“I am delighted that Elizabeth Banks, one of Penn’s noteworthy alumni, has accepted our invitation to address the Class of 2025 at Commencement,” says Penn President J. Larry Jameson. “Since graduating from Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences in 1996, Ms. Banks has made her mark in film and television not only as a highly respected performer, but as a talented director and successful producer. She has also been an outspoken advocate for important issues, such as gender equity and health care for veterans, and it will be an honor to welcome her back to campus in May.”
Banks is known for her dynamic career across film, theater, television, and activism. Her work includes stand-out performances in projects including “The Hunger Games” franchise, “Love & Mercy,” and “W.” Banks is also a three-time Emmy nominee for her recurring roles in “30 Rock” and “Modern Family.”
She made her directorial debut in 2015 with “Pitch Perfect 2,” which achieved the highest opening weekend for a musical, the biggest opener for a first-time director, and the second-largest opening for a female director. She then starred in and produced “Pitch Perfect 3” (2017) and later directed “Charlie’s Angels” (2019) and the hit comedy-thriller “Cocaine Bear” (2023).
Banks met her husband, Max Handelman, a fellow alumnus, while attending Penn. Together they co-founded Brownstone Productions in 2002. The company, with exclusive deals at Warner Bros. Television and Universal, is behind several successful projects, including “Pitch Perfect,” “Shrill,” “Bottoms,” and “Cocaine Bear.” Their work spans studios and networks such as Universal, Sony Pictures, HBO Max, and Netflix.
Beyond her creative work, Banks is passionate about charity, supporting causes like women’s rights, reproductive freedom, and gender equality in Hollywood. She has testified before Congress and produced content highlighting the importance of choice and family planning. Banks supports charities like the Center for Reproductive Rights as chair of its Creative Council, as well as Planned Parenthood, Heifer International, and the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund.
Originally from Massachusetts, Banks earned her graduate degree at the American Conservatory Theater. At the Commencement ceremony, Banks will receive an honorary doctor of arts degree.
The other 2025 Penn honorary degree recipients will be Lonnie G. Bunch III, Lene Vestergaard Hau, and Barbara D. Savage.
"At this year’s Commencement, we will have the tremendous honor of celebrating four distinguished individuals, including Penn alumna Elizabeth Banks, who will address our graduates and their guests,” says Julie Platt, chair of the Trustee Honorary Degrees and Awards Committee. “We look forward to joining the entire Penn community in recognizing their remarkable accomplishments—which span the arts, science, and humanities—with Penn’s highest award, the honorary degree.”
Lonnie G. Bunch III became the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in 2019. As such, he oversees 21 museums, 21 libraries, the National Zoo, numerous research centers, and several education units and centers. Previously, Bunch was director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, the nation’s largest and most comprehensive cultural destination devoted exclusively to exploring, documenting, and showcasing the African American story and its impact on American and world history. Bunch also served as president of the Chicago Historical Society (2001–2005). A New Jersey native, Bunch has taught at American University, the University of Massachusetts, and The George Washington University. Among his many awards are the Freedom Medal from the Roosevelt Institute for his contribution to American culture; the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal from the Hutchins Center at Harvard University; and the National Equal Justice Award from the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund. Bunch earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees from American University in Washington, D.C. Bunch will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree.
Lene Vestergaard Hau is the Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and of Applied Physics at Harvard University. Prior to joining the Harvard faculty in 1999, Hau was a senior scientist at the Rowland Institute for Science in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She holds a Ph.D. in physics from University of Aarhus, Denmark. Hau led a team that succeeded in slowing a pulse of light to 15 miles per hour and also brought light to a stop. Hau has contributed to a wide variety of research fields, including experimental and theoretical optical and atomic physics as well as condensed matter physics. A 2001 MacArthur Fellow, Hau has also been elected to the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the American Physical Society and has received numerous other awards. Hau will receive an honorary doctor of sciences degree.
Barbara D. Savage is the Geraldine R. Segal Professor Emerita of American Social Thought and Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She was a member of the History Department from 1995-2013 before serving as inaugural chair of the Department of Africana Studies, from which she retired in 2020. Savage taught graduate and undergraduate courses in 20th century African American history, American religious and social reform movements, the relationship between media and politics, and Black women’s political and intellectual history. Savage has written three award-winning books: “Merze Tate: The Global Odyssey of a Black Woman Scholar” (Yale, 2023); “Your Spirits Walk Beside Us: The Politics of Black Religion” (Harvard, 2008); and “Broadcasting Freedom: Radio, War, and the Politics of Race, 1938-1948” (North Carolina, 1999). Savage received her doctorate in history from Yale University and holds a law degree from Georgetown University and an undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia where she was a member of its first class of women. Savage will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree.
Event details, including how to view the event online, are available on Penn’s 2025 Commencement page.
Griffin Pitt, right, works with two other student researchers to test the conductivity, total dissolved solids, salinity, and temperature of water below a sand dam in Kenya.
Griffin Pitt’s upbringing made her passionate about water access and pollution, and Penn has given her the opportunity to explore these issues back home in North Carolina and abroad.
Helping robots work together to explore the Moon and Mars
Penn Engineers, NASA, and five other universities tested robotic systems designed to help unmanned explorers cooperate in the dunes of White Sands, New Mexico, paving the way for Moon and Mars exploration.
From framework to actions: Provost John L. Jackson Jr. talks Penn Forward
In a Q&A, Provost John L. Jackson Jr. explains the relationship between the strategic framework In Principle and Practice and Penn Forward—a new University-wide process and action plan that will advance Penn forward for the next decade and beyond.
