The University of Michigan announced its 2024 Spring Commencement speakers as well as five recommended recipients for honorary degrees, who will be honored at Spring Commencement on May 4, pending approval from the U-M Board of Regents.
Author Brad Meltzer will deliver the main speech, and journalist Robin Givhan will speak at the Rackham Graduate Exercises, the graduate student ceremony held on May 3. The honorees include Meltzer, Givhan, donors Judith and Stanley Frankel and Dr. Alexa I. Canady.
Meltzer has been recommended for a Doctor of Law degree for his accomplishments as an author and advocate for history education. Among other best-selling books, he wrote the children’s book series “Ordinary People Change the World,” which highlights notable historical figures and was adapted into an Emmy award-winning television program. Meltzer co-founded the high school leadership program City Year Miami with his wife Cori Meltzer and currently serves on the boards of the National Archives Foundation and the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation. He graduated from the University in 1992 with a B.A. in history.
Givhan, a fashion critic for The Washington Post, was recommended for a Doctor of Law for her work in journalism and the arts. She won a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 2006 and was the first fashion critic to do so. Givhan was also named one of Time Magazine’s “All-TIME 100 Fashion icons.” In 2015, she wrote her first solo book, titled “The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History,” on a 1973 fundraising fashion show for the restoration of the Palace of Versailles and the resulting American impact on global style. Givhan graduated from the University with an M.A. in journalism in 1988, and she was inducted into the U-M Detroiter Hall of Fame in 2013.
Judith and Stanley Frankel have been recommended for Doctor of Law degrees for their continued donations and commitment to the University. The Frankels have contributed to the expansion of the U-M Detroit Observatory, now renamed the Judy and Stanley Frankel Detroit Observatory, the construction of the Samuel and Jean Frankel Cardiovascular Center, an annual concert highlighting African American composers and musicians called Classical Roots, the Global Projects program at the Ross School of Business and various other initiatives across multiple U-M programs. Stanley Frankel received both a B.A. in economics in 1963 and an MBA in 1964 from the University. Judith Frankel attended the University from 1962 to 1964 before receiving a B.A. in speech pathology from Wayne State University.
Canady, who was recognized for her accomplishments as the first female African American board-certificated neurosurgeon, was recommended for an honorary Doctor of Science degree for her career and health-equity advocacy. Canady served as chair of the Board of Trustees and chief of pediatric surgery at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit. She also taught at Wayne State University as the vice chair of the neurosurgery department, co-patented a treatment for hydrocephalus and recently won the American Association of Neurological Surgeons’ Humanitarian Award in 2023. She received a B.S. and a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University in 1971 and 1975, respectively, and was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame in 1989.
The Board of Regents will evaluate the honorees’ recommendations at their March 28 meeting.
Daily Staff Reporter Marissa Corsi can be reached at macorsi@umich.edu.