At Commencement 2012, Amherst awarded seven honorary doctorates and a Medal for Eminent Service. The college also honored high school teachers nominated by graduating seniors.


Honorary doctorates

Christiane Amanpour, global affairs anchor at ABC News and host of Amanpour on CNN International, where she is chief international correspondent

Sheila C. Bair, chair of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. from 2006 to 2011. Played a major role in the government’s response to the 2008 financial crisis. Senior adviser to The Pew Charitable Trusts

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Martin Duberman, political activist and Bancroft Prize-winning writer. Founded the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York

Ulric St. Clair Haynes Jr. ’52, U.S. ambassador to Algeria from 1977 to 1981. Helped to negotiate the Iran hostage crisis. Distinguished visiting scholar at the University of Central Florida. Member of the American Academy of Diplomacy and the Council on Foreign Relations

David K. Lewis ’64, the Margaret W. Kelly Professor of Chemistry at Connecticut College. Honored by the American Chemical Society for his collaboration with undergraduate researchers, including many women and minorities

Anthony W. Marx, president and CEO of the New York Public Library. President of Amherst from 2003 to 2011

John McPhee, author of 29 nonfiction books, staff writer at The New Yorker and Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton. Won a 1999 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction


President Martin congratulates Amanpour.

Medal for Eminent Service

Businessman George W. Carmany III ’62, vice president of the Society of the Alumni for 2011–12 and founder and organizer (with classmate Gerald R. Fink) of the college’s annual Fink Bioscience Symposium

Swift Moore Teaching Awards

Alexis Nogelo Dekel, The Berkshire Arts and Technology Charter Public School, Adams, Mass.; Jacson G. Lowe, Cedar Ridge High School, Hillsborough, N.C.; Eyal Wallenberg, The Urban Assembly School for Law & Justice, New York City