MMC Announces 2008 Honorary Degree Recipients

(New York, NY) Marymount Manhattan College is pleased to announce that the recipients of honorary degrees to be awarded at the 2008 Commencement ceremony include Dr. Elaine Pagels, the Harrington Spear Paine Foundation Professor of Religion at Princeton University, and two former members of the MMC Board of Trustees, Theresa Lang ’97 and Mary Anne Schwalbe. Commencement will take place on May 16, 2008 at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center.

Elaine Pagels
Elaine Pagels is the Harrington Spear Paine Foundation Professor of Religion at Princeton University, appointed in 1982. She is an author, scholar, historian and educator specializing in early Christianity. Her bookBeyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas was on the New York Timesbestseller list for over three months and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. She won the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award for The Gnostic Gospels and has also authored The Origin of Satan and Adam, Eve and the Serpent.

Dr. Pagels attended Stanford University where she graduated with a major in history and went on to pursue a master’s degree in classics. She earned a graduate degree in religious studies at Harvard University. She has studied Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French, Italian, German and the ancient African Coptic language in order to translate, read and study Christian texts. She has interpreted the diversity of the first few centuries of Christianity by analyzing the Gnostic Gospels. Through her work, Dr. Pagels has enabled a new understanding of the history of Christianity and made obscure ancient texts accessible to the public. She has taught at Columbia University and Barnard College and studied dance with the Martha Graham Company in New York City.

Theresa Lang
Theresa Lang graduated from Marymount Manhattan College as a returning student in 1997. The Theresa Lang Theatre, the Theresa Lang Center for Producing and the Theresa Lang Scholarship Fund, which supports students who demonstrate academic merit and are involved with community service, have all been made possible by her generosity to the College. Mrs. Lang served on the Board of Trustees for MMC for nearly ten years. 

Mrs. Lang has been a volunteer and board member at several hospitals throughout New York City. She served as president of the Women’s Auxiliary and continues to serve as a member of the Board of Trustees and chairman of the professional committee for the New York Hospital Medical Center. She is a member and former chairman of the City Hospitals Visiting Committee for the United Hospital Fund of New York. She was a volunteer Red Cross Nurse Aide at Queens General Hospital and a volunteer at Lenox Hill Hospital. She is trustee emeritus and chairman of the Hospital Committee at Rockefeller University.

Outside of Marymount Manhattan, Mrs. Lang has devoted herself as a trustee to other deserving causes, including the Eugene M. Lang Foundation, the New York City Opera and the Hunter College Foundation. She has been recognized for her supportive involvement with other higher education institutions, including Swarthmore College, the New School for Social Research, Barnard College and Hunter College.

Mary Anne Schwalbe
Mary Anne Schwalbe is a former trustee of Marymount Manhattan and a committed advocate for refugee women and children. Through the Mary Anne Schwalbe Scholarship Fund, she supports refugee and international students at MMC. Mrs. Schwalbe is the founding director emerita of the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children.

Mrs. Schwalbe graduated from Radcliffe College and then the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. She taught Theatre at Barnard College and worked as a production assistant for Irene Mayer Selznick Productions, The Playwrights Company and Frederick Brisson Productions. Her career in theatre continued as she worked as Director of American Auditions for the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and as the first Associate Director of the Theatre Communication Group.

She crossed over from drama to admissions when she became the Director of Admissions at Radcliffe College. She was named Director of Harvard/Radcliffe Undergraduate Admissions, promoted to Associate Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid and elected the first woman President of the Harvard Faculty Club. She returned to New York as the Director of College Counseling at The Dalton School and then as the Head of the Upper School at The Nightingale-Bamford School. She has been a trustee for the International Education Committee of The College Board, The Hotchkiss School, The Dalton School, The Brearley School, De La Salle Academy, Radcliffe College and the Armand Hammer United World College. She has been a committee member for the Madison Avenue Day School and the Memorial Church at Harvard University. She has been awarded the Frances Riker Davis Award for Community Service at The Brearley School, the Harvard University Alumni Award, the Catherine Woodbridge Faculty Prize at The Nightingale-Bamford School, the New York State Association of College Admissions Counselors Award and the NACAC Gayle C. Wilson Award. She has spoken at over 100 schools and colleges.

Mrs. Schwalbe applied her devotion to the refugee cause as Staff Director of the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children and Board/Staff Liaison for the International Rescue Committee. She was a trustee for the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center, the UNHCR/NGO Delegation to Vietnam & Hong Kong and the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women & Children. She has been awarded the Women’s Commission Voices of Courage Award. 

Marymount Manhattan will award a Doctorate of Humane Letters to Dr. Elaine Pagels, a Doctorate of Fine Arts to Theresa Lang and a Doctorate of Laws to Mary Anne Schwalbe. The three outstanding honorary degree recipients bring a mix of accomplishments –author, refugee activist, professor, MMC alumna, former MMC trustees, volunteers and scholars. Marymount Manhattan is thankful for their contributions to communities and populations of varying scale, including the College, New York City, the country and the globe.

Published: March 17, 2008