Honorary Degrees

In her more than 30 years in California, Bettye Saxon has developed and strengthened relationships with a wide variety of community advocates, elected officials, non-profit organizations and business professionals. Saxon has been a consistent and strong supporter of Cal State Monterey Bay for the last eight years, advocating for the university in the community and as an active presence on campus.

She served on the CSUMB Foundation Board from 2017 to 2024, and as board chair from 2020 to 2023. She’s been involved in a variety of campus programs including the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Center forums, the annual Agricultural Woman of the Year lunch, and our annual Commencement ceremony. She actively engaged in helping the university move forward as it undertook a brand study, launched a new marketing campaign, and prepared for a blended capital campaign.

Through her career in the telecommunications industry and as a highly respected public speaker, Saxon is a driving force in creating leadership opportunities for women and in promoting accessible technology across the region. Both values align closely with CSUMB’s strategic goals.

In her current role as External Affairs Regional Manager for AT&T on the California Central Coast, Saxon is primarily responsible for government relations in Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Benito and San Luis Obispo counties and has helped connect the university to many partners in the community and region.

Saxon has served on the boards of many community-based and educational organizations, including the American Heart Association, Junior Achievement of Northern California, Hartnell Community College STEM programs, and Natividad Hospital. Most recently, Saxon was elected to the board of. the Panetta Institute for Public Policy.

Saxon holds a bachelor’s degree in information systems management, a master’s in counseling psychology, and a doctorate in organizational leadership from the University of San Francisco. She is the proud mother of two adult children, Elisha Wilson, a 2019 graduate of Seattle University; and Andre Carpenter, a Senior Technology Specialist with Apple Inc.

David L. Stivers is CEO of Pebble Beach Company, the world-famous golf resort located on the Monterey Peninsula. He has been a strong supporter of Cal State Monterey Bay through this role, his connection with the Pebble Beach Foundation, and his work with Monterey Peninsula Foundation.

Pebble Beach Company and the university launched a first-of-its-kind Scholars program in 2024 that CSUMB hopes will be a model for more industry partners in the future. The program provides students with scholarships for up to four years, campus housing during academic breaks, and internships at one of the most prestigious resorts in the world.

Prior to the Scholars program, Pebble Beach Company and the College of Business collaborated to create a Special Events Management Team internship program in 2019. It gave 60 students the opportunity to work at world-class events such as the Concours D’Elegance, a world-renowned car show.

Stivers consistently connects the university with opportunities through the Pebble Beach Company, including an agreement for use of a campus parking lot during the AT&T Pro-Am each year in exchange for inclusion on promotional materials and access to the event. He always considers how to involve our Sustainable Hospitality and Tourism Management students when new occasions arise.

Stivers joined Pebble Beach Company in 1999 as Executive Vice President and became President in 2017 and CEO in July 2021. He previously held senior leadership roles with the Promus Hotel Corporation’s Hospitality Ventures Group and Doubletree Corporation. Prior to Doubletree, he spent six years as a corporate lawyer with the law firm of Latham & Watkins.

Originally from the West Coast, Stivers received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1983. He earned his doctorate in jurisprudence from Harvard Law School in 1987. Stivers and his wife, Jean, reside in Pebble Beach. They have four children and one grandchild.

Dr. Steven Packer has been a consistent leadership-level annual fund donor to California State University, Monterey Bay since 2004. As the CEO of Montage Health, he has been an integral partner in supporting healthcare programs and students within the College of Health Sciences and Human Services. Montage Health’s community partnership of nearly $1 million to CSUMB has supported programs within the college as well as scholarships for students.

Appointed as president/CEO of Montage Health and its related corporation in January 1999, Packer has long had a strong role in supporting healthcare in our region. His background as chief of staff for Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula and as a medical director of the intensive care unit for 11 years, has provided him with real-world knowledge that guides his support of health and well-being in our community.

Under Packer’s leadership, Montage Health has experienced considerable growth. In his 25 years as Chief Executive Officer, he has overseen the expansion of Community Hospital’s facilities through the 200,000 square-foot Pavilions Project, development of the Carol Hatton Breast Care Center, construction of the Ryan Ranch Outpatient Campus, and the creation of Montage Medical Group. He has also worked to expand access to essential services with the opening of Ohana, Montage’s innovative youth and adolescent mental health program, the development of  Montage Wellness Centers in Marina and Salinas, and the creation of Monterey County’s first Medicare Advantage Program, Aspire Health Plan.

A strong supporter of education, he is instrumental in offering support to CSUMB nursing and physician assistant students who have completed clinical rotations at all Montage locations in Monterey County. Numerous CSUMB alumni work for Montage Health.

Packer is active in community and industry affairs. He has served on the boards of the California Hospital Association (past chair), Vizient West Coast, and NORCAL Mutual Insurance Company, and served on CSUMB’s Foundation board from 2014-2023. Through his work, Packer seeks opportunities to provide philanthropic support to local community initiatives and organizations. 

Packer serves as an inspirational role model for our healthcare students, as the university focuses on expanding health programs that serve the region. His work clearly aligns his life and career with our CSUMB mission to be recognized as a premier comprehensive university that prepares reflective practitioners, innovative leaders, and thriving citizens dedicated to the public good.

The late Robert “Bob” Darwin is the largest donor in CSUMB history. His legacy estate gift will provide scholarship support to CSUMB students, ensuring that financial barriers will not stop them from pursuing their dreams through higher education. Darwin died in April 2023 at age 96. 

He was born in 1926 and grew up in and around Elizabeth, New Jersey, the son of immigrant parents. After serving three years in the U.S. Navy, he attended Rutgers University in New Brunswick, where he majored in business and finance. He spent 10 years in Hollywood pursuing a career as a screenwriter, actor, producer and director. He left in 1967 — declaring it “totally corrupt” — and later wrote a memoir about his experiences.

He formed a real estate acquisition partnership and bought a ranch in Carmel Valley, California, and other trophy properties throughout the West. He raised thoroughbred horses and formed Transjet, the first jet-oriented, fixed-base operation in the Monterey, California, area.

Returning to writing – if only as a sideline – he became editor of The Streamliner, a rail-based, technically-oriented quarterly publication, then wrote “The History of the Union Pacific Railroad in Cheyenne,” a coffee-table book that became the most successful and highly praised rail photo book ever published. Darwin continued writing in his retirement years. He was working on a second memoir about his non-Hollywood years and another book, “Yuri,” recounting his father’s six-year-long flight out of Ukraine and around the world after the beginning of the Bolshevik Revolution in October 1917.

Darwin was inspired by his housekeeper, Polly De Leon, to give his historic gift to the university. De Leon was an undocumented immigrant worker from Mexico when Darwin first hired her. They became close friends, and she remained in his employ for over 25 years. She and her husband, Aquilino Zarazua, also a Mexican immigrant, became U.S. citizens and raised three daughters who all earned college degrees. The oldest, Blanca Zarazua, is now a tax attorney and specialist in immigration law.

In Darwin’s words, “Polly did what she always strove to do. That’s what I call success. … And if my money can help one more kid earn the same kind of success in life that Polly achieved for her children, then I will know that I didn’t do it in vain,” he said. “That will be my reward.

Roberta “Bertie” Elliott has consistently donated to CSUMB beginning in 1998 with our first president, Peter Smith. Both personally and through her foundation, the Berkshire Foundation, she has supported science, the library, Women’s Leadership Council scholarships and the arts. Her lifetime giving to CSUMB is over $7.5 million.

Elliott is a community philanthropist with a demonstrated commitment to education, the arts and healthcare. Her 2017 gift of $105 million to Montage Health and the Community Hospital of Monterey County, or CHOMP, launched a family behavioral health program to serve the needs of community families. The donation was the largest in CHOMP history, and the 18th largest in the nation made by an individual in 2017. 

Elliott said the fact that the county had no hospital beds for children requiring mental health evaluations was a motivator, along with the opportunity to transform the way mental health care — both prevention and treatment — is delivered to youth. She named the 24-bed inpatient center, which has an outpatient treatment wing, Ohana, the Hawaiian word for family.

Elliott was born in Omaha, Nebraska. She graduated from Northwestern University in 1954 with a degree in history and Phil Beta Kappa honors. In 1963, she and her then-husband moved to Carmel, California, to raise their family. She was an early investor in Berkshire Hathaway, founded by her brother, legendary investor Warren Buffett. She and her three daughters established the Berkshire Foundation in 1996 and have supported many organizations and institutions through it.

She served on the board of trustees of Montage Health/CHOMP from 1997-2003, led the campaign to build the hospital’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, and provided support for numerous other projects, including the Family Birth Center and Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit.

She has also served on the boards of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Monterey County Symphony Association, Carmel Bach Festival, and Community Foundation for Monterey County. She is also a former president of the Junior League of Monterey County.

Helen Rucker, a retired teacher, librarian and longtime community activist on the Monterey Peninsula, has dedicated her career and life to civil rights and community engagement. She remains active in the Seaside community, previously serving as a city council member and board member of the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District. She also volunteers with numerous other community organizations addressing issues important to her including: prison education, HIV/AIDS prevention, Black entrepreneurship, mental health services, tax assistance and meal delivery for seniors, police reform, low-income housing, voter education and registration and civil rights. In 2015, California State Assemblymember Mark Stone honored her lifetime of service by naming her Woman of the Year for the 29th District. 

Voting rights is a cause Ms. Rucker has advocated over the years. She began her activism by holding voter registration information sessions in Louisiana and then in California. She is the founder of Seaside’s Voter Education Center, an organization dedicated to inspiring young people, especially of color, to vote.  In 2017, Ms. Rucker was awarded the Monterey County Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Medgar Evers Freedom Legacy Award for her work on behalf of civil rights and civic engagement. In each of the last five national elections, as well as over 10 local, county and state elections, she ensured the community had access to educational materials and forums in which to discuss and debate pertinent issues. 

In 2019 Ms. Rucker received the Community Woman of Distinction from the Women’s Leadership Council at California State University, Monterey Bay. This award was created to honor a tri-county area woman who represents the mission and goals of the Women’s Leadership Council; demonstrates support to CSU Monterey Bay; serves as a model to students; and demonstrates a commitment to community service. Ms. Rucker has been a donor to CSU Monterey Bay every year since 1999. She is one of the university’s most loyal and consistent donors.  

In recognition of her many accomplishments and civic work at both the local and national levels, the Board of Trustees of the California State University and California State University, Monterey Bay are proud to confer upon Helen Rucker honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. 

Amy Driscoll has dedicated her career to helping institutions better engage with their communities and better assess and facilitate student learning. She has had an enormous impact at California State University, Monterey Bay and on higher education nationally and internationally. Her exemplary work and leadership in the areas of teaching and learning, student learning outcomes assessment and community engagement, coupled with her work as CSU Monterey Bay's founding director of the Center for Teaching, Learning & Assessment, make her an ideal recipient of an honorary degree during CSU Monterey Bay's 25th anniversary celebration.

Dr. Driscoll founded CSU Monterey Bay's Center for Teaching, Learning & Assessment in 1998. Previously, she served as the director of community/university partnerships at Portland State University. At CSU Monterey Bay, working with the new university's faculty and programs, she played a key role in establishing CSU Monterey Bay as a national leader in outcomes-based education. After retiring, Dr. Driscoll continued to make significant contributions to university/community engagement and college-level teaching, learning and assessment.

In 2005, Dr. Driscoll coordinated development of the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification. In 2006 and 2008 she coordinated the Carnegie classification of 197 universities and colleges as community-engaged institutions. She has presented at the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) Academic Resource Conference, the Association of American College and University conferences and the Assessment Institute of Indianapolis. She has mentored more than 60 institutions nationally and internationally in student learning outcomes assessment. In addition to authoring the widely-used textbook, “Early Childhood Education, Birth-8" and many influential articles, Dr. Driscoll's books include: “Making Outreach Visible: A Guidebook to Documenting Professional Service"; “Assessing Service Learning"; “Taking Ownership of Accreditation: Processes that Promote Institutional Improvement and Faculty Engagement"; and “From Outcomes-based Assessment to Learner-centered Education".

In what may be Dr. Driscoll's most significant contribution to student learning, she established and facilitated WSCUC's Assessment Leadership Academy. Over the past 12 years, the Assessment Leadership Academy has provided professional development on conducting learner-centered assessment to more than 300 assessment leaders worldwide.

In recognition of her leadership in community engagement and student learning, the Board of Trustees of the California State University and California State University, Monterey Bay are proud to confer upon Dr. Amy Driscoll the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. 

For more than four decades, Bruce Taylor has been an influential and passionate leader in Monterey County. He has also been long recognized as a leader and innovator in the agricultural industry.

Mr. Taylor is a third-generation produce grower-marketer in the Salinas Valley. Currently he serves as chairman and chief executive officer of Taylor Fresh Foods and Taylor Farms California, both of which he founded. Taylor Fresh Foods is now the largest supplier of fresh-cut salad products in the United States. The company operates worldwide, with nine production facilities in North America and operations in Australia and New Zealand.

Mr. Taylor has been with Taylor Farms since 1994. He serves as an advisor at Footbridge Partners, as chairman of Taylor Farms Florida and as a director of River Point Farms. Mr. Taylor served as chairman and chief executive officer of Fresh Express. He also served as co-chairman of Fresh International Corporation from 1981 to 1994.

Mr. Taylor is heavily engaged in the City of Salinas and Monterey County, where he and his company have contributed time, energy and resources to healthcare, educational improvement and the economic development of the region.

Mr. Taylor has also made numerous contributions to the success of students at California State University, Monterey Bay, through his company’s scholarship program and through his partnership with the university and various community organizations. His experiences make him an excellent role model for CSU Monterey Bay students.

Over the years, many organizations have recognized Mr. Taylor for his work, including Forbes with the 2015 Impact Award for Leadership bestowed to Mr. Taylor and the Produce Marketing Association that tapped Mr. Taylor for the Robert L. Carey Leadership Award in 2015 for his commitment to courage, community and character. Taylor Farms has earned several outstanding awards under Mr. Taylor’s leadership, including being the first fresh food inductor to achieve TRUE (Total Resource Use and Efficiency) Platinum Certification in 2018 and the first-ever McDonald’s “Self-Managed Excellence” award for outstanding leadership in food, safety, quality and sustainability.

In recognition of his distinguished career, many accomplishments and work to advance equality and educational attainment at both the local and national levels, the Board of Trustees of the California State University and California State University, Monterey Bay are proud to confer upon Bruce Taylor the honorary degree of Doctor of Science.

For over four decades, Samuel Sharon Farr has been an influential and passionate leader in both Monterey County and the nation. His work aligns with both the California State University mission and the California State University, Monterey Bay vision statement.

Congressman Farr was instrumental in the founding of CSUMB. He saw the presence of a CSU campus as integral to the future success of the Central Coast region. Facing the economic loss caused by the closure of Fort Ord, the region needed an economic driver, and the idea of a university that could also serve as a cultural and intellectual hub for the region emerged as the ideal answer. Congressman Farr eagerly pursued this opportunity, resulting in the founding of California State University, Monterey Bay in 1994.

Congressman Farr served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia from 1964-66. When he returned from his Peace Corps service, he worked as a staffer for the California Assembly, and was elected to the Monterey County Board of Supervisors in 1975.

In 1980, he was elected to the State California State Assembly, where he wrote one of the nation's strictest oil spill liability laws and championed the organic agricultural industry. In this work, he was a champion of his district by focusing on its major industry, agriculture, and its greatest resource—the Pacific Ocean. Marine science in the region thrive in part because of Congressman’s Farr’s work in both the California Assembly and the U.S. Congress, where he was a steadfast proponent of ocean conservation.

In his time in Congress, Congressman Farr sponsored and supported legislation that has had a direct positive impact on his district. He advocated for affordable housing, improved education and health care, and farmworkers and their families. He supported the environment through his work on ocean protection (including his support of designating Monterey Bay as a National Marine Sanctuary) and his legislation to create America’s 59th and newest national park, Pinnacles National Park, which helps drive economic growth through expanded tourism to the region. He also supported the defense community in many ways, including supporting the revitalization of the former Fort Ord−which now has a joint Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense health clinic−a new Central Coast Veterans Cemetery and CSUMB.

