Ithaca College Names May 21 Commencement Speakers and Honorary Degree Recipient

By Dave Maley, April 11, 2023

Speaker for May 20 Graduate Hooding and Commencement ceremony also announced.

(L to R) Commencement speaker Larry Hirschhorn '80, Class of 2023 speaker Francesca Infante-Meehan '23, honorary degree recipient Loki Mulholland '22, and Graduate Hooding and Commencement ceremony speaker Scott Doyle '98.

(Photos submitted)

Four-time Tony Award-winning Broadway producer Larry Hirschhorn will deliver the main address at Ithaca College’s 128th Commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 21. Graduating senior Francesca Infante-Meehan will speak on behalf of the Class of 2023. The college will also recognize civil rights activist and award-winning filmmaker Loki Mulholland with an honorary degree.

“We look forward to celebrating the Class of 2023 and honoring our distinguished guests,” said Ithaca College President La Jerne Terry Cornish. “As our graduates prepare to begin this next exciting chapter in their lives, I am sure that they will draw inspiration and encouragement from the experiences of our speakers.”

Larry Hirschhorn

Larry Hirschhorn earned his BFA degree in acting from Ithaca College in 1980 and began his professional career on stage but switched to producing after getting his master’s degree from New York University in educational theatre. He was the founder/artistic director of Melting Pot Theatre Company, which first brought “Miss Evers’ Boys,” “Woody Sez,” and “Cobb” to New York City. He has since gone on to produce some of the most awarded plays and musicals on Broadway, Off-Broadway, on national tours, and in London.

Larry Hirschhorn '80 is a four-time Tony Award-winning Broadway producer. (Photo by Jessie Hirschhorn)

Among Hirschhorn’s credits are “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” with Sigourney Weaver and David Hyde Pierce; “The Elephant Man,” with Bradley Cooper; “The Addams Family,” with Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth; and “Driving Miss Daisy,” with James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave.

Currently he is on the producing teams of “Hadestown,” which won the 2019 Tony Award for Best Musical; and the revival of “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window,” starring Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan. His two productions currently in development include musical stage versions of the films “Benny & Joon” and “The Flamingo Kid.” Additionally, he is the producer of the animated short film “A Cow in the Sky,” featuring rap artist Aminé, which will have its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in June.

Hirschhorn has stayed actively involved with Ithaca College’s theatre program throughout his career. He co-chaired the fundraising drive for the 2009 renovation of Dillingham Center for the Performing Arts, where he also established a theatre library; regularly participates in field studies week in New York City, which sees IC students travel to the Big Apple to meet with theatre alumni; and endowed an annual scholarship for theatre majors. He was honored by the Ithaca College Alumni Association in 2016 with the Professional Achievement Award, which recognizes alumni who have achieved national, regional, or local distinction in their professions; who acknowledge the importance of their Ithaca College education in reaching their career goals; and who have demonstrated long-standing loyalty to the college.

Francesca Infante-Meehan

In addition to being a double major in Theatre Arts Management and Business Administration, Francesca Infante-Meehan '23 has been an active member of the campus and local communities (Photo by Zach DeBrino)

All graduating seniors were invited to apply to be chosen by the Ithaca College Commencement Committee to represent the Class of 2023 as the student speaker.

Francesca Infante-Meehan will be receiving a B.S. in Theatre Arts Management and B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing. In addition to her work in the classroom, on campus she has served as the marketing manager for the Center for Theatre and Dance, student assistant with the Marketing & Creative Group in the Division of Marketing and Enrollment Strategy, director of communications for the Class of 2023, and GREEN Tour leader for the Jumpstart program.

In the local community, Infante-Meehan has worked with the Cherry Artspace as a production associate and with the activist nonprofit Civic Ensemble as the digital media and marketing intern for the production “Streets Like This,” where she worked intimately with the homeless population in Ithaca to help create a show based on their first-hand experiences in the streets.

Infante-Meehan spent the spring of her junior year studying at the Ithaca College London Center. She received the Shirley Hockett Presidential Scholar award from the Phi Kappa Phi honor society and was inducted into the Beta Gamma Sigma business honor society. After interning at J.P. Morgan last summer in the Securities Services Leadership Program, she will be returning to the company to work as a full-time analyst after graduation.

Loki Mulholland

Loki Mulholland '22 is a civil rights activist, Emmy-winning filmmaker, and author. (Photo submitted)

Emmy-winning filmmaker and author Loki Mulholland will be awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree. The granting of honorary degrees by the Ithaca College Board of Trustees upon recommendation of the faculty recognizes leaders who represent the ideals embraced by the Ithaca College community and who serve as a mirror of the college’s values, mission, and character.

A civil rights activist in the mold of his celebrated mother, Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, he told her story in the illustrated children’s book “She Stood for Freedom”—which was nominated for the 2017 Amelia Bloomer Award—and film “An Ordinary Hero,” which appeared on PBS. His other notable, award-winning documentaries include “After Selma”; “The Evers,” on Showtime; and “The Uncomfortable Truth,” on Amazon Prime, which dives into the 400-year history of institutional racism in America.

Mulholland founded and serves as executive director of the Joan Trumpauer Mulholland Foundation, which takes a multi-faceted approach to educating people in anti-racism, and he regularly speaks around the country on issues of race and social justice. He joined his mother for a Day of Learning series event at Ithaca College last fall, “Students as Advocates and Change Agents,” advising students about how they can have an impact on issues of injustice.

Mulholland studied cinema and photography in the Roy H. Park School of Communications and would have graduated from IC in 1994 had he not gotten stuck in Russia for a short time after studying and working abroad, consequently missing his final year. Following his campus visit last fall, administrators in the Park School determined from his transcripts, his business degree from the University of Phoenix, and credit for his professional film work that he had ultimately qualified for his undergraduate degree, which he was awarded in December 2022.

A Graduate Hooding and Commencement ceremony will be held on Saturday, May 20, to recognize all Ithaca College students who are earning master’s and doctoral degrees. Scott Doyle, the college’s director of energy management and sustainability, will be the featured speaker at this event, scheduled for 1 p.m. in Glazer Arena.

Scott Doyle

Scott Doyle '98 is Ithaca College's director of energy management and sustainability. (Photo submitted)

As Ithaca College’s director of energy management and sustainability since June of 2022, Scott Doyle works with students, faculty, staff, and the local Ithaca community in advancing campus sustainability and decarbonization efforts. He earned his undergraduate degree in biology from the college in 1998 and went on to get a master’s degree in community and regional planning from the University of Oregon.

Doyle worked as a project coordinator with the University of Oregon’s Community Service Center before returning to the Ithaca area in 2005 as an event coordinator in the Cornell University Division of Student & Campus Life. He then served as an associate planner in the Tompkins County Department of Planning & Sustainability for over 15 years, where he led a number of diverse land use, natural resource, climate adaptation, and sustainability projects. He has also served as an adjunct instructor in IC’s Department of Environmental Studies and Sciences.

The Office of Energy Management and Sustainability strives to integrate sustainability into every aspect of campus living, academics, and operations. During Doyle’s time leading the office, Ithaca College has been named as one of the nation’s top-10 “green colleges” and has earned a STARS gold rating in recognition of its sustainability achievements from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).

For more information on the 2023 Ithaca College Commencement, visit Ithaca.edu/commencement.