BIG EAST Conference Commissioner Val Ackerman to Speak at Providence College Commencement
March 23, 2022 – Providence, RI – Providence College (PC) announced today that Val Ackerman, founding president of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and current commissioner of the BIG EAST Conference, will present the Commencement Address at the College’s 104th Commencement exercises. The ceremony will take place on Sunday, May 22 at 11:00 a.m. at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in downtown Providence.
Ms. Ackerman received an honorary degree from PC in 2021 at ceremonies celebrating the graduating Class of 2020. Those ceremonies were delayed until October of last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The College will award honorary degrees to six individuals at the May 22nd ceremonies. They are: Dr. Mario DiNunzio ’57, professor emeritus of history; Robert G. Driscoll, Jr., retiring vice president and director of athletics at the College; John W. ‘Jack” Flynn ’61, long-time RI banking executive and former chief financial officer at Fleet Financial Group; Mother Olga of the Sacred Heart, founder of the religious order Daughters of Mary of Nazareth; Dr. Sally Thibodeau ’66G, the first female dean at Providence College and; Judge O. Rogeriee Thompson, whose distinguished career as a jurist in Rhode Island was capped by her 2010 confirmation as the first African-American and second woman to be confirmed to the federal appeals court.
A separate ceremony for graduate students and graduates of the School of Continuing Education will take place on Friday, May 20 at 6:00 p.m. in the Peterson Recreation Center on the PC campus. Rhode Island Supreme Court Justice Maureen McKenna Goldberg ’73, ‘09Hon, one of the first women to graduate from PC, will be the featured speaker at that ceremony.
Val Ackerman was named the fifth commissioner of the BIG EAST Conference in June 2013. She spent eight years as an attorney and executive at the National Basketball Association, was the founding president of the Women’s National Basketball Association, and is a past president of USA Basketball, which oversees the US men’s and women’s Olympic basketball program. She also served two terms as the US representative to the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). She is a member of the board of directors of Women Leaders in College Sports and the board of directors of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. Ms. Ackerman is a graduate of the University of Virginia, where she was a three-time captain and Academic All-American on the women’s basketball team. She received her law degree from UCLA.
Additional Honorees
Dr. Mario DiNunzio ’57 has dedicated 65 years of service to his alma mater. DiNunzio graduated from PC as an English major and began a career as a radio announcer before enrolling in graduate school, earning a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Clark University in Worcester, MA. It was while attending graduate school that Mario decided to seek a career in higher education, and he returned to PC to join the faculty as a professor of American history in 1960. When the College inaugurated its now-signature Development of Western Civilization (DWC) program in 1971, DiNunzio began to teach in that program as well. Although he has been retired from full-time teaching for over 10 years, Mario continues to teach in the honors section of DWC.
DiNunzio is the author of numerous publications, including books on former US Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was a member of the PC Faculty Senate in the years when that body discussed, debated, and eventually approved the College’s plan to become a co-educational institution. His time in the Senate also coincided with the decision to revamp PC’s academic curriculum to make the DWC program its central element, a position that program continues to hold today.
Robert G. Driscoll, Jr. recently announced his retirement effective June 30, 2022, after a 21-year career at Providence College and 47 years in collegiate athletics. Driscoll transformed Providence College’s athletics program during his tenure. The architect of one of the most successful eras in the history of Providence College Athletics, Driscoll established a vision of student-athlete success in the classroom and in the community, while competing for championships, and maintained focus on leading, fostering, and mentoring one of the nation’s most respected athletics programs.
One of the biggest impacts Driscoll has had on PC’s Athletics Department, and the College as a whole, has been with facility development, construction, and renovation.
Under his leadership, the College has seen the construction and/or renovation of:
- Lennon Family Field (Astroturf facility) – August 2005
- Concannon Fitness Center – August of 2007
- Refurbished and renovated Alumni Hall – October 2012
- Renovation of Schneider Arena – home of PC’s men’s and women’s hockey teams – September 2013
- Opening of Ray Treacy Track, the primary training facility for the men’s and women’s cross country and track and field teams – November 2013
- Chapey Field at Anderson Stadium, where the men’s and women’s soccer and men’s lacrosse programs play, was completed in 2016
- A new softball complex, known as Glay Field, in addition to building six tennis courts adjacent to Anderson Stadium – Spring 2016
In August 2018, PC completed construction of the $35 million, 58,218 square foot Ruane Friar Development Center (RFDC), a student-athlete training and recruiting facility. The RFDC also houses the athletic department’s Innovation Lab – a state-of-the-art facility that is available to each of PC’s 350+ NCAA Division I student-athletes. The lab is part of the overall Sports Medicine Department, with a primary focus on rest and recovery.
Driscoll joined the Providence community in 2001 after 14½ years in athletic administration at the University of California, Berkeley, culminating in service as the Acting Executive Director for Intercollegiate Athletics and Recreational Sports. During his tenure, Cal won over 20 national championships and competed in the Citrus, Copper, Alamo, and Aloha Bowls.
He received both a Bachelor of Science degree in physical education in 1974 and his Master of Science in physical education/psychology of sports from Ithaca in 1975.
John W. “Jack” Flynn ’61 was an influential member of the Rhode Island banking community for decades. He retired from Fleet Bank in 1990 as their Chief Financial Officer after a 20+ year career with the company. After retirement, he joined the faculty at Providence College as the Fleet Bank Executive in Residence, Adjunct Visiting Distinguished Professor from 1993 – 1999.
