Springfield College Announces Commencement Speakers

SPRINGFIELD — Timothy Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics, and Mark Keroack, president and chief executive officer for Baystate Health, Baystate Medical Center, and chair of the board directors for Health New England, will deliver the commencement addresses and receive honorary degrees at the Springfield College 2016 commencement ceremonies.

Shriver will address students at the undergraduate ceremony on May 15, at 9:30 a.m., at the MassMutual Center in Springfield. Keroack will speak at the graduate commencement ceremony on May 14, at 9:30 a.m., on the College’s Naismith Green.

Shriver has served as an advocate at the national and international levels to accumulate support for issues of concern to the Special Olympics Community. He has done the same thing in the film world, co-producing Disney Studios’ The Loretta Claiborne Story, and serving as executive producer of the films The Ringer and Front of the Class. In this pursuit, Shriver also wrote a book detailing his experiences working with individuals with intellectual disabilities, and how they have inspired him, titled Fully Alive: Discovering What Matters Most.

Prior to becoming part of the Special Olympics team, Shriver co-founded, and still serves as chair for, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, a leading research organization dedicated to the field of social and emotional learning.

Shriver has earned numerous awards for his labor, including the Medal of the City of Athens, Greece; the U.S. Surgeon General’s Medallion; the Quincy Jones Humanitarian Award; and the Children’s Hospital Health System’s Friend of Children Award. He also was recognized, in 2011, by The Huffington Post as one of the top 100 Game Changers.

Shriver received an undergraduate degree from Yale University, a master’s degree from Catholic University, and a doctorate from the University of Connecticut.

As part of the undergraduate ceremony, long-time Springfield College Trustee Douglass L. Coupe will receive an honorary degree from the College.

The graduate ceremony speaker, Keroack, has seen many facets of the medical and health care industry during his career. In his current position, he provides strategic, financial, and operation oversight for the clinical delivery system for Baystate Medical Center, the tertiary care academic medical center for western Massachusetts, four community hospitals in the area, the 942 providers in 90 practices across the region that make up Baystate Medical Practices, Baystate’s research and educational programs, VNA and hospice, and other ventures.

Prior to his current role, Keroack served as the president and CEO of Baystate Medical Center, the system chief operating officer, and then as the chief physician executive and president for Baystate Medical practices.

Keroack earned a bachelor’s degree from Amherst College, medical degree from Harvard Medical School, and a master’s degree from Boston University. He was a resident in internal medicine and infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.