Social Security Advocate
Barbara Bailey Kennelly ’58 to Speak at Trinity Commencement
President and CEO of the National Committee to
Preserve Social Security and Medicare, Former Member of Congress
to Receive Honorary Degree
 The
Honorable Barbara Bailey Kennelly ’58, former member of Congress
and President and CEO of the National
Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, will be
awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree on Sunday, May 22, at
Trinity’s 102nd Commencement. She will also present the Commencement
address to the graduates. More than 400 bachelor’s and master’s
degrees will be awarded at Trinity’s Commencement, the largest
number of diplomas conferred in the history of the institution.
This marks the first graduation to be held since Trinity became
a university in September 2004.
After graduating from Trinity in 1958, when she helped secure then-Senator
John F. Kennedy as the Commencement speaker, Barbara Bailey Kennelly
blazed political leadership trails that other women, including prominent
Trinity alumnae – Democratic Leader Nancy
Pelosi ’62 and Kathleen
Sebelius ’70 – have followed to great success. After
holding positions in local politics and serving as Secretary of
the State of Connecticut, Mrs. Kennelly was elected to represent
the First District of Connecticut in the U.S. House of Representatives
in 1982, joining a very small number of women in Congress. She subsequently
won re-election eight times, and she became the highest ranking
woman ever in the U.S. Congress when her party colleagues elected
her as Vice Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, paving the way
for the House Democratic Leader position that another Trinity graduate,
Nancy Pelosi ’62, would later achieve. Mrs. Kennelly was the
first woman to serve on the House Intelligence Committee and to
chair one of its subcommittees, and was only the third woman in
history to serve on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.
Her own experience raising a family, with four children and nine
grandchildren, gave Mrs. Kennelly particular empathy for the concerns
of working mothers, and hallmarks of her legislative career included
enacting laws with regard to child support, tax credits for the
working poor and extending health care coverage to uninsured children.
Today, Barbara Kennelly continues her long track record of advocating
for justice and fair treatment for all Americans in her role as
President and Chief Executive Officer of the National
Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. She is recognized
as one of the nation’s leading advocates for Social Security
and Medicare, and is an outspoken opponent of the privatization
of Social Security on behalf of her organization’s 4 million
members
Commencement will be held on the steps of the Trinity Library at
11:00 a.m. In case of rain, two ceremonies will be held in the Trinity
Center for Women and Girls in Sports (11:00 a.m. for the College
of Arts and Sciences and the School of Professional Studies, and
at 1:00 p.m. for the School of Education.) Trinity is located on
Michigan Avenue, one block east of North Capitol Street. For more
information, contact Ann Pauley, 202/884-9725, pauleya@trinitydc.edu
When Barbara Bailey Kennelly graduated from Trinity in 1958, she
invited then-Senator John F. Kennedy to speak at Commencement. Mrs.
Kennelly is pictured with Senator Kennedy and her father, John Bailey,
Chair of the Democratic National Committee.
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