor emeritus of economics at Brown University.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Howitt and his research partner Philippe Aghion the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences “for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction,” a mathematical model that analyzes the benefits and harms of technological progress.
Howitt has written and researched extensively on the foundations of macroeconomics and monetary theory. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and of the Econometric Society, and a former president of the Canadian Economics Association. Among many recognitions, Howitt and Aghion were together awarded the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Economics, Finance and Management in 2019 for their trailblazing research.
Prior to joining the Brown University faculty in 2000, Howitt taught at the University of Western Ontario and Ohio State University. He also held visiting positions at Laval University in Quebec, the universities of Paris and Toulouse in France, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Howitt earned a bachelor’s degree in economics at McGill University, a master’s in economics at the University of Western Ontario and a Ph.D. at Northwestern University.
Sherrilyn Ifill
Doctor of Laws
Civil rights lawyer
Renowned attorney and scholar Sherrilyn Ifill served as president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and founded Howard University’s 14th Amendment Center for Law and Democracy.
A leading litigator and analyst who has shaped key conversations on race, civil rights and voting rights, Ifill has extensively published research and authored the 2018 book “On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the 21st Century.”
A professor at Howard University School of Law, Ifill serves on the boards of the Mellon Foundation, New York University School of Law and the Baltimore Museum of Art. She was a senior fellow at the Ford Foundation, a fellow at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and a visiting professor at Harvard Law School. Ifill is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Association.
Among many recognitions, she received the Radcliffe Medal, the Brandeis Medal, the Thurgood Marshall Lifetime Achievement Award from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Thurgood Marshall Award from the American Bar Association, and the New York State Bar Association Gold Medal.
Ifill earned a bachelor’s degree in English at Vassar College and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.
Fei-Fei Li
Doctor of Science
Artificial intelligence pioneer
Computer scientist Fei-Fei Li is among the most consequential figures in artificial intelligence and the inventor of ImageNet, a landmark dataset and benchmarking effort considered a foundational catalyst of modern AI.
Widely recognized as “the godmother of AI,” Li has dedicated her career to ensuring AI serves humanity. At Stanford University, she is a professor of computer science, co-directs the Human-Centered AI Institute and led the Stanford AI Lab. She served as vice president at Google and chief scientist of AI/machine learning at Google Cloud, and is co-founder and CEO of World Labs, a frontier AI company focused on spatial intelligence.
One of the most cited computer scientists of her generation, Li authored the memoir “The Worlds I See” and co-founded AI4ALL to expand AI education for the next generation. She has brought her vision to Congress, the United Nations and governments worldwide to ensure AI progresses benefit all.
A member of the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Medicine and American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Li has received the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, TIME Person of the Year and the VinFuture Prize, among other honors. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology.