Temple’s former President JoAnne Epps will be awarded an honorary degree posthumously during Temple’s 139th Commencement ceremony. Joining her in receiving an honorary degree will be interim provost and dean of the Klein College of Media and Communication David Boardman. 

JoAnne Epps is remembered as a brilliant, kind and thoughtful leader who represented the very best of Temple. 

At Temple’s 139th Commencement next month, Epps will be honored posthumously with a doctor of humane letters in recognition of a lifetime of devoted service to the university. 

Temple President John Fry shared the planned honor for Epps during the university’s Board of Trustees meeting on April 15. The ceremony will be held Wednesday, May 6, at 10 a.m. in the Liacouras Center, 1776 N. Broad St. Joining Epps in receiving an honorary degree will be David Boardman, who has served as the university’s interim provost since July 2025. 

“I am proud to announce that we will award honorary degrees to two of Temple’s best leaders and finest citizens, past and present: JoAnne Epps, our 13th president; and David Boardman, the dean of the Klein College of Media and Communication and currently our interim provost,” Fry said during the April 15 meeting. 

In addition to Epps and Boardman, an honorary degree will also be awarded to Colman Domingo, who will deliver the Commencement address at this year’s ceremony. Together, the three will now be part of a distinguished list of individuals who have had honorary Temple degrees bestowed upon them. Past recipients have included Bishop Desmond Tutu, U.S. Senator Cory Booker, basketball Coach Dawn Staley, television star Quinta Brunson, ESPN anchor Kevin Negandhi, R&B icon Patti LaBelle, and last year Board Chair Mitch Morgan.    

Epps’ posthumous recognition as an honorary degree recipient is the latest example of a Temple legacy that goes back more than 40 years. After initially joining Temple in 1985 as a faculty member in the Law School, she then served as the school’s associate dean for academic affairs from 1989 to 2008. She served as dean of the Law School from 2008 to 2016 before becoming provost, a position that she held until August of 2021. Then, on April 11, 2023, she was named the university’s acting president. 

Some of her leading accomplishments at Temple can be seen through the rise of the Beasley School of Law. Under Epps’ leadership, the school rose in national rankings, approaching the U.S. News and World Report Top 50. She also expanded the school’s experiential offerings and significantly enhanced its business and transactional law curriculum, all while retaining Beasley’s status as a national leader in trial advocacy.   

Boardman has served as dean of the Klein College of Media and Communication since 2013 and was named the Administrator of the Year by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in 2022. During his tenure, the school has dramatically increased its national profile, its research output and its fundraising. The school’s students have also been tremendously successful. 

During this past year, Temple media organizations earned 19 Student Keystone Media Awards. Additionally, in 2018 and 2022, Temple University Television, an enterprise of the Klein College, was named the nation’s best college television station by the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System, and in the summer of 2024, the station sent students to Paris to cover stories related to the 2024 Summer Olympics.  

While serving as interim provost and as Temple’s chief academic officer over the past year, Boardman has overseen a portfolio that includes the university’s 17 schools and colleges as well as numerous divisions that support the academic mission, faculty affairs, student success, global engagement, and strategic planning, among others. He also played a key role in helping secure a historic gift from Jane Creamer Sullivan, KLN ’70, that will create the Jane Creamer Sullivan and Thomas J. Sullivan Honors College. 

Before joining Temple, Boardman was executive editor and senior vice president of The Seattle Times newspaper. Under his leadership, The Times won four Pulitzer Prizes. Boardman personally has been the recipient of numerous other major national awards, including the National Ethics Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Goldsmith Prize in Investigative Reporting from Harvard University, and the Associated Press Managing Editors Public Service Award. 

He is the founding chair of the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, which owns The Philadelphia Inquirer, and the former chair of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. 

“This honor is deeply humbling for me,” Boardman said. “At my core, I’m just an ink-stained journalist, so to receive this recognition is beyond imagination. For it to come alongside JoAnne Epps, a dear friend and personal hero, makes it all the more wonderful.” 

For more information about Temple University’s 2026 Commencement ceremony and access to the ceremony's livestream, visit temple.edu/commencement.