Angela Duckworth, a prominent professor of psychology specializing in the concepts of grit and perseverance and their relationship to education, leadership, and personal development, will deliver the Bates College Commencement address on Sunday, May 25, 2025. 

Author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, a cultural phenomenon that stayed on The New York Times bestseller list for 164 weeks, Duckworth will receive a Doctor of Humane Letters degree and be joined by three other honorary degree recipients:

• Mary Bonauto, the pioneering civil rights attorney whose landmark advocacy helped establish marriage equality in the U.S., will receive a Doctor of Laws degree. 
• Stanley Nelson, an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose work amplifies untold histories and who mentors emerging filmmakers of color, will receive a Doctor of Fine Arts degree.
• Deval Patrick, former governor of Massachusetts and a champion of public leadership and civic engagement, will receive a Doctor of Laws degree.

“This year’s honorary degree recipients embody the Bates values of leadership, creativity, resilience, and purpose,” said President Garry W. Jenkins. “From expanding civil rights and redefining character development to telling our stories and advancing the public good, these individuals have shaped the world in ways that should resonate deeply with our graduates and their families.”

The 159th Commencement ceremony begins on Sunday, May 25, at 10 a.m. on the Historic Quad, with a livestream available on the Bates College website and social media platforms.

Mary Bonauto

The architect of legal strategies that advance equality, Mary Bonauto is a trailblazer in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights. In 2015, she successfully argued Obergefell v. Hodges before the U.S. Supreme Court, which struck down state bans on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional, and in 2003 led the way to legal victory in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, which made Massachusetts the first state to legalize same-sex marriage.

Bonauto is senior director of civil rights and legal strategies at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law). A 2014 MacArthur Fellow, Bonauto was recognized for her work to ensure “equal treatment and dignity for all people” and for “influencing debates about the relationship between the law and momentous social change.” In January 2025, President Joe Biden awarded her the Presidential Citizens Medal, one of the nation’s highest civilian honors, for her contributions to democracy and justice. 

A longtime resident of Maine, Bonauto began her legal career in the Pine Tree State in 1987 during the height of the AIDS epidemic, establishing a pro bono practice to include discrimination issues and gaps in the law as to LGBTQ people and families. Thirty years ago this spring, she took a leading role in fighting a statewide referendum in Maine that sought to bar legal protections for LGBTQ+ individuals. 

Bonauto graduated from Hamilton College, majoring in history and comparative literature with membership in Phi Beta Kappa, and earned a law degree from Northeastern University School of Law. Her profound influence in the fight for equality led former Massachusetts congressman Barney Frank to describe her as “the LGBT community’s equivalent of Thurgood Marshall.” Bonauto deflects acclaim, saying, “This movement has involved so many people for so many decades that I feel a completely inadequate stand-in for all of those millions of people, for all they have done.”

Angela Duckworth

A leading voice in the study of human behavior, Angela Duckworth has revolutionized our understanding of resilience and success. Her research has also advanced insights into how people make choices in real-world contexts, from education to public health.

Using research data from West Point cadets, National Spelling Bee finalists, novice teachers, sales professionals, entrepreneurs, and other high-achieving individuals, Duckworth published Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance in 2016. A cultural phenomenon and No. 1 international bestseller, the book has shaped the way educators, business leaders, and individuals approach personal growth. With more than 35 million views, her TED Talk on grit is one of the most viewed of all time. 

Duckworth is the Rosa Lee and Egbert Chang Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, where she is also the faculty co-director of the Penn-Wharton Behavior Change for Good Initiative and Wharton People Analytics. She has advised the World Bank, NBA and NFL teams, and Fortune 500 CEOs, served as a McKinsey management consultant, and co-founded Character Lab, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing scientific insights that help children thrive.

A former math and science teacher at public schools in New York City, San Francisco, and Philadelphia, Duckworth is a 2013 MacArthur Fellow, selected for “clarifying the role that intellectual strengths and personality traits play in educational achievement” and for “providing an alternative to the focus on cognitive skills now dominant in American education practice.” Prior to her career in research, she founded a summer school for underserved children that was profiled as a Harvard Kennedy School case study. She earned a bachelor’s degree in neurobiology from Harvard College, a master of science in neuroscience at Oxford as a Marshall Scholar, and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Stanley Nelson

A multiple Emmy Award–winning filmmaker and recipient of the National Humanities Medal, Stanley Nelson is a director, writer, and producer of documentaries that capture the struggles and triumphs of the American experience, particularly through the lens of Black history and civil rights.

Through his more than 30 films, including Freedom Riders, Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, The Murder of Emmett Till, and Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, Nelson has shaped public memory and historical discourse while elevating and amplifying voices never before heard. “What I’m trying to do is part detective,” he once said. “There’s a feeling that we all know about the civil rights movement. So part of it is finding new and exciting voices that we haven’t heard.”

A 2002 MacArthur Fellow, Nelson is an American Film Institute Guggenheim Symposium honoree and is mentoring a new generation of filmmakers of color through Firelight Media, an incubator for underrepresented voices in documentary film that he co-founded with his wife, the writer and producer Marcia Smith. In 2013, President Barack Obama presented the filmmaker with the National Medal in the Humanities. In 2022, Nelson received his first Oscar nomination for Attica, a documentary about the 1971 prison uprising, which won Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary from the Directors Guild of America.

In a 2020 New York Times story on documentary film’s role in advancing racial justice, published in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, Nelson said that moving images are “responsible for people getting out on the streets all over the country. You don’t have to start a movement, there’s already something happening and you can just join in.” Nelson earned a bachelor’s degree from the Leonard Davis Film School at the City College of New York.

Deval Patrick

Born on Chicago’s South Side, Deval Patrick has spent a lifetime championing justice, opportunity, and servant leadership. As governor of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2015, he led the Commonwealth to a 25-year employment high and top national rankings in student achievement, healthcare coverage, entrepreneurial activity, and veterans services. He defended marriage equality and led the state’s response to the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013.

Before serving as governor, Patrick was a partner at two Boston law firms, an executive at two Fortune 50 companies, and a civil rights attorney at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, where he litigated cases involving voting rights and the death penalty. Under President Bill Clinton, he was the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, where his cases included the response to a wave of arsons targeting Black churches — the largest criminal investigation in U.S. history prior to 9/11. 

After leaving office, Patrick founded and led Bain Capital Double Impact, a fund to deliver both market returns and positive social and environmental impact. He was the founding chair of Our Generation Speaks, which brings together young Israeli and Palestinian leaders through entrepreneurship. Patrick is also the author of two books, A Reason to Believe and Faith in the Dream, which reflect on his commitment to servant leadership. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, he is currently the David R. Gergen Professor of Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School and a senior partner at The Vistria Group, a mission-driven investment firm.

In 2020, speaking to Bates alumni as the inaugural speaker for the Benjamin Mays Black Alumni Society, he noted that “government has had a role to play in helping people help themselves” — an apt reminder for anyone who has lived the American Dream.