Honorary degrees go to dancer, equity leader, former mayor, attorney

Four individuals will receive honorary degrees May 11 at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Spring Commencement ceremony. Michelle Dorrance will receive a Doctor of Arts, while Deitre Allen Epps, Howard N. Lee and Richard Y. Stevens will receive Doctor of Laws degrees.

Michelle Dorrance

Doctor of Arts

A world-renowned dancer and founder of the New York-based Dorrance Dance company, Michelle Dorrance is a choreographer and MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” recipient. The New Yorker describes her as “one of the most imaginative tap choreographers working today.”

A native of Chapel Hill and alumna of the North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble, Dorrance and her company often perform at Carolina Performing Arts, including in the award-winning “The Blues Project” with artist-in-residence Toshi Reagon. In 2022, Dorrance spoke and danced as part of the University’s Eve Marie Carson Lecture Series.

Dorrance is a graduate of New York University and has performed in STOMP, taught at Broadway Dance Center and guest lectured at universities and dance festivals around the world.

Deitre Allen Epps

Doctor of Laws

Deitre Epps is founder and CEO of Results Achieved through Community Engagement for Equity, a Durham-based organization that helps nonprofits, government agencies and other groups center equity in their work and strengthen their leadership capacity and cultural responsiveness.

A graduate of Howard University and Coppin State University, Epps began her career as a co-founder, director and assistant dean of education for Vision Christian Academy and Child Development Center in Baltimore. She also served as director of Baltimore’s highly successful School Readiness Initiative.

She promotes well-being by addressing the social determinants of health, including structural racism. She often partners with faculty and students at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health to advance equitable, culturally competent strategies to improve the long-term health of communities and individuals.

Howard N. Lee

Doctor of Laws

The son of a Georgia sharecropper, Howard Lee graduated from Fort Valley State College before earning a Master of Social Work degree at Carolina in 1966. Three years later, as mayor of Chapel Hill, he was the first African American to lead a majority-white Southern city since Reconstruction. Lee served as secretary of the North Carolina Department of Natural Resources and Community Development, sparking the idea for the state’s Mountains-to-Sea Trail.

Lee was later elected to the state Senate, where he served for a decade. He was chair of the state Board of Education and a member of the state’s Utilities Commission.

In 2009 he was named the first executive director of the North Carolina Education Cabinet. Lee was a faculty member at the UNC School of Social Work and North Carolina Central University and an administrator at Duke University. Throughout his career, Lee has been a strong advocate for education reform, fighting for increased funding and standards.

Richard Y. Stevens

Doctor of Laws

During his five terms as a state senator, Richard Stevens was the senior budget leader under both Republican and Democratic majorities. Working across the aisle, he fought to preserve funding for higher education during the Great Recession. Before his election to the state legislature, he served for 16 years as the county manager of Wake County.

Stevens served on the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees (1995–2003 and 2017–2021), including four terms as chair. He also chaired the UNC-Chapel Hill Endowment Fund, UNC-Chapel Hill Foundation, UNC General Alumni Association and Board of Visitors for the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Stevens earned bachelor’s, master’s and law degrees from Carolina. Scholarships at the School of Law and the School of Government have been established in his honor. In 2017 he received the University’s Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Learn more about the honorary degree winners on the Commencement website.