2025 Honorary Degree Recipient and Keynote Speaker
Kate Darling
Dr. Kate Darling is a leading expert in the evolving role of robotics in everyday life, serving as a research scientist at MIT’s Media Lab and a lead for ethics & society at the Boston Dynamics AI Institute. Her groundbreaking studies on social robotics and human-robot interaction explore the emotional bonds people form with lifelike machines. Her work is shaping and guiding technology design and public policy decisions on the evolving relationships between humans and robots, tackling the pressing questions engineers, lawmakers, and society must address in the coming years.
With a background in law, economics, and intellectual property, Darling has examined the economic incentives behind copyright and patent systems, serving as an intellectual property policy advisor to the MIT Media Lab and helping establish the MIT-BU Technology Law Clinic. She is a former fellow at the Harvard Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and Yale Information Society Project and serves as senior co-chair for We Robot, the leading conference on robotics law and policy.
A prominent voice in her field, Darling has been featured in The New Yorker, BBC, WIRED, The Atlantic, and more. She writes a monthly column for BBC Science Focus and has contributed to Robohub and IEEE Spectrum. Her book The New Breed: What Our History with Animals Reveals About Our Future with Robots examines how human-animal relationships can inform our understanding of robots. Darling holds a doctorate from ETH Zurich and an honorary doctorate from Middlebury College and has received the American Bar Association’s Mark T. Banner Award for Intellectual Property.
2025 Alumni Speaker
Joleen Archibald
Alumni Association Board Secretary, MA in Psychology 2009, PhD in Psychology, 2015
Joleen Archibald specializes in organizational change and leadership development. She is the CEO of Leadership Archways, which focuses on enhancing organizational and management effectiveness, as well as Snow to Surf Alliance, a nonprofit dedicated to education and local conservation efforts.
Passionate about inclusive learning, Joleen uses nature-based education techniques to foster social and emotional growth, particularly within neurodivergent communities. She also incorporates diverse wellness strategies, including biohacking, to enhance cognitive function, improve mental well-being, and boost productivity, creating holistic approaches to personal and professional development.
Joleen holds a BA in Psychology from Chapman University, as well as an MA in Organizational Behavior and a PhD in Organizational Behavior and Evaluation from CGU. Since graduating, she has remained actively involved within the alumni community and currently serves as the Secretary on the Alumni Association Board’s executive committee.
Reflecting on her time at CGU, Joleen shares, “CGU transformed how I see the world. My village made it possible to dream big and live those dreams out loud.”
2025 Student Speaker
Kendall Hutchison Acker
MA in History, 2025
Kendall Acker is a cross-border Canadian scholar whose work explores the intersections of historical narratives, Indigenous representation, and American tourism. She is currently completing her Master’s degree in American History and Museum Studies at Claremont Graduate University. Her thesis, The Price Tag of a 5-Star Culture: Cultural Performance and the Politics of Luxury in Oʻahu Hotels, examines how luxury hotels in Hawai‘i curate Native Hawaiian experiences in ways that perpetuate settler-colonial ideologies and obscure the lived realities of Hawaiian people under American statehood. Kendall’s research is shaped by the mentorship of Dr. Joanna Poblete and Dr. Joshua Goode, whose guidance has deepened her commitment to equity, fairness, and justice in historical scholarship.
She earned her Bachelor’s degree in History and Indigenous Studies from the University of British Columbia. With over a decade of experience in museums and public history, Kendall is passionate about the role of cultural institutions in advancing underrepresented narratives. Her work is grounded in decolonizing practices and a commitment to transforming institutional traditions to authentically integrate Indigenous voices.
Looking ahead, Kendall will pursue a PhD in American History at the University of Alberta, where she will continue to explore the transformative potential of museums, archives, and other cultural spaces.
Outside of academia, Kendall lives in Kelowna, Canada, with her husband, Owen, and their two Bernese Mountain dogs, Tesla and Maple. Deeply invested in her community, she finds fulfillment in facilitating meaningful connections. Whether personal or professional, Kendall believes that transformative change begins with respectful, holistic relationships to the stories and lands that shape who we are and where we belong.