In recognition of his many accomplishments and work to forward equality at both the local and national levels, the Board of Trustees of the California State University and California State University, Monterey Bay are proud to confer upon Samuel Sharon “Sam” Farr the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.

Toshikiyo Andy Matsui’s successful career alone is inspirational, but his passion and generosity toward students in the community to succeed is truly remarkable.

In 2015, California State University, Monterey Bay, in partnership with Hartnell College, received top-tier recognition from the governor’s committee on Awards for Innovation in Higher Education for the Computer Science Degree-in-Three Years (CS-in-3) program. While many throughout the state and the CSU have rightly praised this innovative three-year program, few know of the one person who has inspired and steadfastly supported these students through four cohorts, Mr. Andy Matsui. This program is just the latest chapter of his vision to support the Salinas Valley through education, as his foundation has been supporting local students for more than ten years.

Born in Japan in 1935, Toshikiyo Andy Matsui grew up in a small village on a small farm, where his family grew rice, vegetables, potatoes and wheat. Mr. Matsui made the bold decision to join a farm training program in the U.S. and eventually made his way to the city of Mountain View, California, to a farm where he apprenticed in growing chrysanthemums, the national flower of Japan.

Later, when other flower growers in the Salinas Valley were going out of business due to competition from Latin America, Mr. Matsui sought out another solution, traveling the world to learn about orchid growing. He believed that orchids would be the flower of the 21st century, and if he could figure out how to plant them in pots to market them in the U.S., as he had done for chrysanthemums in Japan some thirty years earlier, he could survive in the industry. He is now the world’s largest potted orchid farmer.

In this latest chapter of his life, he has transformed from role model to direct supporter of the young people in the Salinas Valley. In 2004, the Matsui Foundation gave its first scholarship, and from 2004 to 2012, it supported local students in their education at institutions throughout California.

CSUMB was fortunate when in 2013, Mr. Matsui decided to focus his generosity on students at a local college and university. Now seeking its fifth cohort of students, the CS-in-3 program has successfully graduated 68 percent of its first cohort in three years, a rate that far exceeds the average for CSUMB and the CSU. Through the support of the Matsui Foundation, more than 240 local students and their families have a much brighter future.

In recognition of his many accomplishments and work to forward equality and educational attainment at both the local and national levels, the Board of Trustees of the California State University and California State University, Monterey Bay are proud to confer upon Toshikiyo Andy Matsui the honorary degree of Doctor of Science.​​

For over two decades, Mr. Jealous has been an influential and passionate leader. His current work aligns with both the California State University mission and the CSU Monterey Bay vision statement.

 Mr. Jealous served as President and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for five years and is the youngest person to take on this role. During his presidency, the NAACP registered 374,553 voters and mobilized nearly 1.2 million new and unlikely voters to cast ballots in the 2012 election. Also during his time as President and CEO, the donor base grew from 16,422 to 132,543 and revenue grew from $25.7 million to $46 million.

Mr. Jealous graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in Political Science and also earned a Master’s in Comparative Social Research from the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. Prior to his work with the NAACP Jealous was president of the Rosenberg Foundation, a foundation whose mission is to enable every person in California to “have fair and equitable opportunities to participate fully in the state’s economic, social and political life.”

Mr. Jealous currently is a Partner at Kapor Capital and Kapor Center for Social Action, which pursues creative strategies that will leverage information technology for positive social impact. The center focuses on closing gaps in American life including those in academic achievement, access to health care and economic opportunity, and in income, information access and social mobility.

Over the years, many organizations have recognized Mr. Jealous for his exemplary work and dedication. He has been named to both Time and Fortune magazines’ “40 under 40” lists, ranked number one on the Root Top 100 List in 2013, and was awarded the 2012 Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship.

In recognition of his many accomplishments and work to forward equity at both the local and national levels, the Board of Trustees of the California State University and California State University, Monterey Bay, are proud to confer upon Benjamin Jealous the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.

For over four decades, Mrs. Panetta has been an influential and passionate leader in public policy whose contributions have positively affected the nation, the state, the region, the California State University system and CSU Monterey Bay. 

