Albany Law School is proud to announce Danielle R. Holley, president of Mount Holyoke College, as the keynote speaker at the 32nd annual Kate Stoneman Day celebration. Albany Law School’s Kate Stoneman Honorary Committee has selected President Holley as this year’s recipient of the prestigious Miriam M. Netter '72 Kate Stoneman Award. 

The event will take place on Wednesday, March 25 at 5:30 p.m. 

A renowned professor of law and politics, President Holley is an authority on American higher education and a distinguished scholar of civil rights and equity. She is a leading scholar of the Supreme Court decisions regarding race-conscious college and university admissions. President Holley holds a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. She is on the Board of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and is an Aspen Institute Liberty and Aspen-Kern Fellow. She previously served as Dean of the Howard University School of Law.

President Holley is overseeing a remarkable next chapter for Mount Holyoke College. With the MHC Forward Strategic Plan, the College is preparing students for lives of purposeful leadership in a changing world.

First awarded in 1994, Albany Law School's Kate Stoneman Awards are presented to individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to seeking change and expanding opportunities for women within the legal profession. Awardees have influenced other women to pursue legal careers and have opened doors that historically have been closed to women lawyers. The awards are named in honor of Kate Stoneman, the first woman admitted to practice law in New York State and the first female graduate of Albany Law School, Class of 1898.

President Holley’s scholarship spans the governance of public schools, increasing access to higher education and diversity in the legal profession. She teaches a popular seminar at Mount Holyoke College about the Supreme Court. Her contributions to the legal profession and higher education have been recognized with numerous awards including the inaugural Impact Award from the Association of American Law Schools, the American Bar Foundation’s Montgomery Summer Research Diversity Fellowship Distinguished Alumni Award, the Lutie Lytle Conference Outstanding Scholar Award, the National Bar Association’s Heman Sweatt Award and the University of South Carolina Educational Foundation’s Outstanding Service Award. She was twice awarded the Outstanding Faculty Member award during her tenure at the University of South Carolina School of Law.

"We are deeply honored to welcome President Holley to Albany Law. President Holley is a pathbreaking leader in higher education, a renowned legal scholar, and a committed and impactful mentor and role model for our next generation of leaders," said Albany Law School President and Dean Cinnamon P. Carlarne. "President Holley represents the legacy of leadership, courage, and innovation that the Kate Stoneman award celebrates. She is a leader among leaders, a teacher among teachers, and a mentor among mentors.”

Past Stoneman Award honorees include U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, New York State Solicitor General Barbara Underwood, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the Honorable Constance Baker Motley, former New York Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye—who delivered the inaugural keynote in 1994—and other leaders in the private sector, public service, and academia. Read more here.

The event is open to the public, and details regarding registration and additional honorees will be available soon.