Liz Walker, an award-winning TV news anchor and ordained minister now working in international education and women’s issues, was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Boston College on May 21 at the University’s 136th Commencement Exercises.
Walker was a broadcaster with WBZ-TV for more than two decades. For the last 11 years, she has worked for a nonprofit that aims to rebuild the lives of women and children in southern Sudan. As co-founder of My Sister’s Keeper, Walker is credited with helping to fund the construction of a school for 500 girls in that war-torn region.
An ordained minister who works with young people in Jamaica Plain’s Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Walker is currently the transitional minister at Roxbury Presbyterian Church. She is the founder and principal of The Walker Group LLC, Communications Specialists, focused on corporate public engagement, non-profit capacity building and video production.
Her honorary degree citation read, in part: “Welcomed into the homes of New England families for decades, Liz Walker has spent a career making connections, telling stories, and shaping lives. A seasoned journalist and documentary film producer, her work on WBZ-TV has been recognized with two Emmys, an Edward R. Murrow Award and special recognition from the prestigious Gabriel Awards. The first African-American anchor in the Boston news market, she inspired a generation, demonstrating that color was no barrier to success.
“Through her company, the Walker Group, she has worked on behalf of marginalized people – advocating for and giving voice to the homeless, survivors of domestic violence, people living with HIV, and at-risk youth. A tireless champion for the Greater Boston community, she is an ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and currently serves as Transitional Minister at Roxbury Presbyterian Church. She also sits on multiple boards, including UNICEF, Tufts Health Foundation and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
“For a career dedicated to informing viewers and transforming lives, Boston College proudly confers upon Liz Walker the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.”
Others bestowed with honorary degrees at BC's 2012 Commencement were: award-winning journalist Bob Woodruff; Intuit, Inc. Chairman Bill Campbell; Rev. Joseph A. Appleyard, S.J., socius of the New England Province of the Society of Jesus, and Navyn Salem, founder and executive director of Edesia, a nonprofit that treats and prevents malnutrition.
Boston College was founded by the Society of Jesus in 1863—the first institution of higher education in the city of Boston. Today, it is one of the nation's foremost universities, with a co-educational enrollment of some 14,600 undergraduate and graduate students drawn from all 50 states and more than 80 countries. It also is among the nation's most selective universities, with more than 34,000 applications received for its 2,250-member Class of 2016.
