The University of Delaware will recognize six individuals with the awarding of honorary degrees at the University’s Commencement ceremony on May 24.

The honorary degree, the University’s highest accolade, is reserved for individuals who reflect, in their personal and professional achievements, the University’s mission and who serve as exemplars for UD’s students, alumni, the University community and the world.

This year’s class, approved by the Board of Trustees at its spring meeting, includes Matt O’Donnell, Dennis Assanis, John C. Carney Jr., John R. Cochran III, Robin Wilson Morgan and Lynnette Young Overby.

About the honorees

Matt O’Donnell

Matt O’Donnell, a 1994 UD graduate, is receiving an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.

O’Donnell, co-anchor of “Action News Mornings in Philadelphia,” is an engaged alumnus, serving on the College of Arts and Sciences Advisory Council, which advises and assists the dean on matters related to nurturing relationships between the college and its graduates and the wider community.

At UD, O’Donnell earned his degree in English/journalism, with a minor in political science. He was news director of WVUD-fm and also worked as a reporter for The Review.

In addition to anchoring “Action News Mornings,” O’Donnell is co-host of the Sunday political show “Inside Story,” where panelists debate important issues we face and newsmakers who make the decisions are challenged. He also hosts and produces the True Philadelphia Podcast, discussing what is great about the Philadelphia region with local celebrities, athletes, journalists, activists, political leaders and others.

Since joining Action News as a general assignment reporter in December 1996, O’Donnell has reported on news in virtually every community in the Delaware and Lehigh valleys, and he has tackled assignments that took him across the country and around the world. He has covered three political conventions, interviewed three presidents and covered countless pivotal stories that have shaped the region.

O’Donnell will deliver the Commencement address to the Class of 2025.

Dennis Assanis

UD President Dennis Assanis will receive an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.

Assanis is the 28th president of the University of Delaware. He was elected to the position by the UD Board of Trustees on Nov. 18, 2015. He took office June 6, 2016, and was formally inaugurated Dec. 7, 2016. After nine years of service to the University, Assanis announced in May that he would step down as president effective June 30, 2025.

Assanis is a distinguished educator with a wide range of academic leadership experience and a worldwide reputation as a scholar and expert in both fundamental and applied studies of internal combustion engines and energy systems. In 2019, Assanis was named to the new National Commission on Innovation and Competitiveness Frontiers, an initiative of the nonprofit and nonpartisan Council on Competitiveness. Appointed by President Joe Biden, he also served on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Before coming to UD, Assanis served as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Stony Brook University and as vice president for Brookhaven National Laboratory Affairs. He previously taught and conducted research at the University of Michigan and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Born and raised in Athens, Greece, Assanis earned his bachelor’s degree in marine engineering from Newcastle University in England (1980). At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he earned three master’s degrees: naval architecture and marine engineering (1982), mechanical engineering (1982) and management (1986). Also at MIT, he earned a doctorate in power and propulsion (1985). 

In 2023, Assanis was recognized by Newcastle University with its Alumni Impact Award. 

John C. Carney Jr.

John C. Carney Jr. will receive an Honorary Doctor of Laws.

A lifelong Delawarean, Carney has built a distinguished career in public service, culminating in his current role as the 57th mayor of Wilmington. Carney served as the 74th governor of Delaware from 2017 to 2025. His administration focused on economic development, education reform and healthcare improvement. Carney was the U.S. representative for Delaware's at-large congressional district from 2011 to 2017, the 24th lieutenant governor of Delaware from 2001 to 2009, and Delaware's secretary of finance from 1996 to 2000.

Carney attended St. Mark’s High School and led the school’s football team to its first state championship in 1973. After graduating high school, he attended Dartmouth College, where he continued his football career and earned All-Ivy League and Most Valuable Player honors. When Carney returned to Delaware, he coached the freshman football team at the University of Delaware while earning a master’s degree in public administration.

Carney has remained an active Blue Hen alumnus, participating in events and initiatives that support the University’s mission and students.

John R. Cochran III

John R. Cochran III, former chair and current member of the University of Delaware Board of Trustees, will receive an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.

Cochran has had a distinguished financial career. He was chief operating officer of MBNA Corporation and chair and chief executive officer of its principal subsidiary, MBNA America Bank. For over 20 years, he was head of business development at MBNA and was responsible for gaining the endorsement of nearly 5,000 organizations. MBNA merged with Bank of America in 2006, and he retired from the company in 2008.

In addition to his service on UD’s Board of Trustees, he has served on the board of Christiana Care Health System. He is also a past member of the board of directors of the Delaware Council for Economic Education and served as chairman of his alma mater, Loyola University in Maryland, as well as the Stella Maris Advisory Board in Baltimore.

He and his wife, Patricia, are generous benefactors to the University, including major gifts to support faculty diversity initiatives and renovations to Delaware Stadium. They established the John and Patricia Cochran Scholars Fund to recruit, develop, retain and promote a diverse faculty and to support their successful academic career advancement. The Cochrans’ generous support of the renovation of Delaware Stadium is memorialized in the President’s Suite.

Robin Wilson Morgan

Robin Wilson Morgan will receive an Honorary Doctor of Science. 

Morgan, a professor of animal and food sciences at UD for over 35 years, served as the University’s provost from 2018 to 2022, when she retired. She was the first woman to hold the post in a permanent capacity.

Morgan held a number of leadership positions since she joined the UD faculty in 1985 as an assistant professor in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. After serving as associate dean for research in the college, Morgan became acting dean and then dean of the college, a position she held from 2002 to 2012. In 2014, she was appointed interim chair of the Department of Biological Sciences and served as chair from 2016 until her appointment as interim provost.

Morgan earned her bachelor’s degree in biology from Meredith College and her Ph.D. in biology from The Johns Hopkins University. She also did postdoctoral research at the University of California at Berkeley.

She was involved in cancer research since entering graduate school at Johns Hopkins in 1977. At UD, she studied how Marek’s disease virus (MDV), a herpesvirus-induced T-cell lymphoma of chickens, induces T-cell lymphomas and how vaccines protect against tumor formation.

A member of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, Morgan has served on a number of association boards and is currently a member of the Board of Trustees for Longwood Gardens. She has also received a host of fellowships and awards, including the Outstanding Alumni Award from Meredith College, the Delmarva Poultry Industry Inc. Outstanding Achievement Award,the American Association of Avian Pathologists (AAAP) Phibro Animal Health Excellence in Poultry Research Award and the award for Distinguished Service to Agriculture in Delaware.

Lynnette Young Overby

Lynnette Young Overby, professor emerita of theatre and dance, will receive an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts.

Overby’s career included work as a grade-school physical education teacher, doctoral student, college professor, author, researcher, national advocate for arts education, choreographer, performer and mentor to numerous students and young faculty members.

Overby earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education from Hampton Institute and a master’s degree in dance education from George Washington University. She taught in the Washington, D.C., public schools and conducted research there, finding that children developed reading and comprehension skills more successfully when their traditional classroom learning was supplemented with creative movement.

She moved into teaching and administrative positions in higher education and earned her doctorate in kinesiology at the University of Maryland. In 2008, she left Michigan State University to join the UD faculty, as founding faculty director of the Office of Undergraduate Research and Experiential Learning.

Overby was the founding director of the dance minor program and deputy director of the University’s Community Engagement Initiative. In April 2021, Overby was nominated for the National Council on the Humanities by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the U.S. Senate later that year. This board of distinguished private citizens advises the chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Founded in 1965, NEH is one of the largest funders of humanities programs in the United States, supporting research and learning in history, literature, philosophy and other areas.