Nyack.edu - Honorary Degree Recipients

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Honorary Degree Recipients

A.R. BERNARD

Doctor of Divinity
Nyack College/Alliance Theological Seminary

A.R. Bernard is this year’s Commencement speaker for the Nyack College and Alliance Theological Seminary graduation ceremony on Saturday, May 9, 2009.

Appointed president of the Council of Churches of the City of New York, Bernard earned a Master of Professional Studies in Urban Studies (2006) and a Master of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary (2009). He is the founder and CEO of Christian Cultural Center (CCC), a 30,000-member church located in Brooklyn, NY on an 11.5 -acre campus.

In 1993, Bernard founded Brooklyn Preparatory School, a premiere institution of early childhood education. Some of the many outreach and special interest groups in the CCC fellowship include the Food Pantry, Prison Ministry, Synergies for Success, Motorcycle Club, Golden Saints Ministry, and the Family Life Center.

Bernard is a member of the New York City Economic Development Corporation Board and the New York City School Chancellor’s Advisory Cabinet. He was a part of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Transition Team in 2001.

Recognized as the most influential New York Clergyman in 2008 by the New York Daily News, he was named the most influential African American New Yorker (New York Post, February 2008); and one of New York’s Most Influential People (New York Magazine, 2006). In 2007, the Consulate General of Israel in New York, Jewish Community Relations Council, and Jewish National Fund honored him with a lifetime achievement award.

J. DOUGLAS HOLLADAY

Doctor of Laws
Nyack College

J. Douglas Holladay, a co-founder of Park Avenue Equity Partners, L.P. with offices in New York and Washington will receive an honorary doctorate, Doctor of Laws, from Nyack College. Park Avenue Equity Partners is a private equity fund that makes equity investments in operating companies with revenues between $50-350 million. Prior to founding Park Avenue, Mr. Holladay was Chairman of the Thornton Group, LLC, which he co-founded in 1995 to make opportunistic direct equity investments in a range of smaller companies.

While Mr. Holladay continues as an active investor in Park Avenue, the main focus of his time is on several important not-for-profit efforts, including PathNorth, which helps business owners and CEOs define success more broadly, the Buxton Initiative, an interfaith dialogue organization, PlayPumps, focused on clean water in Africa, and ABC² (Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure), working to find a cure for brain cancer.

He is a former senior officer with the international investment banking firm, Goldman Sachs and Company, headquartered in New York where he worked in the Investment Banking Division. While with Goldman Sachs, he served as founding President of One to One Mentoring Partnership, an initiative of the New York financial community to bring imaginative solutions to some of our nation's most pressing urban youth challenges.

Mr. Holladay has advised several presidents and numerous corporate leaders and has explained and debated public policy issues on national television. He has contributed to several books on a broad range of issues, foreign policy, culture, theology and 19th century history, as well as articles in the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today and other influential journals. He has delivered public speeches to leadership gatherings in more than 40 states and 10 nations.

Mr. Holladay holds degrees from the University of North Carolina, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Oxford University in England and has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Virginia and as a guest lecturer at Williams College.

MR. ABRAHAM M. LACKMAN

Doctor of Letters
Nyack College

Abraham M. Lackman, the sixth President of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (cIcu), will receive an honorary degree, Doctor of Letters at the Nyack College/Alliance Theological Seminary Commencement ceremony on May 9, 2009.

Mr. Lackman is responsible for leading and coordinating the state and federal public policy advocacy of more than 100 college presidents of New York State’s private, non-profit, independent institutions of higher education and for carrying out the policy directives of cIcu’s Board of Trustees.

Mr. Lackman serves on a number of national, state and community boards and committees. He is the Immediate Past-Chair of NAICUSE, the umbrella group for state executives of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. On the state level he was appointed to the New York State Commission on Higher Education. He was also appointed by Governor George Pataki to serve as a member of the Public Authority Governance Advisory Committee and by Chief Judge Judith Kaye to the Special Commission on the Future of the New York State Courts. In addition, he is on the boards of the New York Academy of Sciences, Northeast Health Systems, Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC), and Instructional Systems, Inc (ISI).

In the field of higher education, Mr. Lackman is an expert and frequent speaker on the topics of higher education finances and economic development. He has been a guest lecturer at Albany Law School as well as New York University’s School of Law, and an adjunct instructor in economics in the MBA program at the Graduate School of Business of the State University of New York at Albany (UAlbany). He earned a bachelor of science degree at New York University and a master’s degree in economics at UAlbany, where he completed course work for a doctorate in economics.

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