Saint Joseph’s College announces that Catholic author and journalist Kerry Weber will be the 2017 Commencement speaker, as well as one of three honorary degree recipients. Weber is the author of Mercy in the City: How to Feed the Hungry, Give Drink to the Thirsty, Visit the Imprisoned, and Keep Your Day Job (Loyola Press), which received a 2015 Christopher Award, as well as awards from the Catholic Press Association and the Association of Catholic Publishers. She also serves as an executive editor of America magazine, where she has worked since 2009, and as a co-host on America This Week, a weekly radio program on SiriusXM 129, The Catholic Channel. In 2013, Weber reported from Rwanda as a recipient of Catholic Relief Services' Egan Journalism Fellowship recognizing excellence in the Catholic media.
President James Dlugos, Ph.D., who will confer the Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters to Weber, said, “As a Catholic public intellectual, Kerry Weber’s efforts as a journalist have shaped our understanding of what it means to be an engaged person of faith at a crucial time for our communities and our country. At Saint Joseph’s College, we consider it our responsibility to ensure that our graduates bring to their professions our core values of faith, community, compassion, and excellence–values that Weber’s work exemplifies.”
About the announcement, Weber said, “I am humbled by this honor and grateful that it allows me to become a part of the Saint Joseph's College community. It is wonderful to connect with a place that embodies mercy through its continued commitment to faith, compassion and justice."
A graduate of Providence College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Weber has previously worked as an editor for Catholic Digest, as a reporter for the Catholic Communications Corps of the Diocese of Springfield, and as a special-education teacher on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona. Weber currently serves on the board of the Ignatian Solidarity Network, a national social justice education and advocacy organization.
Watch a video about her book and work
