2025 Honorary Degree Recipients and Commencement Speakers

Commencement Speaker and Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree Recipient

Addressing the College of Liberal Arts Class of 2025 and Graduates of the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies data science, education, finance, and teaching programs.

David Epstein

David Epstein obsesses over mistranslations of scientific research, and tries to temper the misconceptions that follow them. He is the author of the #1 New York Times best seller Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, and of the best seller The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance. He has been an investigative reporter at ProPublica, where his work spanned drug cartels to poor scientific research, and a senior writer at Sports Illustrated, where he authored or coauthored many of the magazine’s most high-profile stories, including the revelation that Yankees star Alex Rodriguez had used steroids. His TED Talks on human performance have been viewed more than 12 million times. David has master’s degrees in environmental science and journalism from Columbia University, where he was also a record-setting 800-meter runner. He has worked as an ecology researcher in the Arctic, studied astronomy while residing in the Sonoran Desert, and blithely signed up to work on the D-deck of a seismic research vessel shortly after it had been attacked by pirates. Like many of the characters in Range, he has benefitted from a winding career.

“David Epstein has so much to share with the Drew community as we lean into innovation and move toward an interdisciplinary and problem-based approach to learning. His argument that people need to have a broad range of experiences and knowledge along with intellectual curiosity to solve the world’s complex problems is the perfect fit for our mission and approach, particularly as we become more agile and adapt to our fast-changing world.” – President Hilary Link, PhD

Commencement Speaker and Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree Recipient

Addressing the Drew Theological School Class of 2025 and graduates of the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies’ arts and letters, history and culture, and medical humanities, health, and society programs.

Craig Drinkard

Craig Drinkard is the Executive Officer of the Victoria Foundation, assuming the role in April 2022. He served as co-director leading the foundation staff and trustees to its strategic framework that focuses on Strengthening Community Power, Fostering Economic Justice, Youth Self-Determination, and Responding to Pressing Needs. He is responsible for implementing this framework through a racial equity lens and for deploying approximately $13 million annually in grants and other investments in Newark, New Jersey from the Foundation’s $340 million endowment. Craig was born and raised in Newark and the first Black person to lead the Foundation in its over 100-year history.

Craig joined the Victoria Foundation staff in 2006 as a Program Officer and launched the Foundation’s Capacity Building Initiative aimed at improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the non-profit sector in Newark while leading its economic development grantmaking investments. In 2011, Craig was promoted to Senior Program Officer. In this role, he worked with the Foundation’s board of trustees to realign the organization’s grantmaking strategies, particularly in the areas of community and economic development, education, and youth and family development. In addition, Craig oversaw a third-party assessment of the Foundation’s grantmaking of the Community Development Corporation sector in Newark. In 2017, he was promoted to Associate Director where he led several initiatives for Victoria Foundation including its newly launched Program Related Investments strategy and its Thriving Neighborhood Initiative work while he continued to lead the Foundation’s investments in organizational and leadership development, public safety, and community and economic development. In January 2019, Craig was promoted to Deputy Director of the Foundation and to Co-Executive Officer in 2021. He played a leading role working with the Foundation’s trustees, staff, and consultants to develop the new strategic framework, mission statement, and organizational values. 

Prior to Victoria Foundation, Craig served as a Program Officer at the Community Foundation of New Jersey. In this capacity, he oversaw two initiatives aimed at developing grassroots leaders throughout New Jersey – the Neighborhood Leadership Initiative and Parents Organizing Parents Strategy. His professional career also includes experience working for the federal government, major for-profit companies, and a Newark-based nonprofit where he served as a community organizer. 

In addition to working at Victoria Foundation, Craig serves on the board of several non-profit and philanthropic organizations such as The Regional Foundation, LEAD Charter School, Council of New Jersey Grantmakers (the first black-person to serve as board chair), and Opportunity Youth Network-Newark. He is an active field-builder and connector in philanthropy, participating in numerous fellowships such as The Neighborhood Funders Group|Aspen Institute’s Philanthropy Forward: Leadership for Change Fellowship for national leaders who center racial and gender justice and community building power building to disrupt and transform the future of philanthropy (2022), The Justice Funders’ Maestra Program (2019), and the inaugural class of the Council on Foundation’s Career Pathways program (2011.) 

Craig was born and raised in Newark, New Jersey and is a product of the Newark Public School system. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Business Finance from Bloomfield College and received his MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University. Craig currently lives in West Orange with his wife and two daughters.