The Conferring of Honorary Degrees
Kathleen Alana McGinty

Today we honor Kathleen Alana McGinty, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and a life-long advocate of creating approaches to environmental problems that generate economic growth and encourage advanced technology development.

Secretary McGinty is a native of Philadelphia, the 9th of 10 children and the daughter of a retired Philadelphia police officer.  She earned a degree in chemistry from Saint Joseph’s University and a degree in law from Columbia University School of Law.  Her career has taken her around the world, into the White House, and then happily landed her back in Pennsylvania, this time in Harrisburg.  She has been described to me by her colleagues as passionate, caring, practical, and exceptionally intelligent—ideal public servant.  But the one adjective that is used most commonly to describe her work is “tireless.”

Secretary McGinty has served in various capacities in national and international public policy leadership.  Her work is guided by a firm belief that the environment is truly a common ground and that solutions lie in promoting collaboration over conflict and in demonstrating that a healthy economy and a healthy environment are not only compatible, but are inextricably linked.

She was the first (and still only) woman to chair the White House Council of Environmental Quality, an office established by law in 1969, which coordinates federal environmental efforts and develops environmental policies and initiatives.

She acted as Deputy Assistant to President Bill Clinton, and headed the first-ever White House Office on Environmental Policy.  In President Clinton’s statement in late 1998 announcing McGinty’s resignation, he stated, “As my principal environmental policy adviser for nearly six years, Katie has led this Administration’s efforts to protect and restore our environment.   From the forests of the Pacific Northwest to Florida’s Everglades and the red-rock canyons of Utah, she has helped preserve America’s natural legacy for all time.  And from our air to our water to our climate, she has worked tirelessly (there’s that adjective again) to ensure our children and grandchildren an environment both healthy and safe.”

In 1999 Secretary McGinty completed a one-year stay in India as a Senior Visiting Fellow with the Tata Energy Research Institute, where she forged new business ventures between US and Indian advanced energy technology companies.  It was during this time that she and her husband, Dr. Karl Hausker, met and adopted two of their three daughters.  Upon her return to the US, Secretary McGinty acted as counselor to Vice President Al Gore during his successful presidential campaign and served as senior policy advisor to the Democratic National Committee.

In addition to being a public servant, Secretary McGinty has extensive private sector experience, playing high-level management roles in several alternative and clean energy firms.  Her understanding of both the private and public sector dynamics has been an important ingredient in her successful navigation to collaborative solutions.

In 2003, Kathleen McGinty became the first woman to head the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, a 3000-employee agency with a mission to provide for the health and safety of its residents through a cleaner environment.

She personally led the charge for the passage of the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act of 2004, which will lead to the installation of enough wind and solar energy in Pennsylvania to power 1.2 million homes. She has been integral to recruiting clean energy companies to Pennsylvania from Spain and Germany, and her work has created thousands of new clean energy jobs.

She also was a key leader in the passage of the Growing Greener 625 million dollar bond program in 2005, the largest bond program for any purpose approved by voters in the history of the state.  Dickinson’s own ALLARM (Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring) program has received grants from this bond program to provide technical assistance to watershed groups throughout the state.  She led the effort that resulted in the enactment of the state mercury rule that will require a 90% reduction of mercury from coal-fired power plants in the state by 2015.  She is now leading the Rendell Administration effort to pass vital energy bills that will result in numerous new green jobs in the state.

It is fitting in this year when we are launching our new Sustainability Initiative here at Dickinson that we honor Secretary McGinty, who has been the principal campaigner for a similar initiative statewide.  Her leadership in creating a new culture in our state government—one that sees environment and economics as two sides of the same coin—has brought direct benefits to all of us.  It is her work that has provided financial support for the development of our new composting infrastructure that turns our dining hall waste into soil on our organic farm and for the new rooftop solar panel array on Kaufman which will decrease our reliance on fossil fuels by 13% and contribute to our goal of carbon neutrality.

Thank you Secretary McGinty, for your tireless work to make this world a safer and healthier place for all of earth’s creatures and for setting a precedent of collaboration among all stakeholders at the state level.  Your leadership in finding clean energy solutions for Pennsylvania and in creating jobs in renewable technology has given us hope that our shared vision of economic, social, and environmental sustainability may indeed be reachable.

Mr. President, it is my pleasure and honor to present to you Secretary Kathleen Alana McGinty, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, for the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Public Service.

Kathleen Alana McGinty, upon the recommendation of the Faculty to the Board of Trustees, and by its mandamus, I confer upon you the Degree of Doctor of Public Service, honoris causa, with all the rights, privileges, and distinction thereunto appertaining, in token of which I present you with this diploma and cause you to be invested with the hood of Dickinson College appropriate to the degree.

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