Mrs. Panetta graduated from St. Joseph’s College of Nursing and studied humanities at Monterey Peninsula College and Sonoma State University. She has an exemplary record of serving the people of California in a variety of roles. She is currently the Co-Chair and Chief Executive Officer of the Panetta Institute for Public Policy, a position she has held since the Institute opened in 1998, with the mission to encourage young people to pursue lives of public service.

Mrs. Panetta oversees two of the Institute’s programs that are designed to provide leadership training to CSU students from all 23 campuses: the Congressional Internship Program and the Education for Leadership in Public Service Seminar. She also directs the Monterey County Reads Program, which is in its nineteenth year of recruiting and training volunteers to read with students in local elementary schools across Monterey County.

Other programs that Mrs. Panetta is involved with that have brought national recognition are the Leon Panetta Lecturer Series and the Jefferson-Lincoln Awards for Public Service, both of which honor nationally recognized public servants, journalists, and scholars and bring them to Monterey County where they meet and connect with local community leaders.

Over the years, many organizations have recognized Mrs. Panetta for her work, including Woman of the Year award for the California Fifteenth Senate District and Public Official of the Year award from the Monterey Peninsula Chamber of Commerce. She was also inducted into the Monterey Business Hall of Fame by the Monterey County Business Council.

In recognition of her many accomplishments and work to forward democracy at both the local and national levels, the Board of Trustees of the California State University and California State University, Monterey Bay, are proud to confer upon Sylvia M. Panetta the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.

For more than three decades, Ms. Julie Packard has been an influential and passionate international leader in ocean conservation and sustainability whose contributions have enhanced CSU Monterey Bay and the surrounding Monterey Peninsula.

Ms. Packard received a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in Biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She currently is the Executive Director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, a position she has held since the Aquarium opened in 1984, the first aquarium to focus on a specific region—the Monterey Bay. She also serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Directors and as a member of the Board of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Under her leadership, the Aquarium has become a major force in promoting deeper understanding of ocean conservation through public programming, research and policy work.

Ms. Packard has a strong track record in supporting conservation work and has served on many boards and commissions, including the California Nature Conservancy, the World Wildlife Fund and as member of the Pew Oceans Commission. Currently, she serves as a member of the privately funded Parks Forward Commission that has been charged with assisting the state of California in revamping the financially troubled state park system. She is also a member of the Leadership Council of the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative.

Through the years, many organizations have recognized Ms. Packard for her work, including a 1998 Audubon Medal for Conservation and a 2004 Ted Danson Ocean Hero Award from Oceana, a leading organization dedicated to ocean conservation. In 2010, she was awarded the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award for her continuing work to protect marine life and the oceans.

As a longtime member of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation Board, she has been instrumental in its philanthropic work, particularly at CSU Monterey Bay, where the Foundation provided substantial support toward the construction of the Chapman Science Academic Center and the Tanimura & Antle Family Memorial Library. She has personally supported the Division of Science and Environmental Policy with a gift toward the James W. Rote Distinguished Professorship in Marine Science and Policy.

In recognition of her many accomplishments as an ocean conservationist, the Board of Trustees of the California State University and California State University, Monterey Bay are proud to confer upon Julie Packard the honorary degree of Doctor of Science.

Alice Mitchell Rivlin is a nationally known and highly acclaimed economist who is known for her effectiveness in working in a bipartisan manner. A senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Dr. Rivlin has served in a variety of academic and governmental positions in the course of her illustrious career.

From 1975 to 1983, she was the first director of the Congressional Budget Office. During the Clinton administration, she was director of the Office of Management and Budget from 1994 to 1996, becoming the first woman to hold the Cabinet-level position. This was followed by her service as the governor and vice chairwoman of the Federal Reserve from 1996 to 1999.

Dr. Rivlin has been a key participant in recent efforts to curb the deficit and overhaul the tax code. In 2010, she was named by President Obama to serve on the Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. She also co-chaired the Bipartisan Policy Center's Task Force on Debt Reduction.

