Meet the speaker: Jeannine Shao Collins ’86
Shao Collins returns to Ģą˝´«Ă˝ to share her perspective, leadership, and message with the Class of 2026 as they mark this milestone.
Class of 2026
Honorary awards
University Honorary Degrees, Medals, and Awards
The Ģą˝´«Ă˝ recognizes the outstanding contributions of several distinguished individuals and educators by presenting the institution’s highest honors for achievement and service, as well as awards for scholarship and teaching during Commencement Weekend 2026.
Honorary Degrees
Jeannine Shao Collins ’86, chief client officer at multiplatform advertising and media company Kargo, will deliver the 2026 address at the University-wide Commencement ceremony on Friday, May 15.
A widely respected leader in media, advertising, and innovation, Shao Collins leads global client strategy, partnerships, and brand success across Kargo’s premium digital media platform. She is recognized for her transformative impact on the digital advertising industry and her commitment to advancing diverse communities in media. She founded Girl Starter, a media and technology company dedicated to empowering young women entrepreneurs through storytelling, experiential education, and access to opportunity.
Prior to Kargo, Shao Collins served as chief innovation officer at Meredith Corporation, where she drove enterprise-wide innovation across content, technology, and audience engagement for one of the largest media companies in the United States. Her work reshaped how iconic media brands connected with modern, multicultural audiences and advertisers.
Shao Collins earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Ģą˝´«Ă˝ and has been recognized with some of the advertising industry’s highest honors.
Hany Farid is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, with appointments in its School of Information and in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. His research focuses on digital forensics, forensic science, AI imagery and image analysis, and human perception.
Farid served for two decades on Dartmouth College’s faculty, where he pioneered the field of digital forensics. His innovations—including PhotoDNA, a technology deployed globally to identify and remove child exploitation imagery, and advanced deepfake detection technologies—have become essential tools for law enforcement, human rights advocates, and major tech companies.
Farid is cofounder and chief science officer at GetReal Security, a company started in 2024 for the authentication of digital media, including AI-generated images, videos, and audio. A sought-after AI expert, he has recently discussed deepfake detection on PBS’s NOVA and delivered a TED Talk on how to spot fake AI photos, among other public engagements.
Born to Egyptian parents in Germany, he spent most of his childhood in Rochester. He earned an undergraduate degree in applied mathematics from Ģą˝´«Ă˝ before completing an MS in computer science at the State University of New York at Albany and a PhD in computer science at the University of Pennsylvania.
Judy Faulkner is CEO and founder of privately held medical record software provider, Epic. As a computer programmer, she began Epic in 1979 in the basement of an apartment house with $70,000 in start-up funds.
Based in Verona, Wisconsin, today Epic has over 14,000 employees. During the pandemic, Epic declined to charge its customers for COVID-19-related software or services, forgoing approximately $1 billion in revenue. In 2013, Forbes called Faulkner “the most powerful woman in healthcare,” and in 2025, the magazine named her among the “World’s Most Powerful Women.”
Faulkner and her family also established the Roots & Wings Foundation to provide vital support to low-income children and families at pivotal times. By providing assistance, the foundation is taking steps to address societal problems before they emerge. Since 2020, Roots & Wings has delivered more than $286 million in grants to hundreds of partner organizations across four priority areas of basic needs: early learning, health, safety, and justice. Faulkner has also signed The Giving Pledge, committing that 99 percent of her assets will go to philanthropy.
She received a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Dickinson College.
For nearly 50 years, Elaine Martone has distinguished herself as one of the music industry’s most visionary and accomplished producers. During her three decades at Telarc Records, where she served as executive vice president of production, she earned widespread acclaim in every major audio publication for the exceptional production team she built and inspired. She led a department of 12 creative professionals dedicated to fulfilling the company’s mission of sonic excellence, always guided by the highest standards of integrity.
Born in Rochester and raised on Long Island, she attended Ithaca College where she earned a degree in oboe performance. She then moved to Cleveland to pursue her dream of performing as an orchestral oboist.
Martone began her career in 1980 when Telarc was still in its infancy. Though new to the recording business, she quickly mastered the artistry and discipline behind the renowned “Telarc sound,” becoming first an accomplished editor, then a sought-after producer, and ultimately an invaluable member of the company’s senior leadership team.
Her distinguished producing credits span both classical and jazz, including acclaimed recordings by The Cleveland Orchestra with Franz Welser-Möst; the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with Robert Spano, Robert Shaw, and Donald Runnicles; the Philharmonia Orchestra with Benjamin Zander; and jazz luminaries such as Geri Allen, Ray Brown, Dave Brubeck, Ann Hampton Callaway, Michel Camilo, Oscar Peterson, Tierney Sutton, and McCoy Tyner.
