April 22, 2025

Lafayette to award three honorary degrees at 190th Commencement

Author and filmmaker MK Asante ’04, retired ProJeCt of Easton CEO Janice D. Komisor, and Lt. Gen. Stuart W. Risch ’84 of the United States Army to earn honorary degrees during Lafayette College’s May 24 Commencement ceremony

MK Asante ’04

Honorary Doctor of Arts

Author, filmmaker, recording artist, and professor

Read Asante’s biography

MK Asante ’04 (who also is delivering this year’s keynote address) is a bestselling author, award-winning filmmaker, recording artist, and distinguished professor who the Los Angeles Times calls “One of America’s best storytellers.”

Asante is the author of five books, including the 2013 bestselling memoir Buck: A Memoir and the 2024 award-winning memoir Nephew: A Memoir in Four-Part Harmony. Buck was praised by Maya Angelou as “a story of surviving and thriving with passion, compassion, wit, and style.” It is a multiyear Washington Post bestseller and the recipient of numerous literary awards, and is currently being adapted into a major motion picture.

Asante is the co-writer (with Phil Collins) of the official Monday Night Football anthem, “In the Air Tonight,” performed by Grammy-winning artists Chris Stapleton, Julie Blackman Santana, and Snoop Dogg. He also co-wrote the intro films to the 2021 NBA Finals broadcast on ABC, which was directed by Academy Award-winning director Spike Lee.

Yale University, Vanderbilt University, and Harvard University are among the many higher education institutions where Asante has delivered distinguished lectures. He has toured in more than 50 countries and was awarded the key to the city of Dallas. Asante is featured in A Changing America, a permanent video exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Hailed by CNN as “a master storyteller and major creative force,” Asante has published essays in The New York Times and USA Today. He also has been featured on the Today show and The Breakfast Club. Asante’s inspirational story “The Blank Page” is featured in the No. 1 New York Times bestseller Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Asante studied at SOAS University of London, earning a Bachelor of Arts from Lafayette College and an MFA from UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television. He was appointed Distinguished Professor-in-Residence at MICA Business School in Gujarat, India, and he is currently a tenured professor of Cinematic Arts and Sciences at Morgan State University, where he is the recipient of the Distinguished Achievement Award.

“I am honored to return to Lafayette, a treasured institution that has played a profound, pivotal role in my personal and professional journeys,” Asante says. “I embrace the opportunity to inspire a new class of innovators on the same campus that inspired me and so many others.”

Janice D. Komisor

Honorary Doctor of Public Service

Retired CEO of ProJeCt of Easton

Read Komisor’s biography

Janice D. Komisor served three decades providing a variety of services to those in need across the city and beyond through her various roles at ProJeCt of Easton. Komisor most recently served as the organization’s CEO, a position she held for 16 years, before retiring in August 2023.

Komisor joined the organization in 1994 as director of the Even Start Family Literacy Program. From there, she was named director of language and literacy services in 1998, and in 2007 she took on the role of executive director.

A major focus for Komisor was identifying and employing literacy interventions that really worked for marginalized communities, and particularly for economically disadvantaged people. For Komisor, the fundamental purpose of ProJeCt has been to provide economically disadvantaged adults and families with access to education, enabling them to advance themselves. Having witnessed countless success stories and the impact of ProJeCt’s work, Komisor notes that she is profoundly thankful to have found work with such purpose.

Komisor and ProJeCt have been recognized with multiple awards, including the Freedom Through Literacy Award, presented by Judith’s Reading Room; Liberty Bell Award, presented by the Pennsylvania Bar Association Young Lawyers Division; inaugural George Wolf Public Education Award, presented by the Easton Area School District; Gateway to Equity Award, presented by the American Association of University Women; the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy grant; and Executive Education Scholarship to Harvard Business School, presented by the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley. Under Komisor’s leadership, ProJeCt of Easton also received a coveted four-star rating from Charity Navigator and a platinum rating from Candid, formerly known as GuideStar.

Komisor earned a Bachelor of Arts in history from Franklin and Marshall College, as well as a Master of Education from Lehigh University.

Lt. Gen. (Retired) Stuart W. Risch ’84

Honorary Doctor of Law

Retired Judge Advocate General of United States Army

Read Risch’s biography

Stuart W. Risch ’84 is a retired United States Army Lieutenant General who last served as the 41st Judge Advocate General (or senior uniformed lawyer) of the U.S. Army in the Pentagon. As a general officer, he previously served in the rank of Major General as the Deputy Judge Advocate General, U.S. Army, and in the rank of Brigadier General as both the Commanding General of the Army’s Legal Services Agency and as the Commandant of the Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School, Charlottesville, Va.

Raised in Orange and West Orange, N.J., Risch graduated from Newark Academy in Livingston, N.J., in 1980. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in government and law and history from Lafayette College in 1984. He participated in Lafayette’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program and was commissioned as a field artillery officer that same year. Risch then received his Juris Doctor degree from Seton Hall University School of Law in 1987. While attending law school, he served as a platoon leader, executive officer, and company commander in the 78th Infantry Division, U.S. Army Reserve. After time spent in the private practice of law in Montclair, N.J., he entered active-duty service as a member of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps in 1988.

Risch received his LL.M. degree from The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School in 1996. He also completed a master’s degree in strategic studies at the U.S. Army War College in 2007.

In 2021, Risch was nominated by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate for promotion to the rank of lieutenant general. He was promoted in July 2021 and assigned to serve as the Army’s 41st Judge Advocate General, leading a legal corps of more than 5,000 lawyers and more than 10,000 personnel total, who are assigned worldwide.

In September 2024, he retired after 40 years of total service as a commissioned officer. Risch’s military awards include, among many others, the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit with three Oak Leaf Clusters, and Bronze Star Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster. He is married to the former Cindy A. McKenzie, and together they have three children and nine grandchildren. They currently reside in Alexandria, Va., and Risch is a partner in the Washington, D.C., law firm Shook, Hardy & Bacon.