Saint Joseph’s Announces 2025 Honorary Degree Recipients
The University will award three honorary degrees at its 2025 Commencement ceremonies.
During this May’s Commencement ceremonies, Saint Joseph’s University will award three honorary degrees to distinguished alumni and friends. Muffet McGraw, BS ’77, legendary women’s basketball coach; Joan Rosenhauer, former executive director of the Jesuit Refugee Service; and Vijendra Nalamothu, PhD ’11, founder of Tergus Pharma and ApoStrata, will each receive the honor.
Muffet McGraw, BS ’77
One of the winningest coaches in NCAA Division I basketball history, Muffet McGraw, BS ’77, racked up countless accolades in over three decades as the University of Notre Dame’s women’s basketball coach. With over 900 career wins, 26 NCAA tournament appearances, nine trips to the Final Four and two National Championship wins — including a memorable buzzer beater to triumph over Mississippi State in 2018 — her legendary career has put her among elite company in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as only the 13th female coach to be inducted.
The West Chester, Pennsylvania, native spent two years as the captain of Saint Joseph’s women’s basketball team before graduating with a bachelor’s degree in sociology in 1977. Off the court, she has long advocated for gender equality in the world of sports, served as a faculty member teaching sports leadership at Notre Dame’s Mendoza School of Business and started the nonprofit Meals With Muffet with the goal of ending hunger across the United States. She will be honored at this year’s undergraduate ceremony for the School of Education and Human Development, School of Health Professions and Philadelphia College of Pharmacy.
Joan Rosenhauer
Joan Rosenhauer has had a long and distinguished career in Catholic service organizations nationwide. After roles at the Catholic Campaign for Human Development and the Archdiocese of Washington’s Office of Social Development, Rosenhauer worked her way up to the associate director of the Department of Justice, Peace, and Human Development at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. She then spent nearly a decade as the executive vice president of Catholic Relief Services, during which she managed regional and national outreach programs to mobilize Catholics’ support. Finally, she spent six years as the president and executive director of Jesuit Refugee Services USA. During her time there, the organization helped over one million refugees worldwide, and her duties included oversight of the group’s advocacy, grassroots mobilization efforts, private and government funding and domestic programming for U.S. refugees and asylum seekers.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in social work from the University of Iowa followed by a master’s degree in public policy management from the University of Maryland, College Park, and now serves on the volunteer advisory committees for several Washington D.C.-based service organizations. She will be honored at this year’s master’s degree ceremony.
Vijendra Nalamothu, PhD '11
Vijendra Nalamothu, PhD '11, has spent the last three decades making a name for himself in the world of dermatological research. Before earning his doctorate in pharmaceutics from the University of the Sciences’ Philadelphia College of Pharmacy (now a part of Saint Joseph’s University), he held several positions in research and development at a number of pharmaceutical laboratories. After completing his degree, he branched out into the entrepreneurial space, serving as founder and chief executive officer of Tergus Pharma, a pharmaceutical company specializing in topical drug development. In this role, Nalamothu spearheaded the dermatological drug development process from concept to commercialization.
In 2024, he stepped down from the position after a successful merger with MedPharm and currently serves as the founder and CEO of ApoStrata, a dermatological therapeutics company. Additionally, he serves on the advisory council for the nonprofit Advancing Innovation in Dermatology and on the North Carolina Board of Science, Technology & Innovation. He will be honored at this year’s doctoral ceremony.
