George Lucas to get honorary Hopkins degree

Famous filmmaker George Lucas headlines the 2018 "class" receiving honorary doctorates from The Johns Hopkins University during the school's commencement on May 24.

Most widely known for creating the incredibly popular film franchises of Star Wars and Indiana Jones, Lucas is known as a director, producer, screenwriter, and a special effects innovator through his company Lucas Films Ltd. Lucas sold that company to Walt Disney Co., in October of 2012 for roughly $4 billion. He now focuses his efforts on the George Lucas Educational Foundation, which he founded in 1991. The group promotes innovative, replicable, and evidence-based programs and practices that prepare students to thrive in school. 

Lucas is one of six receiving such honors.

Bryan A. Stevenson, the executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, is also serving as the commencement speaker. He and his team have freed or won reduced sentences for more than 125 wrongly condemned death row prisoners. He is also a MacArthur Fellow, a winner of the National Medal of Liberty from the American Civil Liberties Union, and a New York Times best-seller. 

Solomon H. Synder, a professor of Neuroscience, Pharmacology, and Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Mellody Hobson, president of one of the country's largest African-American-owned investment firms, David H. Bernstein, a businessman, philanthropist and Johns Hopkins alumni, and Douglas Miles, a bishop, civic leader and Johns Hopkins alumni, will also receive honorary degrees.