Washington University in St. Louis will award six honorary degrees during its 164th Commencement Monday, May 12.
During the ceremony, the university also will bestow academic degrees on approximately 3,600 members of the Class of 2025.
Simone Biles, widely regarded as one of the greatest athletes of all time, will deliver the Commencement address and receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.
The other honorary degree recipients and their degrees are:
- Jenifer Lewis, movie, television and Broadway actress, nicknamed “The Mother of Black Hollywood,” two-time author, St. Louis native and community activist, Doctor of Fine Arts;
- Paula C. Riney, longtime philanthropist and co-founder of The Paula and Rodger Riney Foundation, which provides funding for scientific research on multiple myeloma and related cancers, Doctor of Humanities;
- Rodger O. Riney, founder and former CEO of the discount brokerage firm Scottrade and co-founder of The Paula and Rodger Riney Foundation, Doctor of Humanities;
- Rochelle Walensky, MD, WashU alumna, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and one of the most prominent physician-scientists in the world, Doctor of Science;
- Jess B. Yawitz, WashU alumnus, founder and retired chairman and chief executive officer of NISA Investment Advisors, Doctor of Business.
Biles is the most decorated gymnast in history with 41 medals across World Championships and the Olympic Games. She holds the most World Championship medals (30, including 23 gold medals) in gymnastics history. A three-time Olympian, her 11 Olympic medals, including seven gold, are the most by a U.S. gymnast.
A three-time Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year and an Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year, she has earned the rare distinction of having five skills named in her honor — the Biles — in the beam, floor and vault disciplines.
Biles’ extraordinary accomplishments have received widespread recognition, including the youngest recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Time’s “100 Most Influential People,” Forbes’ “30 Under 30”, Ebony Power 100, People’s “Women Changing the World,” USA Today’s “100 Women of the Century” and CNN Heroes, among others.
Her autobiography, “Courage to Soar,” was a New York Times bestseller and was developed into an award-winning TV special on Lifetime, while her Snap Originals series, “Daring Simone Biles,” received an NAACP Image Award.
An ambassador for Friends of the Children, Biles uses her platform to help advocate for change and to support initiatives that provide education and assistance for children and young adults connected to adoption, foster care and overall wellness.
Lewis, dubbed “the mother of Black Hollywood,” is an acclaimed actress, author, singer and activist whose dynamic presence has made her one of the most recognizable and beloved figures in entertainment. With a career spanning over four decades, Lewis has appeared in more than 400 television episodes, 68 movies, 143 animated projects and four Broadway productions, earning her a reputation as both a comedic powerhouse and a dramatic force to be reckoned with.
Born in Kinloch, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis, Lewis attended Webster University and began her career in Broadway musicals.
Her accomplishments as an entertainer and community activist have been recognized with an honorary doctorate from Webster University and The American Black Film Festival’s Career Achievement Award. The King Center for Nonviolent Social Change awarded Lewis the Yolanda D. King Higher Ground Award. She also has received the Sojourner Truth Award and the Distinguished Cultural Icon Award from the Congressional Black Caucus.
In addition to her onscreen success, Lewis is also a New York Times bestselling author. In her memoirs, “The Mother of Black Hollywood” and “Walking in My Joy,” she shared her personal journey with bipolar disorder, becoming a powerful voice for mental health awareness and self-empowerment.
Lewis is a vocal advocate for mental health, racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights and women’s empowerment. She frequently uses her platform to speak truth to power, inspire resilience and encourage others to live boldly and authentically.
Business visionary Rodger Riney and his wife, Paula Riney, have for decades uplifted the St. Louis community through a variety of philanthropic endeavors. Rodger Riney earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a master’s in business administration in 1969 from the University of Missouri–Columbia and then joined Edward D. Jones & Co., eventually becoming a partner. In 1980, he decided to become part of a new industry called discount brokerage, starting his own firm, Scottsdale Securities.
By the 1990s the business was predominantly online, and its name changed to Scottrade Inc. But its core business model of low commissions, no investment advice, branch offices to help clients and award-winning customer service remained. The firm was included six times on Fortune magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” and won 11 JD Power awards for Best Discount Brokerage. The firm eventually opened 500 branch offices in 48 states. After a diagnosis of multiple myeloma, for which there was no known cure, Riney decided to sell Scottrade to TD Ameritrade in 2016.
Both the Rineys had parents who suffered from neurodegenerative diseases. This led to their early philanthropy of making gifts to WashU Medicine to support research into Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. After the sale of Scottrade, the couple established the Paula and Rodger Riney Foundation to support scientific research and general philanthropy, primarily in metropolitan St. Louis. Rodger Riney now serves on the WashU Medicine National Council.
Walensky, an infectious disease specialist and renowned authority on HIV/AIDS, served as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2021-23. During that time, she became a leader in the United States and around the world in the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prior to her tenure at the CDC, Walensky was a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital, serving as a frontline clinician during the initial COVID-19 outbreak.
Walensky earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from WashU Arts & Sciences in 1991. She earned her medical degree in 1995 from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed her residency in internal medicine in 1998 at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Her medical training coincided with the peak years of deaths from AIDS in the United States, which provided the context for her fellowship in infectious diseases at Massachusetts General/Brigham and Women’s Hospital and for a master’s in public health at the Harvard School of Public Health, both completed in 2001. She joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School in 2001 and has published more than 350 articles on infectious diseases.
Walensky is a member of the American Academy of Physicians, the National Academy of Medicine and the Council on Foreign Relations. She serves on the boards of the Doris Duke Foundation and the Carter Center and is currently the Bayer Fellow in Health and Biotech at the American Academy in Berlin.
Yawitz, a three-time alumnus, is a former distinguished member of WashU’s faculty, an entrepreneur, business leader and philanthropist. The Yawitz family has invested deeply in St. Louis, with a special emphasis on economic development and education for children from underprivileged backgrounds.
Yawitz served on the faculty at Olin Business School for 14 years. During that time, he created and directed Olin’s Institute of Banking and Financial Markets and conducted pioneering research on fixed-income investing and interest-rate risk management that laid the foundation for his business career.
In 1985, Yawitz headed to Wall Street to serve as a vice president and director in the fixed income division at Goldman Sachs. In 1994, Yawitz and Bill Marshall, a fellow Olin faculty member and research collaborator, acquired National Investment Services of America (NISA) Inc. Over time, they transformed the firm into a powerhouse focused on the active management of fixed-income assets and derivative overlay strategies for institutional clients. Yawitz retired as chairman and CEO of NISA in 2021 after a multiyear transition of the firm’s management and ownership.
Yawitz has never wavered in his commitment to WashU. He and his family have provided generous support for endowed professorships and scholarships; WashU’s College Prep Program — which helps first-generation students from the St. Louis region prepare for college applications and college life; athletics; Olin Business School, the Department of Economics in Arts & Sciences; and WashU Medicine.
In 2006, Yawitz was inducted as the only wrestler in the WashU Athletics Hall of Fame. He has received a variety of notable WashU awards, including the Olin Distinguished Faculty Award, a Founders Day Distinguished Alumni Award and the Gephardt Institute’s Gerry & Bob Virgil Ethic of Service Award.
