The Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) has announced the recipients of the 2025 Harvard Medal, to be awarded in person during Harvard Alumni Day on June 6. Established in 1981, the Harvard Medal recognizes extraordinary service to the University in areas that include leadership, fundraising, teaching, innovation, administration, and volunteerism.
Kathy Delaney-Smith
The coach with the most wins in any sport—men’s or women’s—in Ivy League history and a trailblazer for gender equity, Delaney-Smith put Harvard basketball on the map and expanded its profile nationally and internationally. With 630 career victories, she led Harvard women’s basketball team to 11 Ivy League titles and 16 postseason appearances during her 40 seasons with the Crimson. She is the first woman named to the Massachusetts Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame, and her book, Grit and Wit: Empowering Lives and Leaders, was published earlier this year. In addition, she was a coach for USA Basketball, leading the women’s team that won gold at the World University Games in Turkey in 2005. A cancer survivor, Delaney-Smith has dedicated time to helping the American Cancer Society and spreading the word about early detection, for which she received the Gilda Radner Award.
Paul J. Finnegan ’75, M.B.A. ’82
Finnegan has served Harvard for more than 40 years, lending his expertise in numerous leadership roles, as the University treasurer, the chair of the Harvard Management Company, the HAA president, and as a Harvard Corporation member and Overseer . He served as a member of the Harvard Corporation for 12 years and, from 2014 to 2023, he was the University treasurer, guiding major changes at the Harvard Management Company, which he chaired from 2015 to 2024. He was also a driving force behind the Harvard Campaign, planning and leading fundraising efforts as its executive committee co-chair to raise $9.6 billion—the most successful fundraising campaign in the history of higher education by its conclusion in 2017. As an Overseer (2008-2012), he chaired the committee on finance, administration, and management, and as the HAA president (2006-2007), he enhanced alumni communications systems and expanded global outreach. A member of the Committee on University Resources, Finnegan has also served as the chair of the HBS Fund and of the College Class of 1975 reunion committee.
Carolyn Hughes ’54
Hughes has been a dedicated Harvard volunteer and ambassador for nearly 50 years, interviewing countless high school students and engaging alumni through her leadership roles in the Harvard Club of Long Island. Hughes grew up in Boston’s Allston neighborhood, the daughter of a prison guard and a homemaker, and had not planned to attend college until an eighth-grade teacher insisted she focus on academics and be prepared. Four years later, she was admitted to Radcliffe and later moved to New York, where she taught herself computer science and systems design, joining the first cohort of women in the field. She first volunteered to interview College applicants in the 1960s and personally visited 120 of Long Island’s high schools. Since then, she has held nearly every leadership position in the Harvard Club of Long Island, including president. As chair of the Long Island schools committee, her role expanded to training Harvard interviewers and organizing guidance-counselor programs. (She is currently co-chair emerita of the club’s committee.) In addition, she served as an HAA director for clubs and shared interest groups (SIGs), an HAA elected director, and chair of the national schools and scholarship committee within the Harvard College Admissions Office. Other commendations include the HAA Award, Hiram S. Hunn Award, and the HAA Clubs Award.
David Johnston ’63
The twenty-eighth governor general of Canada, a former university president, and a professor of law for more than four decades, Johnston has dedicated his life to service to his country, to academia, and to Harvard—where he brought his strength as a consensus-builder and his commitment to excellence to a variety of roles, including president of the University’s Board of Overseers. He enrolled at Harvard on a scholarship and became a two-time All-American ice hockey player (later named to the Harvard Varsity Club Hall of Fame) and graduated magna cum laude. His Harvard volunteerism includes serving on the reunion and gift committees for his class for decades, serving as an HAA elected director, and on several Overseers visiting committees. Elected to the Board of Overseers in 1992, he became chair in 1997 (the first non-U.S. citizen to hold the position). To honor his service, the Harvard Club of Ottawa established the David Johnston Financial Aid Fund for Harvard to support students from Canada. In 2010, he became Canada’s governor general and has also served as dean of the faculty of law at the University of Western Ontario, principal and vice-chancellor of McGill University, and president of the University of Waterloo.
