Peter J. Gomes, STB ’68 Distinguished Alumni Honorees

Each year, the Alumni/Alumnae Council (AAC) honors the legacy of Reverend Peter J. Gomes, STB ’68, by recognizing graduates and a Friend of the School whose excellence in life, work, and service pays homage to the mission and values of Harvard Divinity School.

For the 2022 awards, the AAC recognized community members who explore connections between nature and human flourishing. Brief bios for each of the recipients are below, and more information can be found at hds.harvard.edu/2022DeansReportGomes.

Marcus Briggs-Cloud is co-founder and co-director of Ekvn-Yefolecv Maskoke ecovillage, an Indigenous off-grid, climatepositive, income-sharing community of Maskoke persons who, after 180 years of displacement from ancestral homelands, have returned to revitalize the Maskoke language and culture. An author of several academic publications, he serves as a consultant to endangered language programs worldwide. HDS recognizes Marcus Briggs-Cloud as a Gomes Honoree for ensuring the survival of Maskoke culture by championing native language regeneration, economic sovereignty, and ecological justice.

Katherine Collins is head of sustainable investing at Putnam Investments and the founder of Honeybee Capital. She is an author, beekeeper, and member of several nonprofit boards, including Harvard Divinity School Dean’s Council, Omega Institute for Holistic Studies, the Santa Fe Institute, and the Wellesley Centers for Women. HDS recognizes Katherine Collins as a Gomes Honoree for leading sustainable business practices and reconnecting investing with the world it is meant to serve.

Tori Murden McClure is an explorer, author, and president of Spalding University. She is perhaps best known as the first woman and first American to row a boat solo across the Atlantic Ocean, having accomplished the feat in 1999 after 81 days at sea. A decade earlier, she became the first woman and first American to ski to the geographic South Pole during a 50-day, 750-mile expedition. HDS recognizes Tori Murden McClure as a Gomes Honoree for exploring the farthest bounds of the earth and connecting lessons learned from nature to ethical leadership in education.

Kareema Scott is a memoirist, teacher, lawyer, and urban gardener. From a young age, she recognized that food was far more than sustenance; meals were threads that sutured her to her ancestors, cultures, and history. Scott now works with Boston Public Schools, where she helps lead a learning/ teaching garden with the intention to present farming, gardening, and homesteading as a viable, dignified, and empowering vocation. HDS recognizes Kareema Scott as a Gomes Honoree for celebrating ancestral heritage and cultivating community through urban gardening, education, and respecting food as a love language that connects generations.

Roslyn LaPier is an award-winning Indigenous writer, ethnobotanist, and environmental activist, who is an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana and Métis. LaPier is currently a professor in the Department of History at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and a research associate at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. LaPier shared her expertise with HDS as a 2016–17 Women’s Studies in Religion Program Research Associate and has continued to offer her knowledge through events such as the widely attended Intersections of Spirituality, Social Justice, and Climate Change discussion in 2021.