David Benioff ’92
DAVID BENIOFF — as a novelist, screenwriter, producer, and proud member of the Dartmouth Class of 1992, you have reminded us that every part of the journey is worthwhile.
At Dartmouth, you said, you learned how to be part of a team. Through four years of rugby and one term as president of Phi Delta Alpha, you proved to be a natural leader. Yet it was also a senior year fellowship with professor Ernie Hebert, as you pursued your degree in English Literature, that had a profound impact on your future.
Your journey has been anything but conventional—from a thesis on Samuel Beckett at Trinity College in Dublin, to working as a bouncer in San Francisco, radio DJ in Wyoming, and high-school English teacher and wrestling coach in Brooklyn. Yet it is those varied life experiences — and your willingness to explore new environments—that have fueled your creative pursuits.
While in Dublin, you met collaborator D.B. Weiss, with whom you would co-create the international sensation Game of Thrones. For eight seasons and 73 episodes, you brought joy, excitement, sadness, and outright shock—we all remember the Red Wedding!—to millions. Your work drove attention to an extraordinary cast of actors and created what remains a thriving fan community today.
From your debut novel, The 25th Hour, to screenplays for Troy and The Kite Runner, to your work on 3 Body Problem … you have created art that resonates with people from all walks of life. You have remained an incredible champion of the arts at Dartmouth—supporting our work to reimagine the very same Hopkins Center where you once saw plays, movies, and student exhibitions.
For introducing the outside world to the passions you nurtured here at Dartmouth, for paying it forward to the next generation, for reminding us perseverance leads to greatness, Dartmouth is proud to award you the honorary degree of Doctor of Arts.
Judy Geer ’75, Thayer ’83
JUDY GEER — as a pioneer rower, Olympian, coach, engineer, and a Dartmouth double graduate—from the College Class of 1975, and Thayer Class of 1983—you have reminded us all what it means to live a truly well-rounded life.
You transferred to Dartmouth from Smith College in 1973, a year after Dartmouth opened up the College to women, and joined the newly founded women’s rowing team. The rest is history. You led the team’s first incarnation as a sculler, and returned from 1977 to 1979 as coach, even coaching your sister Carlie, Class of 1980. In between, you made history as Dartmouth’s first female Olympian, competing at the 1976 Games in Montreal—before your selection for the 1980 and 1984 teams, as well.
In tandem with your partner, Dick, a fellow rower and Olympian, you have revolutionized rowing through your company, Concept2—using every part of your Dartmouth education to shape the engineering, marketing, and software of the products, and bringing rowing to everyone, from Olympians to amateur athletes at home.
Through it all, you have exemplified what we mean when we say “Dartmouth is for life.” You’ve served as a great friend of Dartmouth rowing, skiing, swimming, and the Magnuson Center. You’ve done extraordinary work as a Class Officer, reunion giving Co-chair, alumni interviewer. And you have truly made Dartmouth a family affair—as the proud parent of Hannah, Class of 2009 and Thayer 2010; Emily, Class of 2011; and Ethan, Class of 2013 and Thayer 2015.
For knocking down barriers so that others might follow, for inspiring the next generation of Dartmouth athletes and young people everywhere, for demonstrating a life of purpose and impact, Dartmouth is proud to award you the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.
The Rev. William Greason
REV. WILLIAM GREASON — As a trailblazing service member, sportsman, community leader, and man of faith, you have lifted up your country and your community for more than 100 years.
Through Montford Point, you became one of the first Black men to ever wear a Marine Corps uniform. You served heroically abroad—saluting our country’s flag as it was raised on Iwo Jima—and then came home, determined to make that same country live up to its promise.
Armed with an incredible curveball—that I bet you still have—and a deep love for the game, you elevated not only the Birmingham Black Barons, over at Rickwood Field, but all of American baseball.
You made it your mission to mentor those that followed, including fellow great Willie Mays, and when the moment came to help integrate Major League Baseball, you took the ultimate leap so that others might come next: breaking the color barrier with the St. Louis Cardinals.
You have seen firsthand the deep pain, injustice, and tragedy in this country’s history—including at 16th Street Baptist Church, just miles from here. And yet for the past 50 years as a pastor, you have shared a message of hope, faith, and love.
You have lived every day the idea of “service over self”—that it is better to give than receive; that the best leadership is through example; and that we must never compromise on the principles that sustain us.
For your patriotism, for your bravery in lighting the path, so that others might follow, for your extraordinary life of service, I’m deeply honored to award you the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.
Mike Harrity, the Haldeman Family Director of Athletics and Recreation, presented the Rev. William Greason with his honorary degree in a ceremony on Sunday, May 4, in Birmingham, Alabama.
Antonia Novello
ANTONIA NOVELLO — as a public health advocate and the 14th Surgeon General of the United States, you have shown what it means to find your purpose in the world, then dedicate your life to it.
A personal experience as a child, in which you were forced to wait more than a decade for surgery, left an indelible impression—and sent you on a lifelong mission to help every person live with dignity, and receive the timely care they need. Through your early work at the National Institutes of Health, you worked tirelessly to raise the standard of child care, and shaped the Organ Transplant Act of 1984—an Act that would save thousands of lives. Your work on pediatric AIDS, then an emerging crisis, drew national praise—and on March 9, 1990, you were sworn in to serve as the 14th Surgeon General of the United States, marking two firsts: the first woman and Latina in American history in those roles.
