Meet the 2027 Smith College Medalists

Since its establishment in 1962, the Smith Medal has been awarded to more than 200 alums, each of whom has exemplified “the true purpose” of a liberal arts education in their lives and work.

During the annual Rally Day ceremony—to be held this year on Thursday, Feb. 25, at 1:30 p.m.—four more Smithies will join the ranks and receive their medals in a day of celebration. In addition to honoring the medalists, classes will be canceled, seniors will wear their graduation gowns for the first time—and show off some particularly stylish and creative headwear—and the Faculty Teaching Award and Elizabeth B. Wyandt Gavel Award will be presented.

It’s a day that means many things to many people, but above all else, it’s a great day to be a Smithie.

Diane Cook ’65

Parkinson’s disease educator and advocate

Diane Cook’s career has been deeply rooted in public service. Early in her career, she held leadership positions that included program director at the New York City Commission for the United Nations, executive director of the Washington, D.C. International Visitors Information Service, and president of the National Council for International Visitors. She also founded the Tulsa, Oklahoma Council for International Visitors.

Between 1981 and 2008, Cook earned a reputation for developing and leading effective, lasting, and executable corporate leadership programs for learning organizations. Her program solutions were utilized by places like ARC International, John Wiley & Sons, International Learning Systems, Wilson Learning, and Deepak Chopra’s international seminars organization. 

In 2008, her public service path took a personal turn following a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis. While living with and learning about the disease herself, Cook immediately began researching ways to help those with Parkinson’s have a better quality of life. She led a successful clinical trial that validated the impact of self-efficacy in Parkinson’s care, and went on to create the Parkinson’s Disease Self-Efficacy Learning Forum (PD SELF). The program has been used by over 3,000 Parkinson’s patients and their care partners, helping them better manage their disease and live well. Cook, who graduated from Smith with a degree in art history, has presented at four World Parkinson Congresses and The New York Academy of Sciences.

Deborah A. Driscoll ’77

Reproductive geneticist and physician

Deborah A. Driscoll’s passion for women’s health was clear even in the earliest days of her career. After earning degrees from Smith and the New York University School of Medicine, Driscoll completed a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and a fellowship in clinical and molecular genetics at the University of Pennsylvania. 

An internationally recognized expert in genetic screening, Driscoll is renowned for her groundbreaking research on the genetic disorder 22q11.2 deletion syndrome—also known as DiGeorge syndrome. Her honors include the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, the AAMC Women in Medicine and Science Leadership Award, the FOCUS Award for the Advancement of Women in Medicine, and the Perelman School of Medicine Elizabeth Kirk Rose Women in Medicine Award. 

After serving for 14 years as chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and director of the Center for Research on Reproduction and Women’s Health—both at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine—she was appointed senior vice president for the Clinical Practices of the University of Pennsylvania and vice dean for professional services. In 2021, her role expanded into chief physician executive for the Penn Medicine Medical Group, where she was responsible for over 400 academic and community physician practices in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Driscoll, who earned a degree in biological sciences from Smith, was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2011.

Melissa J. Homestead ’85

American literary scholar

Melissa J. Homestead has built a career researching and celebrating American women’s writing and authorship, primarily from the late 1700s through the early 1900s. 

During her time at Smith, Homestead began researching more about Edith Lewis, Smith class of 1902 and a close collaborator with author Willa Cather. That fascination led to 18 years of immersive research and the eventual publication of Homestead’s 2021 book, The Only Wonderful Things: The Creative Partnership of Willa Cather and Edith Lewis, which revealed Lewis to be both Cather’s domestic partner and literary collaborator. The book earned her a Nebraska Book Award and honors from the Society for the Study of American Women Writers and the Bernard J. Brommel Award for Biography. 

Homestead graduated from Smith magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa with high honors in English, and went on to earn her doctorate in English from the University of Pennsylvania. She is currently a professor of English and program faculty in Women’s & Gender Studies at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. There, Homestead also directs the university’s Cather Project and is co-editor of The Complete Letters of Willa Cather. Homestead’s 1985 honors thesis, “The Lesbian Writer Finding a Voice: Willa Cather’s Use of Male Narrative Perspective in My Ántonia and A Lost Lady,” won the Elizabeth Drew Prize for best honors thesis in English. She was recently awarded a Rodney G. Dennis Fellowship in the Study of Manuscripts by Harvard University to begin research for a dual biography of Sarah Orne Jewett and Annie Adams Fields.

Garrett Bradley ’07

Documentary filmmaker

An Oscar-nominated filmmaker, Garrett Bradley has crafted short- and feature-length films, video installations, photography, television, artists books, and visual essays. Her intimate, personal filmmaking style combines narrative, documentary, and experimental forms, all with a focus on injustice, capitalism, cultural visibility, and the complicated history of the United States. 

Bradley’s short film Alone, which follows a single mother deciding whether to marry her incarcerated fiancé, won the top prize for documentary short at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Her debut full-length documentary, Time, is about the impact mass incarceration has on not only prisoners but also the loved ones they leave behind. Time was nominated for 57 awards, including an Academy Award and a Peabody Award. It also led to Bradley becoming the first Black woman to earn a Sundance Film Festival award for Best Director of a U.S. Documentary. 

Her directing credits also include the Netflix docuseries Naomi Osaka, and much of her work is within the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern gallery, and the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. In 2025, Bradley was named a MacArthur Fellow, an impressive follow-up to her 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts. Bradley, who earned a degree in religion from Smith, also received a Master of Fine Arts in directing from the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television.