Commencement 2023

Skylar Tibbits is a designer and computer scientist whose research focuses on developing self-assembly and programmable materials within the built environment. Tibbits is the founder and co-director of the Self-Assembly Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Associate Professor of Design Research in the Department of Architecture. He is also the director of undergraduate programs in the Department of Architecture.

Tibbits has a professional degree in architecture from Philadelphia University (now Thomas Jefferson University), and a master’s degree in design computation and master’s degree in computer science from MIT. He has worked at a number of design offices including Zaha Hadid Architects, Asymptote Architecture and Point b Design.

He has designed and built large-scale installations and exhibited in galleries around the world, including the Centre Pompidou, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum and various others. He is the author of the books “Things Fall Together: A Guide to the New Materials Revolution” (Princeton University Press 2021), “Self-Assembly Lab: Experiments in Programming Matter” (Routledge, 2016) and “Active Matter” (MIT Press, 2017), co-editor of Being Material (MIT Press 2019) and the editor-in-chief of the journal 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing.

Awards include LinkedIn’s Next Wave Award for Top Professionals under 35 (2016), R&D Innovator of the Year (2015), National Geographic Emerging Explorer (2015), an Inaugural WIRED Fellowship (2014), the Architectural League Prize (2013), Ars Electronica Next Idea Award (2013), TED Senior Fellow (2012) and in 2008 he was named a Revolutionary Mind by SEED magazine.

Ernest J. Grant, PhD, RN, FAAN is the immediate past president of the American Nurses Association (ANA), the nation’s largest nursing organization representing the interests of the nation’s 4.3 million registered nurses. He is the first man to be elected to the office of president of the American Nurses Association in its 128 years of existence.

A distinguished leader, Dr. Grant has more than 30 years of nursing experience and is an internationally recognized burn-care and fire-safety expert. He also serves as adjunct faculty for the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Nursing, where he works with undergraduate and graduate nursing students in the classroom and clinical settings. For the past four years, Dr. Grant has been recognized by Modern Healthcare magazine as one of 50 Influential Clinical Executives in Healthcare and as one of 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare.

In 2002, President George W. Bush presented Dr. Grant with a Nurse of the Year Award for his work treating burn victims from the World Trade Center site. He was inducted as a fellow into the American Academy of Nursing in 2011. Dr. Grant holds a BSN degree from North Carolina Central University and MSN and PhD degrees from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Amanda Parezo is an assistant professor and academic fieldwork coordinator for the Occupational Therapy department at Thomas Jefferson University. She graduated from TJU’s OT program in 2010 with her master’s in OT and received her doctorate in OT from Salus University in 2017. She has worked clinically for over 10 years, specifically with older adults with traumatic brain injury, and holds a specialty certificate in vision rehabilitation with the TBI population.

On May 19, 2021, she was the victim of a random act of gun violence while sitting in a Philadelphia playground. The shooting left her paralyzed from the waist down. Since then, she has advocated for anti-violence programs and improved accessibility within the city, as well as educating the public about spinal cord injury and normalizing what it means to have a disability.

Recognized around the world as an icon of the greatest Italian vocal tradition, Andrea Bocelli has sold over 90 million records. He perfected his singing skills under the guidance of his mentor, Franco Corelli, and initially became widely famous for winning the Sanremo Music Festival in 1994.

At the same time, he started his dazzling classical career, performing masterpieces from the opera repertoire on stage – conducted by Lorin Maazel, Seiji Ozawa and Zubin Mehta.

Maestro Bocelli has broken every record. His countless acknowledgments include a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which he was honored with in 2010. Throughout his career, he has received six Grammy Award nominations and six Latin Grammy Award nominations. He has performed for four Presidents of the United States of America, three Popes, the British Royal Family, many Prime Ministers and at the ceremonies of the Olympic Games, the Universal Expo in Shanghai in 2010 and the Universal Expo in Milan in 2015.

In 2011, he founded the Andrea Bocelli Foundation with the aim of enhancing the wealth of relationships and the bond of trust that he has established wherever he goes around the world.

On Easter, April 12, 2020, the Maestro performed at the deserted Duomo of Milan, at the peak of the pandemic. The “Music for Hope” event was conceived as a moment of prayer and hope and is considered to be one of the biggest musical live stream performances of all-time.

Maestro Bocelli was honored by the Italian Republic with a Grande Ufficiale Italian Order of Merit (Grand Officer of the Italian Republic) and he was bestowed the title of Ambassador of the Italian Republic of San Marino. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Opera Singing from the “G. Puccini” Music Conservatory in La Spezia and a Bachelor’s degree in Law from the University of Pisa, Italy.

During the Opening Ceremony of the World Economic Forum 2015 in Davos, Switzerland, Andrea was honored with the Crystal Award, the prestigious recognition to his person as an artist, a man and a philanthropist. In 2016, the University of Macerata bestowed him with an Honorary Degree in Modern Philology.

A visionary and collaborative healthcare leader, Janice E. Nevin, MD, MPH, has served as president and CEO of ChristianaCare since 2014, leading a transformation from a healthcare system to a system that truly impacts health.

She is nationally recognized as a pioneer and thought leader in value-based care and population health, and for her assertion that truly great health care is built on the values of love and excellence. These values are exemplified in her commitment to health equity and anti-racism, and to improving health, making high-quality care more accessible and lowering healthcare costs for everyone in the communities that ChristianaCare serves. Her leadership has also vaulted ChristianaCare to national recognition for its advancement of caregiver wellbeing through the work of the Center for WorkLife Wellbeing.

Modern Healthcare selected Dr. Nevin as one of its 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives in both 2020, 2021 and 2022 in addition to naming her to the publication’s Top 25 Women Leaders in 2019, 2022 and 2023. The Philadelphia Business Journal included her in its 2022 and 2023 Power 100, a list of the region’s most influential leaders. Dr. Nevin has been inducted into the Delaware Women’s Hall of Fame and was recognized among 100 Great Healthcare Leaders to Know in 2018 by Becker’s Hospital Review.

Dr. Nevin graduated from Harvard University and earned her medical degree with honors from Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University. She completed her family medicine residency at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and her Master of Public Health degree at the University of Pittsburgh. She joined ChristianaCare in 2002, as Chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine. Dr. Nevin is a Professor of Family and Community Medicine at Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University.