You attacked the role with vigor, focusing on a holistic look at health—curbing smoking, underage drinking, and promoting immunization in children. You focused on those who had too often been left behind by the system: women, children, and people of color. You proved, day in and day out, why representation at our highest levels of leadership truly matters.
And you remind us: a lifelong mission never stops. Following your time as Surgeon General, you continued to advocate for public health through leadership positions in UNICEF; your professorship at Johns Hopkins; and from 1999 to 2006, as Commissioner of the New York State Department of Health.
For your pioneering work on holistic health, for advocating on behalf of communities in need, for leaving multiple glass ceilings shattered in your wake, Dartmouth is proud to award you the honorary degree of Doctor of Science.
Sandra Oh
SANDRA OH — as an award-winning actor, producer, and activist, you have reminded the world that we all have a story worth telling.
As a young child, you sat in the nosebleed seats at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Canada, transfixed by the musical Annie. You knew you had found your calling. You made the bold decision, at 18, to tell your parents you were forgoing a journalism scholarship to study drama at the National Theatre School in Montreal, and pay your own way.
The rest, as they say, is history.
You have said you are “eternally grateful for the struggle”—for the winding path that has led you to where you are. From an early breakthrough in The Diary of Evelyn Lau in Vancouver, to taking a leap and moving to Hollywood, to earning any number of career-defining roles, which portray talented, accomplished women in all their complexity: Dr. Cristina Yang on Grey’s Anatomy; Eve Polastri on Killing Eve; Professor Ji-Yoon Kim on The Chair, just to name a few.
With grace and nuance, you have portrayed women breaking barriers in male-dominated fields. Every time you step on screen, you demonstrate the magnetism and electricity that your directors and castmates rave about. You have been recognized with two Golden Globes, four SAG Awards, and a Primetime Emmy, making history as the first actress of Asian descent to be nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama.
And just as importantly: You have used your voice to lift up others. You have been an outspoken leader for belonging; as well as a tireless advocate for the environment; human rights; and women’s rights, working to ensure that all our stories are told.
For being a trailblazer, for using your platform to effect meaningful change, for making it impossible to look away, Dartmouth is proud to award you the honorary degree of Doctor of Arts.
Mikaela Shiffrin
MIKAELA SHIFFRIN — as one of the winningest skiers of all time, you have redefined excellence—while reminding us that there is much more to success than whether or not we end up on an Olympic podium.
You were born into the Dartmouth family through your father, Jeff—a devoted member of the Dartmouth ski team and proud member of the Class of 1976. When your family returned to the Upper Valley, you showed up to the Dartmouth Skiway to join a local club at the age of eight. Other children were using cafeteria trays to slide down a slope near the base lodge. You were analyzing turn apexes.
Just weeks after your 16th birthday, you won the slalom title at the U.S. National Championships, becoming the youngest American ski racer ever to claim a national Alpine crown. This was only the beginning of one of the most remarkable athletic careers of our time: one that has led to 16 World Cup season titles, 101 total victories, and two Olympic Gold Medals.
Yet we honor you today for far more than athletic excellence. Throughout your career and life, you have encountered challenges we can all relate to: when a performance doesn’t go as planned; when an injury prevents us from being our best; when we lose someone or something that means so much to us.
It is in how you’ve responded to those challenges—with vulnerability, grace, and resilience—that your true greatness lies. Because of your work as a champion of mental health, young people across the world are having conversations they’ve never had before. They do so because a figure like you—at the pinnacle of her profession—has boldly paved the way.
For building a legacy far beyond the slopes, for teaching us all how to go beyond our comfort zone, for reminding us it’s not how we fall, but how we get up, Dartmouth is proud to award you the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.
Lynn Trujillo ’94
LYNN TRUJILLO — as an attorney, history-maker, and proud member of the Dartmouth Class of 1994, you have been an unrelenting champion for our Native communities and the most vulnerable among us.
As a citizen of the Sandia Pueblo Tribe in New Mexico and part of Acoma and Taos Pueblos, you have long understood the importance of the relationships between our government, institutions, and Native and Indigenous tribes. Your time at Dartmouth motivated you to pursue deeply needed change across the national landscape.
Through your early work in tribal law, you have achieved hard-fought gains—helping secure critical funding for infrastructure and housing; ensuring schools in Native American communities received the investments they needed; and demanding the federal government live up to its promise to provide Native Americans with access to quality care, through its management of the Indian Health Service.
As Secretary of the New Mexico Department of Indian Affairs, you led the state’s first task force on missing and murdered Indigenous women—a critical step forward to achieve long-overdue justice—and served as a community liaison during the COVID-19 pandemic. And when you made history in 2023, as the first Native American woman to serve as senior counselor to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, your impact only grew—securing settlements for Native water rights; supporting environmental restoration; creating economic opportunity for young people in Native communities; and working to protect historic land.
For fighting for those who have too often gone without a voice, for bravely forging a new path, for reminding us what it truly means to fight for the justice and dignity of all, Dartmouth is proud to award you the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.
