2011 Honorary Degree Recipients

Each year at the Columbia College Chicago Commencement, we honor outstanding individuals in the arts, education, politics, and public information – people who have engaged their great talents in important human service and whose life work and example embody the college’s ideal and spirit.

This year, the President’s Office and the Office of the Vice President of Student Affairs are proud to announce three outstanding honorees, individuals who have chosen Chicago as their creative center and whose interdisciplinary approaches have resulted in visionary work that both embodies the spirit of the college and echoes concepts set forth in our strategic plan.

2011 Honorary Degree Recipients

Regina Taylor | To be honored Saturday May 14th @ 1:30 p.m.

Regina Taylor is a Golden Globe award-winning actress, playwright, and multiple-time Emmy nominee. Best known for playing Lilly Harper in NBC’s I’ll Fly Away, Taylor has performed in TV shows and feature films including Courage Under Fire, Losing Isaiah, and Spike Lee’s Clockers. Praised by the New York Times for her Minnijean Brown in Crisis at Central High, she was the first black woman to play Shakespeare’s Juliet on Broadway. Regina’s plays and musicals are produced across the country, most recently The Trinity River Plays at the Goodman Theatre, where she is an Artistic Associate.

Bruce Mau | To be honored Sunday, May 15th @ 10 a.m.

Bruce Mau, Chief Creative Officer of Bruce Mau Design and founder of the Institute without Boundaries, has offices in Chicago and Toronto, where he works with clients like Coca-Cola, MTV, McDonald’s, Frank Gehry, and Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus. Bruce’s books include the Zone series, S,M,L,XL (with Rem Koolhaas), and The Incomplete Manifesto for Growth, a now-viral guide about design strategies and motivations. He is behind ¡GuateAmala!, a positive, collaborative project with business and cultural leaders in that country, and the winner of awards including the Louise Blouin Foundation’s Creative Leadership Award and the AIGA Gold Medal. His work was recently featured in Massive Change: The Future of Global Design exhibition at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art.

Ryan Schreiber | To be honored, Sunday May 15th @ 3 p.m.

Ryan Schreiber started Pitchfork.com in 1995, when he was a recent high school graduate and the internet was still new. Pitchfork, celebrated for its indie savvy and cleverness, helped break bands like Arcade Fire, Vampire Weekend, and Modest Mouse. It’s grown from a place for album reviews and lists into a concert series, television website, bestselling book, and more, with offices in Chicago and New York. In 2009, Time Magazine named Ryan one of the World’s Most Influential People.