A frequent contributor to newspapers and television news programs, Dr. Rivlin is a regular contributor to the Nightly Business Report on PBS. Her books include Systematic Thinking for Social Action (1971), Reviving the American Dream (1992) and Beyond the Dot.coms (2001). She is also the co-author ofRestoring Fiscal Sanity: How to Balance the Budget (2004) and other books.

Dr. Rivlin's many contributions have been widely recognized. She has received a MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship and the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Prize from the American Academy of Social and Political Science. In 2008, the Council for Excellence in Government named her one of the greatest public servants of the last 25 years.

She is a visiting professor at the Public Policy Institute of Georgetown University and a researcher at the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institute (she led its Economic Studies Program from 1983 to 1987). She also has taught at Harvard, George Mason and The New School universities.

Dr. Rivlin has a bachelor's degree from Bryn Mawr College and a doctorate from Radcliffe College at Harvard University, both in economics.

In recognition of her accomplishments as a leading economist and public servant, the Board of Trustees of the California State University and California State University, Monterey Bay are proud to confer upon Alice Mitchell Rivlin the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.

Mr. Rafael A. Suarez Jr. is a distinguished journalist whose commitment to public service and belief in multiculturalism advance core values of California State University, Monterey Bay while enriching the state of California and the lives of its residents. Throughout his more than 30 years as an award-winning broadcaster, Mr. Suarez has demonstrated a thoughtful and honest commitment to fact-finding. By virtue of his steadily growing impact and influence, he has regularly contributed to the knowledge and understanding of millions of listeners and viewers worldwide.

Since 1999, Mr. Suarez has served as a Washington-based senior correspondent for The NewsHour television program. He came to The NewsHour from National Public Radio, where he was host of the nationwide news program Talk of the Nation. Previously, he spent seven years covering local, national and international stories for WMAQ-TV, the NBC-owned station in Chicago. Mr. Suarez has narrated, anchored or reported countless documentaries for public radio and television. His work challenges listeners and viewers to broaden their appreciation of the constantly changing mosaic of peoples, cultures, religions and perspectives in the United States and around the globe.

He has authored or contributed to many books, including The Holy Vote, which examined the tightening relationship between religion and politics in America. His acclaimed book, The Old Neighborhood: What We Lost in the Great Suburban Migration, chronicled the impact of American migration from cities to suburbs in the second half of the 20th century.

Mr. Suarez was born in 1957 in Brooklyn, N.Y. He holds a BA in African history from New York University and an MA in the social sciences from the University of Chicago. He is a recipient of the Benton Fellowship in Broadcast Journalism at the University of Chicago. A life member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Mr. Suarez was a founding member of the Chicago Association of Hispanic Journalists.

In recognition of his accomplishments as a journalist, author and educator, the Board of Trustees of the California State University and California State University, Monterey Bay are proud to confer upon Mr. Rafael A. Suarez Jr. the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.

In 2007, Cal State Monterey Bay conferred an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters upon Robert Antle in recognition of a life and legacy reflecting excellence, integrity and service.

In 2007, Cal State Monterey Bay conferred an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters upon Ric Masten in recognition of distinguished contributions that embody the ideals of higher education and the values of the university.

In 2002, Cal State Monterey Bay conferred an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters upon Samuel Ruiz Garcia in recognition of exemplary leadership and service grounded in intellectual and humane values.

In 2001, Cal State Monterey Bay conferred an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters upon Michael D. Stennis in recognition of meaningful contributions and lasting impact aligned with the university’s highest ideals.

In 1999, Cal State Monterey Bay conferred an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters upon Julian Bond in recognition of a distinguished record of leadership and service that continues to inspire our community.

In 1998, Cal State Monterey Bay conferred an honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts upon Evelyn Cisneros in recognition of outstanding artistic achievement and contributions that elevate the arts and enrich society.

In 1997, Cal State Monterey Bay conferred an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters upon Jose Burciaga in recognition of influential work and enduring contributions reflecting the university’s commitment to educational and cultural enrichment.

In 1997, Cal State Monterey Bay conferred an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters upon Leon Panetta in recognition of distinguished public service and leadership reflecting the highest ideals of the California State University.