The University of Notre Dame will confer honorary degrees on six distinguished leaders in science, business, literature, media and the Catholic Church at its 180th University Commencement Ceremony on May 18. A seventh honorary degree will be bestowed on Adm. Christopher Grady, the Vice Chairman and Acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who will deliver the principal Commencement address.

The honorees are:

Dr. Rafat Ansari (doctor of science)

Dr. Rafat Ansari, a South Bend oncologist and hematologist, has been an extraordinary community leader for more than four decades. Ansari, who grew up in Pakistan, attended medical school at Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences before coming to the U.S. to complete his medical residency. In 1984, Ansari helped found the Hoosier Cancer Research Network, a research nonprofit that streamlines the clinical trials process for cancer patients. Inspired by their daughter, Ansari and his wife, Dr. Zoreen Ansari, funded the launch of the Sonya Ansari Center for Autism in 2008, which supports the flourishing of those with autism and their families through a wide range of services. Ansari was also instrumental in the creation of the center at Notre Dame that bears his family’s name, the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion, dedicated to studying, learning from and collaborating with religious communities worldwide. In recognition of his many contributions to the community, he was inducted in the South Bend Community Hall of Fame.

Stephen Brogan (doctor of laws)

Stephen Brogan is the former managing partner of Jones Day, an international law firm with a broad and extensive law practice in complex litigation, including securities, banking, contests for corporate control, corporate criminal investigations and product liability matters. During his tenure as managing partner, Brogan was instrumental in expanding the firm’s commitment to pro bono work. Prior to becoming partner-in-charge of Jones Day’s Washington, D.C., office, he served as deputy assistant attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice for two years. He returned to the firm and was named managing partner in 2002. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston College and a J.D. from Notre Dame Law School. Brogan has served as a member of Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees since 2007, and was a member of the University’s Board of Fellows, its highest governing body, from 2020 to 2024.

David Brooks (doctor of laws)

Renowned author and political and cultural commentator David Brooks was born in Toronto and raised in New York City. Brooks began his career as a police reporter in Chicago and, in 1986, joined The Wall Street Journal, rising to become an editor of the paper’s opinion page. He joined The New York Times as an op-ed columnist in 2003, where he has written about politics, culture and the social sciences and has been a prominent voice advocating for democracy, civility and strategies for helping all people to be deeply seen and known. He has been a frequent commentator on “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” (later called “PBS News Hour”) and has written six nonfiction books. In 2010, he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and serves as senior adviser at the Leadership and Society Initiative at the University of Chicago, where he was previously a member of the school’s board of trustees. When he was a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson School of Global Affairs, he taught courses in philosophical humility. Brooks graduated from the University of Chicago with a bachelor’s degree in history.

Teresa Lambe (doctor of science)

Teresa Lambe played a critical role in the fight against COVID-19 as a principal investigator in the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine program. She codesigned the vaccine, led preclinical studies and spearheaded the research required for regulatory approval. The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is estimated to have saved more than 6 million lives in 2021 alone. Lambe, the Calleva Head of Vaccine Immunology at the University of Oxford, currently focuses her research on developing and testing vaccines against a number of outbreak pathogens, including Ebola virus, Marburg virus disease and coronaviruses. A passionate advocate for women in STEM fields, Lambe has sought to support future leaders through the Teresa Lambe Bursary Fund established in her hometown of Kilcullen, Ireland. Her scientific excellence has been recognized with numerous honors, including an honorary appointment as Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her service to sciences and public health in the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honors and the Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad in 2022. In 2024, she was named a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. Lambe completed a joint honors bachelor’s degree in pharmacology and genetics and a doctoral degree at University College Dublin.

Alice McDermott (doctor of letters)

Alice McDermott, born in Brooklyn, New York, to first-generation Irish American parents, is the author of nine critically acclaimed and New York Times-bestselling novels and a collection of essays. She received the National Book Award for her 1998 novel “Charming Billy” and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize three times, for her books “That Night,” “At Weddings and Wakes” and “After This.” In 2013, she was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame, and in 2024, she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Among numerous prizes, McDermott is the recipient of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award, the Seamus Heaney Award for Arts and Letters and the Eugene O’Neill Lifetime Achievement Award from Irish American Writers & Artists Inc. Her latest novel, “Absolution,” received the 2024 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award. She served for many years as the Richard A. Macksey Professor of the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University before stepping down in 2019. McDermott received her bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York at Oswego and a master’s of arts from the University of New Hampshire.

Sister Raffaella Petrini, F.S.E. (doctor of laws)

Sister Raffaella Petrini, F.S.E., a member of the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist, holds the highest leadership position within the administrative structure of the Vatican as the president of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and president of the Governorate of Vatican City State. In this capacity, Sister Petrini oversees the governance of Vatican City and manages its daily operations and policies in accordance with the Holy Father’s directives, including security, infrastructure and cultural heritage. Appointed by Pope Francis, she is the first woman to serve in this role. Her life as a Catholic religious sister has been filled with many other “firsts,” including being one of three women Pope Francis appointed to the Dicastery for Bishops. Having earned her undergraduate degree in political science from Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali in Rome, she holds a master’s degree in organizational behavior from the University of Hartford and a doctorate from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, where she later taught courses in welfare economics and the sociology of economic processes.