Four Receive Honorary Degrees from University
The University of Scranton will formally recognize four honorary degree recipients Rev. Otto Hentz, S.J.; Susan M. St. Ledger ’86; Rev. Columba A. Stewart, O.S.B.; and Nicole Young ’00 at its undergraduate commencement ceremonies on Sunday, May 23.The University of Scranton will formally recognize four honorary degree recipients at its undergraduate commencement ceremonies on Sunday, May 23. Receiving honorary degrees from the University, which were conferred by the University’s Board of Trustees prior to commencement, are: Susan M. St. Ledger ’86, president of worldwide field operations for Okta, Inc.; Rev. Otto Hentz, S.J., associate professor of theology, Georgetown University; Rev. Columba A. Stewart, O.S.B., executive director of the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library at St. John’s University; and Nicole Young ’00, Emmy Award-winning producer for 60 Minutes. St. Ledger will also serve as the principal speaker at the 2021 commencement on Sunday, May 23.
Susan M. St. Ledger ’86
At Okta, a global provider of secure identity management platforms, St. Ledger’s responsibilities include worldwide sales, customer success and support, professional services, partner and channel ecosystems, marketing and brand, and business operations. She has more than 25 years of senior leadership in high-growth technology companies. She previously served for more than four years as president of worldwide field operations for Splunk, more than 11 years at Salesforce and more than 12 years at Sun Microsystems. She is a passionate learner and anchors her leadership principles in what she calls a high-growth mindset, which is required to transform and accelerate business. She has demonstrated expertise in identifying market opportunity and business transformation needs for SaaS environments.
St. Ledger started her career in several technical jobs, including her first role out of college as a software engineer at the National Security Agency. In November 2019, St. Ledger became the first independent board member of HashiCorp, the leader in multi-cloud infrastructure automation software.
St. Ledger earned her bachelor’s degree in computer science, magna cum laude, from the University in 1986.
Rev. Otto Hentz, S.J.
Fr. Hentz has been a professor at Georgetown University for more than 50 years. A gifted and dedicated teacher, Georgetown University named him a Wall Street Alliance Honoree in 2015.
In 1955, Fr. Hentz entered the Society of Jesus, and later taught philosophy at Georgetown from 1962-1965. He was ordained as a priest in 1968. He earned a doctoral degree in theology from the University of Chicago. He returned to Georgetown in 1972 as a member of the Department of Theology and has served as an associate professor at Georgetown since 1978, teaching courses on the Catholic Church in the modern world, Christianity and Jesus Christ, and systematic theology.
Fr. Hentz has served two terms as a member of The University of Scranton’s board of trustees.
Rev. Columba A. Stewart, O.S.B.
Through his work at the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library, Fr. Stewart has traveled to the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and South Asia, working with international religious leaders, government authorities and archivists to preserve ancient to early-modern religious manuscripts. In 2015, the Hill Museum launched an online reading room to provide access to the library’s growing digitized collection, which is already the world’s largest digital collection of ancient manuscripts. His work has been featured in stories in 60 Minutes, the BBC, Harvard Magazine and The Atlantic.
A scholar of early Christian monasticism, Fr. Stewart’s books include Working the Earth of the Heart: the Messalian Controversy in History, Texts and Language to 431 and Prayer and Community: the Benedictine Tradition.
Fr. Stewart earned his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, his master’s in religious studies from Yale University, and his doctorate in theology from Oxford University.
Nicole Young ’00
During her distinguished career, Young has been honored with 16 News and Documentary Emmy Awards, three Alfred I. DuPont- Columbia Awards, four Writer’s Guild Awards, two Gerald Loeb Awards, two Sigma Delta Chi Awards, four National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Salute to Excellence Awards, a George Foster Peabody Award, a George Polk Award, an Edward R. Murrow Award, and a Wilbur Award to name a few.
Young’s most recent 60 Minutes assignments include breaking news coverage on the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump; reporting on Syria from the front lines on the refugee crisis, the use of chemical weapons and The Syrian Civil Defense, also known as “The White Helmets” and Ethiopia’s Rock-hewn Churches of Lalibela. Some of Young’s most critical stories, however, are those focusing on job loss, poverty, homelessness and especially child hunger in the United States.
In addition to producing pieces for 60 Minutes, Young played an essential role as a senior producer at the CBS Evening News for six years where she broke major stories for the nightly broadcast.
Young arrived at CBS News as an intern at the age of 19 and has worked for CBS in Washington, D.C., London and New York. She joined 60 Minutes in 2004 as Scott Pelley’s assistant and became his producer a few years later. A member of The University of Scranton’s Board of Trustees, Young earned her bachelor’s degree from Scranton in 2000 and her master’s degree from City, University of London.
Undergraduate commencement ceremonies will be held on Sunday, May 23, for graduates of the University’s Panuska College of Professional Studies at 9:30 a.m.; the Kania School of Management at 1 p.m.; and for the College of Arts and Sciences at 4:30 p.m.
