Each year, at Commencement, Haverford College awards honorary degrees to individuals who have distinguished themselves in letters, the sciences, or the arts, or who have devoted their lives to service and the betterment of humanity. At this year’s May 18 ceremony, the College will award honorary degrees to alum and mindfulness pioneer Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD ’64 and physician and founder of the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium, Dr. Ala Stanford.

Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD ’64
A practitioner of Buddhist meditation and yoga since 1965, when he was a graduate student in molecular biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, achieved international recognition following the publication of his book Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness (1990). A 1993 appearance on the PBS series Healing and the Mind, with Bill Moyers, introduced Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) to a mainstream audience. Kabat-Zinn is the author of a series of scientific papers on mindfulness and 15 books — including, in 2023, Mindfulness Meditation for Pain Relief, and in 2024, a 30th-anniversary edition of Wherever You Go, There You Are. His books are published in more than 45 languages.

Kabat-Zinn undertook his pioneering work as a professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he remains professor emeritus. There he founded the world-renowned MBSR Clinic in 1979 and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society (CFM) in 1995, both now part of UMass Memorial Health. From its inception, Kabat-Zinn envisioned MBSR not as a therapy but as a public health project, with the aim to move the bell curve of society, over time, in the direction of greater health and well-being on every level. More than 700 hospitals and medical centers around the world now offer MBSR. Kabat-Zinn’s work and that of a global community of colleagues have contributed to a growing movement of mindfulness into mainstream institutions such as medicine, higher education, business, social justice, the law, technology, and government.

Dr. Ala Stanford
A national health equity leader and healthcare policy advisor, Dr. Ala Stanford advocates for vulnerable populations worldwide. Stanford garnered international recognition during the COVID-19 pandemic when she leveraged her pediatric surgery practice in Philadelphia to form The Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium, a grassroots organization focused on education, testing, contract tracing, and vaccination in communities without access to lifesaving care and resources. Through the reach of its work, the consortium served more than 100,000 of the city’s most vulnerable residents, who were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.

In 2022, Stanford was appointed by President Joe Biden to serve as the regional director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for the Mid-Atlantic region, a role in which she oversaw federal health programs and initiatives in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington D.C. In her continued effort to shift the paradigm of medical services and eliminate health disparities, in 2021 she also founded a Center for Health Equity in a Philadelphia community with the lowest life expectancy. The expert care provided by the center’s culturally competent and diverse clinicians has expanded the continuum of care and improved health outcomes.

Stanford’s numerous accolades include recognition as one of Forbes’ most influential women in 2021 and 2022, a George H.W. Bush Points of Light Award, a CNN Hero, and the commissioning of a Philadelphia street in her name. In August, Simon & Schuster will publish Take Care of Them Like My Own, a memoir that explores how her experiences on both sides of the scalpel have informed her understanding of the nation’s racial health gap.

Since 1858, Haverford has awarded honorary degrees in recognition of those whose lives and work speak of the College's mission and values. The number of recipients each year varies. They are selected by a committee of students, faculty, staff, and alumni representatives.