She also served as executive producer of Spring for Music at Carnegie Hall, and as festival producer of the internationally celebrated Ojai Music Festival. Her many honors include seven Grammy Awards in both classical and jazz; 13 Grammy nominations; a Latin Grammy Award; and the Renovator Award, celebrating women who move music forward.
Awards
John W. Rowe is the Julius B. Richmond Professor of Health Policy and Aging at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. A recognized expert on geriatrics and the physiology of aging, he is the author of more than 200 scientific publications.
From 2000 until 2006, Rowe served as chairman and CEO of Aetna, Inc., one of the nation’s largest health insurers. From 1998 to 2000, he served as president and CEO of Mount Sinai NYU Health, and in the previous decade, he was president of the Mount Sinai Hospital and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Rowe has also served as a professor of medicine and the founding director of the Division on Aging at Harvard Medical School, as well as the chief of gerontology at Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital. He received a medical degree, with distinction in research, in 1970 from URochester, where he was a member of Alpha Omega Alpha.
He has been the president of the Gerontological Society of America and the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics, in addition to receiving many awards and honors for his contributions to the field. Rowe is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He has been recognized by Business Week and the Harvard Business Review as one of the world’s most effective leaders.
Robert (Bob) Goergen, former chairman of the University Board of Trustees, is one of the nation’s most highly regarded business executives and entrepreneurs.
As an undergraduate student at Ģą˝´«Ă˝ and the first in his family to attend college, he was very involved in campus life and leadership, graduating cum laude in 1960 with a bachelor’s degree in physics. He went on to earn an MBA in finance from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School..
Goergen’s career spans management consulting at McKinsey & Company; venture capital with the Sprout Group of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette; advertising at McCann-Erickson; entrepreneurship as founder of Blyth, Inc., a consumer products company that carries his mother’s maiden name; and Ropart Investments, a private equity firm.
Goergen joined the Board of Trustees in 1982 and served as chairman from 1990 to 2003. In the early 1980s, as a new board member, he toured the University’s athletic facilities. Seeing them in disrepair, he was inspired to help transform them into a place the campus could be proud of—today’s Robert B. Goergen Athletic Center. When the biomedical engineering and optics programs needed momentum to get off the ground, Goergen was there with a timely commitment, which led to the building of the Robert B. Goergen Hall for Biomedical Engineering and Optics. When data science was an emerging field, he recognized its potential and invested in what is now the Goergen Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. And in September 2025, Goergen and his wife, Pamela, continued their philanthropic momentum with a $2 million gift to establish an endowed professorship at the University’s Wilmot Cancer Institute.
In 2014, he received the national Horatio Alger Award, which is bestowed upon accomplished leaders—all with a commitment to philanthropy and higher education—who have overcome significant personal challenges to achieve success. He was awarded the Charles Force and Marjorie Force Hutchison Medal in 2008—the University’s highest alumni award.
Daniel Diermeier, chancellor of Vanderbilt University, is an internationally renowned political scientist, management scholar, and higher education leader.
Throughout his career, Diermeier has proven to be a bold innovator, leader, researcher, and teacher with an entrepreneurial mindset. Since he was named chancellor, Vanderbilt has become a destination for some of the world’s most promising students and faculty. Today, he leads Vanderbilt’s ambitious program of expansion and improvement, driving efforts to create a culture of collaboration and personal growth and to increase the institution’s national and global reputation. Beyond campus, Diermeier has spearheaded efforts to increase cross-sector collaboration and employ Vanderbilt’s innovative capacity to expand Middle Tennessee’s innovation economy.
His scholarly work has made important contributions to the formal theory of legislative institutions and coalition government, behavioral models of politics, and private politics and non-market strategy in the corporate context.
A first-generation college graduate, Diermeier earned a PhD in political science from URochester.
Arie Bodek, the George E. Pake Professor of Physics in the School of Arts & Sciences, has had a long and distinguished career in particle physics—beginning with his contributions to Nobel Prize–winning work as a doctoral student and continuing through his enduring dedication to teaching.
His doctoral thesis in 1972 provided some of the earliest experimental evidence for the existence of quarks. In the more than five decades since, he has carried out foundational work on hadronic and leptonic interactions while making critical contributions to this area of experimental physics.
Beyond his scientific achievements, Bodek is a devoted teacher and mentor. He has advised more than 30 PhD students, several of whom are now prominent physicists, as well as scientific and business leaders in the private sector. Throughout his career, Bodek has developed innovative mentorship and career development programs to pair graduate and undergraduate researchers, building pipelines for students to pursue graduate studies. He has been highly active in physics education, science outreach activities, and efforts to increase interest in science and engineering graduate studies. He developed the physics department’s teaching assistant training program in the 1980s. Since 2005, he has held the George E. Pake professorship, designed to help faculty guide graduate students’ research while attracting top students to the field of experimental physics.
