Kerry Kennedy, president of the Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center, will deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary degree at Regis College’s Class of 2026 Commencement Exercises on Sat., May 9. The university will also bestow an honorary degree upon Kathleen Jose '87, '94, MSN, RN, former chair of the university’s board and chief nursing officer of Lahey Health, and Tracy Palandjian, MBA, co-founder and CEO of Social Finance.
“All three of these remarkable individuals embody the Regis mission and exemplify what it means to use one’s gifts in service of others,” said Regis President Antoinette Hays, PhD, RN. “Their work inspires our community and strengthens our shared commitment to service, justice, and the common good. It is a privilege to recognize them.”
Ms. Kennedy is an attorney and author who is best known for her human rights activism. She has devoted more than 40 years to the pursuit of equal justice and the promotion and protection of basic rights; and led hundreds of human rights delegations in support of causes including child labor, women’s rights, disappearances, indigenous land rights, judicial independence, freedom of expression, ethnic violence, criminal justice reform, immigration, impunity, and environmental justice.
Ms. Kennedy is the author of the New York Times best seller Being Catholic Now, as well as Speak Truth to Power and Robert F. Kennedy: Ripples of Hope. She is a frequent contributor to newspapers and magazines and regularly appears as a commentator on national and international media outlets. Ms. Kennedy currently serves on the board of directors of the United States Institute of Peace, Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation Laureate and Leaders, as well as Kennedy Human Rights Center’s numerous international affiliates. She is on the advisory committee for the Association of American Indian Affairs, the Albert Schweitzer Institute, Sankofa, San Patrignano, and the Center for Victims of Torture, and the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. Ms. Kennedy served as chair of the Amnesty International USA Leadership Council for over a decade. Among her many accolades, she received the humanitarian award from the Congress of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates.
“I am deeply honored to receive this award from Regis College and to share this moment with the graduating class. Regis’ commitment to service, justice, and compassion reflects the values that have guided my life’s work, and I am inspired by these graduates who are stepping into the world ready to lead with courage, conscience, and hope,” Ms. Kennedy said.
Kathleen Jose, Regis classes of 1987 and 1994, is the former chief nursing officer and senior vice president of Lahey Health. In this role, she was responsible for nursing practice across both tertiary and ambulatory settings. She served on the Regis Board of Trustees for nine years from 2016-2025, including four as chair from 2021-2025. As a senior leader at Lahey Hospital in Burlington, Mass., Ms. Jose oversaw the highest excellence in patient care and created operational programs that ensured quality and improved patient satisfaction while managing an $80 million budget and overseeing 1,200 full-time positions. She successfully led the entire Lahey organization to Magnet Status in 2009, an award given by the American Nurses' Credentialing Center (ANCC) to health care organizations that satisfy a set of criteria designed to measure the strength and quality of their nursing programs. In addition, Ms. Jose created the Pathways to Expertise program for Lahey employees who wanted to pursue the profession of nursing by providing funding and academic and community partnerships, including with Regis, to advance to the highest level of professionalism in nursing.
Ms. Jose is a former member of the board of directors of Massachusetts Organization of Nurse Executives (MONE), and member of the Nurse Executive Center Advisory Board Company and the American Organization of Nurses Executives (AONE). She attended Northeastern University prior to Regis and was a Wharton Nurse Executive Fellow in 2000.
“I am honored to be recognized by my alma mater Regis College, an institution of higher education whose core values of caring, diversity, inclusion and excellence have defined the university for nearly a century,” said Jose. “Regis taught me the value of transformational leadership and developed in me the skills to build a nursing profession rooted in interdisciplinary collaboration in delivering compassionate, evidence-based patient care.”
Tracy Palandjian is CEO and Co-Founder of Social Finance, a national nonprofit and registered investment advisor. In 2011, she co-founded Social Finance to seed the Pay For Success field in the United States, sparking a national conversation about new funding models to tackle systemic challenges and drive measurable impact. Since then, Social Finance has mobilized over $500 million in new investments designed to achieve improved outcomes across a range of issue areas, including economic mobility, health, and housing. In 2024, the organization launched the Social Finance Institute to advance the field through actionable research and educational outreach. Ms. Palandjian is a frequent speaker and writer on impact investing, social innovation, and results-oriented policymaking.
“I'm deeply honored to receive this recognition from Regis. I came to this country as a foreign student and decided to make my life here, an experience that shaped my commitment to ensuring everyone has access to economic opportunity," said Palandjian. "That's why I co-founded Social Finance, where we're bringing governments and markets together to build programs that are accountable for results, creating pathways to jobs that deliver meaningful wage gains and upward mobility."
Prior to Social Finance, Ms. Palandjian was a managing director for 11 years at The Parthenon Group, where she established and led the Nonprofit Practice to support foundations and NGOs to accomplish their missions in the U.S. and globally.
Ms. Palandjian is a member of the Harvard Corporation, and serves on the boards of The Barr Foundation, and The Boston Foundation. She is an elected member of American Academy Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. Previously, she served on the boards of The Surdna Foundation, RFK Human Rights, Milton Academy, and Mass General Brigham, and is a 2019 recipient of Harvard Business School’s Alumni Achievement Award.
A native of Hong Kong, Ms. Palandjian graduated from Harvard College with a B.A. magna cum laude in Economics and holds an M.B.A. with high distinction from Harvard Business School, where she was a Baker Scholar.
At the 95th commencement ceremony on May 9, Regis expects to graduate nearly 1,000 students, including nearly 600 nursing students, awarding degrees from the associate to doctoral levels. The ceremony will take place in the Boston Seaport at the Leader Bank Pavilion.