Stephen Schwartz is an award-winning musician, composer, and lyricist whose work spanning more than 40 years has included such international hits as Godspell, Pippin, and Wicked, among many others. 

Schwartz’s first major credit was the title song for the play Butterflies are Free; the song was eventually used in the movie version, as well. In 1971, he wrote the music and new lyrics for Godspell, for which he won several awards, including two Grammys.

Over the next three decades, he wrote the music and lyrics for Broadway shows Pippin, The Magic Show, and Working, as well as several off-Broadway productions. He also collaborated on scores for the animated films Pocahontas, for which he received two Academy Awards and another Grammy, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Prince of Egypt, and Enchanted. In addition, he has also produced music for television, two CDs of original work, and an opera, titled Seance on a Wet Afternoon.

Schwartz’s most recent musical, Wicked, opened in the fall of 2003 and is currently running on Broadway and in several other productions around the United States and the world. In 2008, Wicked reached its 1900th performance on Broadway, making Mr. Schwartz the only songwriter in Broadway history ever to have three shows run more than 1900 performances.

Schwartz has recently been given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. A book about his career, Defying Gravity, has recently been released by Applause Books.

Under the auspices of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Foundation, he runs musical theatre workshops in New York and Los Angeles and serves on the ASCAP board; he is also currently President of the Dramatists’ Guild of America.

Schwartz studied piano and composition at the Juilliard School of Music while in high school and graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1968 with a BFA in drama. He will receive the degree Doctor of Fine Arts honoris causa. 

CONNIE K. DUCKWORTH, 

CHAIRPERSON AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, ARZU, INC. 

Connie Duckworth founded ARZU, Inc. in 2004 and serves pro bono as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. She is a retired Partner and Managing Director of Goldman, Sachs, & Co., where she was named the first woman sales and trading partner in the firm’s history during her 20 year career.

Ms. Duckworth is a Trustee of Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company and a Director of Russell Investment Group and of Steelcase, Inc. She serves on the Board of Overseers of the Wharton School in Philadelphia. Ms. Duckworth also serves on the Boards of Directors of the Interfaith Youth Core in Chicago and of NorthShore University HealthSystem, in Evanston, where she was the first woman to be Chairman of the Board. She is a past Chair of the Committee of 200, the organization of leading women entrepreneurs and corporate business executives in the U.S. and is the author of The Old Girls Network: Insider Advice for Women Building Businesses in a Man’s World (Basic Books 2003), a primer on entrepreneurship.

The recipient of numerous awards for leadership, advocacy, social impact, innovation and global presence, Ms. Duckworth was awarded the 2011 Wharton School Dean’s Medal, the school’s highest honor. In addition, Ms. Duckworth was named a 2008 Skoll Foundation honoree for Social Entrepreneurship. She holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from the University of Texas. She will receive the degree Doctor of Humane Letters honoris causa. 

STUART DYBEK

Chicago native Stuart Dybek is the author of three books of fiction: I Sailed With Magellan, The Coast of Chicago, and Childhood and Other Neighborhoods. Both I Sailed With Magellan and The Coast of Chicago were New York Times Notable Books, and The Coast of Chicago was a One Book One Chicago selection. Dybek has also published two collections of poetry: Streets in Their Own Ink and Brass Knuckles. 

His fiction, poetry, and nonfiction have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, The Atlantic, Poetry, Tin House, and many other magazines, and have been widely anthologized, including work in both Best American Fiction and Best American Poetry. 

Among Dybek’s numerous awards are a PEN/Malamud Prize “for distinguished achievement in the short story,” a Lannan Award, a Whiting Writers Award, an Award from the Academy of Arts and Letters, several O.Henry Prizes, and fellowships from the NEA and the Guggenheim Foundation. In 2007 Dybek was awarded the a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. In 2005 he was artist-in-residence at Lake Forest College. 

Dybek earned an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa and has an MA in literature from Loyola University Chicago. He will receive the degree Doctor of Letters honoris causa.