Todd Krauss, the Jay Last Professor in the School of Arts & Sciences, represents the highest standard of graduate teaching, rooted in intellectual rigor, compassion, and a deep commitment to student growth, especially in training and mentoring PhD students.
Since the start of his career at Ģą˝´«Ă˝ in 2000, Krauss has advised 35 students who have successfully earned PhDs. The scope and impact of the Krauss Research Group’s work is reflected in the fact that he has advised students who earned PhDs not only in chemistry, but also in materials science, optics, and biochemistry and biophysics. Additionally, he is an inspiring and engaging classroom instructor. He developed a popular course, Chemical Bonds: From Molecules to Materials, which he has regularly taught since 2009.
Krauss is a highly successful researcher who focuses on investigations of electronic and optical properties of semiconductor nanocrystals. He is one of the world’s top researchers in the nanocrystal field.
Since joining the Eastman School of Music faculty in 2017, Professor of Piano Alan Chow has distinguished himself as a teacher, mentor, and artist of extraordinary depth and integrity. An internationally acclaimed pianist whose performances span major concert halls and orchestras around the world, he brings to his teaching not only a wealth of professional experience but also a profound commitment to developing each student.
As the chair of the piano department as well as an undergraduate educator, Chow is known for holding the highest artistic standards while cultivating an environment grounded in empathy, respect, and community. At the heart of his pedagogy is a belief in guiding, rather than dictating, to foster artistic independence, critical thinking, and lasting confidence. Chow’s dedication extends far beyond the lesson itself—through tireless availability, personal encouragement, and an unwavering investment in his students’ success and well-being. His studio has become, in the words of his students, “a true artistic home,” defined by curiosity, collaboration, and a shared love of music.
Sheth Nyibule, an associate professor (instructional) of physics in the School of Arts & Sciences, excels at teaching some of the most challenging service courses and is a devoted undergraduate mentor in his classes, in the undergraduate research program, and in mentoring teaching assistants.
Nyibule has primarily been teaching the department’s large survey courses, such as PHYS 122, an
introductory electromagnetism course for engineering majors, and PHYS 113–114, a two-semester
general physics sequence primarily oriented toward students in the life sciences. Courses like these are notoriously difficult to teach in a way that yields high student satisfaction. They typically enroll students with a wide range of backgrounds and levels of preparation; many students take the courses to fulfill a requirement rather than out of a genuine interest in physics. In this context, Nyibule’s high ratings are especially remarkable. Student comments from the large introductory courses reflect that he is a highly effective, engaging, kind, and empathetic instructor who connects with his students and makes himself widely available outside of lecture.
He received a PhD in physics from Ģą˝´«Ă˝ in 2016.
Crystal Cusimano-Figueroa ’05, ’09S (MS) is a distinguished higher education leader with more than two decades of experience at the URochester, where she has advanced student success, faculty affairs, academic operations, and institutional initiatives. As assistant dean of students within University Student Life, she oversees Orientation and New Student Programs, Parent and Family Relations, and the University Orientation and Onboarding Team, fostering inclusive transitions and long-term engagement for students and families. Her leadership emphasizes community-building and connection, ensuring alignment with the University’s mission and values.
Throughout her career, Cusimano-Figueroa has held numerous leadership roles, including assistant dean for Orientation and New Student Programs, director of faculty affairs for Arts, Sciences & Engineering, and senior director of Orientation and First-Year Programs. A Ģą˝´«Ă˝ alumna, she holds advanced degrees in marketing, instructional design, and economics. Known for her collaborative and thoughtful approach, Cusimano-Figueroa has made a lasting impact through initiatives that promote diversity, inclusion, and excellence, earning recognition for her dedication to students and faculty alike.
Jodyi Wren serves as the associate dean and director of the Gwen M. Greene Center for Career Education and Connections at the URochester, where she has spent more than 20 years transforming career exploration, preparation, and launch strategies for students. As a first-generation and transfer student herself, Wren brings a personal understanding of the importance of networking, experiential learning, and career education, which has shaped her leadership. She has pioneered initiatives such as integrating learning outcomes into Greene Center programming, developing a four-dimensional career education framework, and building extensive alumni and employer connections to give Ģą˝´«Ă˝ students a competitive edge.
In her current role, Wren leads the strategic vision for career education across the University, overseeing experiential learning initiatives, managing a $2M+ operating budget, and directing corporate development efforts to build talent pipelines. She has spearheaded signature programs, such as the Career Exploration Summit, and a liaison model that embeds career education into student organizations, athletics, and academic spaces. A champion for equity and access, Wren ensures robust support for international, first-generation, and historically marginalized students. Her dedication to student success and her embodiment of the University’s motto, Meliora, have earned her widespread recognition.
