WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp will be the principal speaker at Williams College’s 234th Commencement Exercise on Sunday, June 4. The day before, U.S. Holocaust Museum Director Sara Bloomfield will deliver the college’s Baccalaureate lecture. Krupp and Bloomfield will both receive honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) degrees during the Commencement ceremony.
The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is a global nonprofit environmental advocacy group based in New York City. In this role for more than three decades, Krupp has been a leading voice on climate change, energy, and sustainability. Under his leadership, EDF has become one of the world’s most influential environmental organizations with staff in more than two dozen countries, the college said in a release. He successfully advocated for dramatic reductions in the pollution that causes acid rain, focused international attention on the problem of methane emissions from the oil-and-gas industry, elevated the challenges of hydrogen fuel and led EDF’s corporate partnerships with FedEx, KKR, McDonald’s, Walmart, and others.
Krupp was named one of America’s Best Leaders by U.S. News and World Report and is a recipient of the 2015 William K. Reilly Environmental Leadership Award, among others. He is co-author with Miriam Horn of the New York Times bestseller “Earth: The Sequel—The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming.” A graduate of Yale University and the University of Michigan Law School, Krupp has taught environmental law at both schools, and received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Haverford College. He is currently a trustee at Yale. He has served on boards for numerous environmental organizations and on councils advising Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He is also an avid rower, who won a gold medal in the 2006 World Rowing Masters Regatta.
Bloomfield has led the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for 24 years, working to build a global institution that raises Holocaust awareness, deepens understanding of the lessons of the Holocaust, confronts denial, and advances genocide prevention. She serves on the International Auschwitz Council and is a recipient of the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland and five honorary doctorates. She joined the planning staff of the Museum in 1986 when it was still a project in development and served in a variety of roles before becoming director in 1999.
Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Bloomfield holds a bachelor of arts degree in English literature from Northwestern University, a master’s degree in education from John Carroll University, and has studied business administration at the graduate level. She is the 2021 recipient of the Roger E. Joseph Prize, awarded annually for exceptional work in thefield of human rights and Jewish survival.