LEWISTON, Maine – Yale Professor of Law Stephen L. Carter, one of the nation’s most celebrated experts on religious freedom, will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree and speak at the 137th commencement at Bates College.

In her first commencement exercise as Bates College president, Elaine Tuttle Hansen will confer bachelor’s degrees on approximately 450 seniors at 10 a.m. Monday, May 26, in an outdoor ceremony on the historic quad in front of Coram Library. In the event of rain, graduation exercises will be held in the nearby Merrill Gymnasium.

Joining Carter as honorary degree recipients will be former Bates president Donald W. Harward, United Nations Children’s Fund Executive Director Carol Bellamy and Harvard Medical School heart research pioneer Eugene Braunwald.

The William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale, Stephen L. Carter has helped to shape national debate on issues ranging from the role of religion in American politics to the impact of integrity and civility upon our daily lives. The New York Times has called him one of the country's leading public intellectuals. Born in Washington, D.C., Carter attended the public schools of Washington, New York City, and Ithaca, N.Y. He received his bachelor's degree from Stanford and his law degree from Yale. Before joining the Yale faculty in 1982, he served as a clerk first for the United States Court of Appeals and later for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. A teacher of constitutional law, contracts, intellectual property, law and religion, legal ethics, and law and science, Carter is also a critically acclaimed novelist and nonfiction writer on subjects including affirmative action and the judicial confirmation process. His nonfiction, such as the bestseller The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion (1993), Civility: Manners, Morals, and the Etiquette of Democracy (1998) and Reflections of An Affirmative Action Baby  (1991) have won praise from across the political spectrum, from Anna Quindlen, Marian Wright Edelman and former President Bill Clinton, to William Buckley and the late John Cardinal O'Connor. Carter's first novel, The Emperor of Ocean Park  (2002) explores the worlds of family and law.The first non-theologian to receive the Louisville-Grawemeyer Award in religion, he is a member of the American Law Institute, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a trustee of the Aspen Institute, where he moderates seminars for executives and political leaders on values-based leadership. Published widely in law reviews and the popular press, he has provided commentary on such television shows as Nightline, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer  and Face the Nation.

Carol Bellamy told an interviewer in 2000: “I believe that the world is the power of many, not just the power of one, and you can become more powerful if you’re able to engage others and bring them along with you,” During nearly eight years as executive director of the UNICEF, Bellamy has done just that. Arguing that poverty can be reduced and the world can be made more secure only if children are allowed to grow in health, peace, and dignity, Bellamy’s UNICEF has five key priorities: immunizing every child; ensuring that all girls and boys receive a quality basic education; reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS and its impact on youth; protecting children from violence and exploitation; and introducing universal early childhood development programs. Bellamy’s experience spans finance, law, and public service. From 1993 until 1995, she was director of the Peace Corps, the first former Corps volunteer to run the organization.Previously she was a managing director at Bear Stearns & Co., a principal at Morgan Stanley, and an associate in the New York law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore. In 1978 Bellamy was elected the first woman president of the New York City Council, a position she held until 1985, and she earlier served five years in the New York State Senate. At UNICEF, Bellamy has challenged world leaders to recognize their responsibility to invest in children — and to shift national resources accordingly. “In a global economy worth over $30 trillion, it is clear that the necessary resources and know-how to reach every child are well within our grasp,” Bellamy told a gathering in Stockholm in 2002.

“Most heart attack survivors have never heard of Dr. Eugene Braunwald,” The Boston Globe stated in May 2002, “but chances are his research helped save their lives or improve their recovery.” Braunwald, whose family came to this country in 1939 after fleeing Nazi-ruled Austria, is a premier cardiologist of our time. His stature, the Globe continued, “is anchored in his landmark 1971 discovery that a heart attack is a progressive event. His insight that doctors could intervene . . . to reduce injury to the heart opened the door to the entire field of modern heart-attack treatment.” At Harvard Medical School, Braunwald is the Distinguished Hersey Professor of Medicine and faculty dean for academic programs in the Partners HealthCare system, founded by the Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General hospitals. Braunwald graduated first in his class of doctoral recipients at New York University, where he also earned his A.B., and completed his residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He served as chief of cardiology and clinical director at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute; founded the department of medicine at the University of California, San Diego; and from 1972 to 1996 chaired the department of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The only cardiologist who is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, Braunwald has received countless awards and honors. In 1996, Harvard created the Eugene Braunwald Professorship in Medicine as a permanently endowed chair, and in 1999 the American Heart Association established the Eugene Braunwald Academic Mentorship Award.Braunwald has written more than 1,100 publications, been editor-in-chief of the leading textbook in internal medicine, and is founding editor of Heart Disease, the leading cardiology text.

“Donald W. Harward provided the context in which Bates words, concepts, and ideals could be made more real and available to everyone connected to the College,” wrote Bates Trustee Jeanne Dell’Osso Cohen upon the retirement of Bates’ sixth president, who served from 1989 to 2002. Through expanded academic programs and campus facilities, spirited efforts to reach out beyond Bates, and a near-constant encouragement to the Bates community to engage in the work of the College collaboratively and with civility, Harward helped Bates discover ways to translate a traditional culture of hard work, egalitarianism, and social justice into greater excellence and national reputation. “There are no spectator sports at Bates,” he once said. “The College depends on participation and involvement." Bates created 22 significant new facilities and two dozen new academic programs during Harward’s tenure. Through increased study-abroad programs, more support for student-faculty collaborations, and a renowned service-learning program, students and faculty explored the world outside the traditional ivory tower, including Lewiston-Auburn. The LA Excels collaboration established under Harward, called “the most extensive community development project in the history of the state” by then-Maine Gov. Angus King, inspired Bates and the community to recast its relationship and identify shared aspirations; upon his retirement, the Bates Board of Trustees endowed the Donald W. and Ann M. Harward Center for Community Partnerships. Prior to the Bates presidency, Harward taught and served at the University of Delaware, where he designed the University Honors Program, and then was vice president for academic affairs at The College of Wooster. He earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Maryland, and among his areas of published research are the foundations of mathematics, analytical philosophy, epistemology, and logic. He is a senior advisor for the American Council on Education Fellows Program and a senior fellow with the American Association of American Colleges and Universities.