Over the last three decades, Jack has lent his professional knowledge and expertise to the College as a member of its Board of Trustees; chair of the College’s Annual Fund; as a member of the Providence President’s Council; as a member of the School of Business Advisory Council and; as a member of PC’s Liberal Arts Honors Leadership Council.
One of PC’s most generous and loyal alums, Jack and his wife established the George P. and Anna M. Flynn Endowed Scholarship to benefit Rhode Island area students with unmet financial need.
Mother Olga of the Sacred Heart is the founder and mother servant of the Daughters of Mary of Nazareth. A native of Iraq, she has lived through four wars in the Middle East. In 1993, as a young lay woman, she started a lay movement called Love Your Neighbor. She invited young men and women from Christian and Muslim communities to be part of this community to serve the needs of the poor in a war-torn area. In 1995, she established the order of Marth Maryam Sisters- Missionaries of the Virgin Mary, the first order for Religious Sisters in the Assyrian Church of the East in 700 years.
In Iraq, Mother Olga was involved in pastoral ministry for college students and youth in their parishes. She also served the prisoners, homeless, elderly, and handicapped of war for many years. The Iraqi minister of public health gave her that country’s Humanitarian Award for her service to the poorest of the poor.
Mother Olga has a BS in Biology and Hematology, and a MA in Philosophy and Theology from a college that is affiliated with the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome. She also has a certificate in Theology of The Body.
She came to the United States in 2001 for further advanced studies and earned a master’s degree in Pastoral Ministry from Boston College. From 2002-2011 she was involved in the campus ministry at Boston University, and served as that institution’s Roman Catholic university chaplain from July 2010- July 2011.
Mother Olga was received into the Roman Catholic Church on September 8th, 2005, in the Archdiocese of Boston. Cardinal Séan Patrick O’Malley, OFM. Cap. received her perpetual vows on December 8th, 2005.
She was named Religious Sister of the Year at the 2008 Boston Catholic Women’s Conference, and has received numerous honors and awards for her service and ministry since then.
In 2009, Cardinal O’Malley gave her permission to start a new apostolate on the Boston University campus called the Nazareth House, a house of prayer and discernment for young women. In April 2011, Cardinal O’Malley entrusted to her the mission of establishing a new religious community of sisters in the Archdiocese of Boston, the Daughters of Mary of Nazareth.
In 2015, he presented her with the Cheverus Award for her service to God and to the people of the Archdiocese of Boston.
Dr. Sally Thibodeau ‘66G is a pioneer in the history of women at Providence College. She began her duties in July of 1971 as the first female dean at the College. She was also one of the first (if not the first) female graduate assistants in the graduate school. Early on, Dr. Thibodeau played a significant role in the development of coeducation at PC. In July 1970, in preparation for this major transition, she was appointed to the President’s Task Force on Coeducation, chaired by then-Academic Vice President the late Dr. Paul van K. Thomson. The task force, which was comprised of faculty and college administrators throughout the northeast, addressed the matriculation of women, and its impact on many areas of the College, including residential life, recruitment and admissions, athletics, health services, social and cultural programming, and religious activities.
In 1971, Dr. Thibodeau was named chair of “The Women’s Liaison Committee.” This committee, which reported directly to the president, was instrumental in addressing the needs of female students once they arrived on campus. The recommendations by this working group, especially in regards to new protocols for safety and security and staffing needs for the Infirmary, provided a positive impact on the day-to-day lives of female students at PC.
Throughout her academic career, Dr. Thibodeau served in a number of administrative roles. She was one of two women appointed as associate vice president of academic affairs. She also served as a faculty member in the Secondary Education Program, was elected department chair, and served in that capacity for a number of years. Sally served on many major committees of the College, and outside of the College as well. She was appointed by the Governor of Rhode Island to the Statewide Health Coordinating Council and to the Rhode Island State Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline.
After a long and illustrious law career in Rhode Island, Ojetta Rogeriee Thompson became the first African-American and the second woman to serve as a First Circuit federal judge when she was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2009. She was confirmed by the Senate 98-0 in March 2010.
A legal and judicial trailblazer, Judge Thompson helped establish the State’s first Office of Court Interpreters to assist non-English speakers in their understanding of court proceedings, ensuring everyone in the state could access the highest quality legal representation, regardless of their native language skills.
Judge Thompson began her career in private practice before serving several years as the city of Providence’s assistant city solicitor, an associate judge in Rhode Island District Court and an associate justice in Rhode Island Superior Court.
A South Carolina native, Judge Thompson grew up in the segregated South, the great-granddaughter of a slave and the plantation owner who had bought her at auction. She came to Rhode Island to attend Pembroke College, then the women’s college of Brown University. Judge Thompson graduated from Brown after the two schools merged in 1973, and earned a law degree from Boston University Law School.
Judge Thompson returned to Rhode Island to represent the poor through Rhode Island Legal Services. She then opened a South Providence law firm with her husband, the late William C. Clifton.
Founded in 1917, Providence College is the only college or university in the United States administered by the Dominican Friars. The Catholic, liberal arts college has an undergraduate enrollment of approximately 4,100 students and offers degrees in 52 academic majors and 38 minors. Providence College has ranked first among regional colleges and universities in the North for the last three years according to U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges.”
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