In a campus-wide email on Wednesday, Feb. 26, President Michael Roth ’78 announced that Protect Democracy Executive Director Ian Bassin ’98, former National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard ’83 P’22, and University of Southern California Distinguished Professor of English Percival Everett will be awarded with honorary degrees from the University at the 193rd commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 25, 2025.

The University traditionally awards honorary degrees in tandem with the annual commencement ceremony. While the degrees have no academic weight, they are designed to acknowledge an individual’s especially significant contribution to society. Degrees are typically awarded to three to four individuals; recipients are often alumni, but it is not a requirement.

Past recipients have ranged from neurobiologists to actors and politicians to pastors, and have included film director Martin Scorsese in 1992, television personality Oprah Winfrey in 1998, and then-Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama in 2008.

“Ian Bassin, Lael Brainard, and Percival Everett have had profound impact [with regard to the University’s founding principles]—be it through activism, expert counsel, or satirical wit—and we are thrilled to recognize them with Wesleyan’s highest honor,” Roth wrote in his email.

While the three honorees’ backgrounds vary greatly, their work is highly relevant to the nation’s tumultuous political environment. Bassin and Brainard worked in senior positions under Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, respectively, and Everett’s writings interface deeply with American politics.

In addition to receiving an honorary degree, Bassin will deliver this year’s commencement address. Bassin founded and now leads Protect Democracy, a non-partisan and non-profit organization. The organization primarily utilizes litigation and legislative reform to safeguard electoral processes. Notably, after the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection, his group proposed reforms to the Electoral Count Act of 1887, which dictates the process surrounding the presidential transition of power. These reforms passed Congress in 2022 with bipartisan support. Bassin was awarded the prestigious MacArthur Genius Grant in 2023 in acknowledgement of his work.

Bassin also served as Associate White House Counsel under Obama.

“He worked to ensure that executive branch officials complied with the laws, rules and norms that protect the fundamentally democratic nature of our government,” Roth wrote of Bassin.

In his first month in office, President Donald Trump has attempted to undo the same checks and balances that Bassin worked to establish and strengthen. Roth made it clear that he chose Bassin with the current political climate in mind.

“At a time when American democracy is under great pressure and renewed efforts emerge to erase progress in acknowledging our nation’s history with marginalized communities, we celebrate efforts to advance that progress and strengthen our democracy,” Roth wrote.

The second honorary degree recipient, Brainard, led the National Economic Council from 2023 to 2024, which is the U.S. president’s primary board of economic advisors. Prior to being appointed to that role by Biden, she briefly served as the Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve in 2023, after spending nearly a decade on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors across the administrations of Obama, Trump, and Biden. Before assuming positions on the Federal Reserve, she served as the under secretary of the treasury for international affairs from 2010 to 2013 and had also worked as deputy national economic advisor and deputy assistant to the president under President Bill Clinton. From 2003 to 2009, she was a member of the University’s board of trustees.

At the University, Brainard majored in the College of Social Studies (CSS). In a 2017 interview with The Argus, she credited the major with strengthening her writing skills.

“If nothing else, CSS gave us the ability to produce a paper on literally any topic,” Brainard joked.

While Brainard’s work might appear less political in nature than Bassin’s, her experience is especially salient, with Trump repeatedly indicating that he would like to strip the Federal Reserve of its centuries-long insulation from political forces. 

“With extensive senior leadership experience in macro, fiscal, and monetary policymaking, Brainard has contributed to the successful resolution of several financial crises, including the Asian financial crisis, Euro Area Crisis, COVID-19 crisis, 2023 debt limit impasse, and U.S. regional banking crisis,” Roth wrote.

Everett, who is the only non-alumnus of this year’s honorary degree recipient pool, is an esteemed writer who has been honored with the National Book Award, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the PEN Center USA Award for Fiction. His 2020 novel “Telephone” was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Notably, Everett’s 2001 novel “Erasure” was adapted into the highly acclaimed film “American Fiction,” which starred Jeffrey Wright P’27.

This year’s commencement and reunion weekend will run from May 22–25, culminating with Bassin’s speech and the graduation of the class of 2025.

Miles Pinsof-Berlowitz can be reached at mpinsofberlo@wesleyan.edu.