Four Western Pennsylvania women were honored by Gov. Josh Shapiro recently for their service to local, statewide and national communities.
The Distinguished Daughters of Pennsylvania, organized in 1949, has recognized more than 560 women since its inception — including 11 who were celebrated in Harrisburg on Sept. 25. Recipients are nominated by the organizations they serve.
First Lady Lori Shapiro recognized the 2024 recipients as the governor visited Second Street Learning Center in Reading to sign a ceremonial bill for tax cuts in the 2024-25 state budget.
Among the recipients were Sister Gemma Del Duca, a Seton Hill Sister of Charity who founded a Holocaust education center at a Greensburg university; Doris Carson Williams, founder and CEO of the African American Chamber of Commerce of Western Pa.; Kathy Humphrey, president of Carlow University; and Geovette Washington, senior vice chancellor and chief legal officer at the University of Pittsburgh.
Gemma Del Duca
As Gemma Del Duca sat in the desks of St. Benedict School in Greensburg listening to her teachers, she had no idea their guidance would lead her to establish a national center for Holocaust education in her hometown.
Del Duca, born and raised in Greensburg, attended the parochial school on the city’s Main Street — now called Aquinas Academy. Her teachers were the Sisters of Charity, based out of the city’s Caritas Christi motherhouse.
“From the time I began school, really, they were an inspiration to me,” said Del Duca.
Del Duca entered the Sisters of Charity after graduating from high school in 1950, completing college-level courses and training to become a sister six years later.
Del Duca worked at a variety of schools in the Pittsburgh area and Virginia from 1959 to 1975, when she traveled to Israel to study Hebrew and Christianity’s Jewish roots.
The Holocaust was a key topic of discussion in her education, she said.
“I think it’s important because of history — the history that took place during World War II,” she said. “It’s important that people learn about this and that we begin to understand the significance of dialogue and really the importance of recognizing Christianity’s roots in Judaism.”
During a return trip to Greensburg in 1987, Del Duca and a fellow Sister of Charity — Mary Kernan — pitched the National Catholic Center of Holocaust Education to then-Seton Hill President JoAnne Boyle.
“I must give her great credit,” Del Duca said of Kernan, “because, really, with a table and a chair and a typewriter…she began working to establish a presence at Seton Hill.”
The center’s first program came that November. It gathered students in remembrance of Kristallnahct, the Nazi party’s declaration of war against German and Austrian Jews in 1938.
Today, the center offers a scholarship, hosts regular lectures and organizes programs for local K-12 educators teaching about genocide.
Del Duca is grateful for how the center has grown across nearly four decades.
“I think that the service that a Holocaust center such as ours does is a service of reaching out to those who are not of our faith and people that we would never come in contact with ordinarily,” she said. “And to do this not only with the Jewish community, but with other communities too.”
Doris Carson Williams
With 28 registered members, Doris Carson Williams established a chamber of commerce in downtown Pittsburgh in 1998 to expand opportunities for African American business owners.
“Our vision when we first opened it, naturally, was to grow the organization,” Carson Williams said, “and my goal was to make sure it was inclusive.”
Now the 7th largest chamber in the region, the African American Chamber of Commerce of Western Pennsylvania has skyrocketed to more than 650 business owners.
“Our members were part of opening the (David L. Lawrence) Convention Center and helping to build PNC Park, as well as Acrisure Stadium,” Carson Williams said.
The chamber holds a luncheon each December to discuss the state of business and economic growth in the area, she said.
But the chamber’s main goal is to unite Pittsburgh’s major corporations, small businesses, health care providers and nonprofits, she said.
That’s why Carson Williams chairs several nonprofit boards — including the Highmark Foundation and the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
“It’s just a way to continuously engage myself in the corporate community and find ways that our members can work with them,” she said.
For Carson Williams, being named a Distinguished Daughter is a highlight of her career.
“It’s been a wonderful experience to build an organization — coming out of corporate America, starting from scratch,” she said.
Kathy Humphrey
Kathy Humphrey doesn’t remember a time she didn’t want to be an educator.
Humphrey, president of Carlow University in Pittsburgh, grew up playing “school” — teaching pretend students if no one else was around to join her.
“My entire life I have been teaching,” said Humphrey, “and I often say to people that initially I taught empty chairs. Today, I work with students for a career, and I have done that for the last 40 years of my life.”
Humphrey began her career in secondary education. But it was not long before she was drawn to higher education — teaching and working in university leadership.
Humphrey served as a vice president at Saint Louis University in Missouri from 1994 to 2005 before moving to Pittsburgh. She later served as Pitt’s senior vice chancellor for engagement and chief of staff from 2015 to 2021.
Now, Humphrey says she is in her senior year at Carlow.
“When this (senior) class came in, I told them we are freshmen together,” she said.
Humphrey also views her role at Carlow as an opportunity to meet the needs of the surrounding community through initiatives like the Purple Door — a food pantry that serves students and Pittsburgh residents.
When the university learned of area hospitals’ shortage of nurses and surgical technicians, degree programs were created to help funnel students into the vacant positions, Humphrey said.
“Everybody has chaos from time to time,” she said, “and we commit to saying we’re willing to walk beside those in their chaos.”
It feels almost unfair to Humphrey to receive the Distinguished Daughters award for doing something she loves.
“If I never had ever received this award,” she said, “that would still be what I believe I’m supposed to do on the planet — is to make a difference in the places that I stand.”
Geovette Washington
Raised by two educator parents, Geovette Washington was taught about the importance of serving others from a young age.
“It was always very important for me to figure out what my niche was going to be to be able to give back,” she said.
Washington has served as Pitt’s senior vice chancellor and chief legal officer since 2015, but she began her career working for a federal district court judge in Washington, D.C.
She worked in the federal justice department for the Clinton administration from 1993 to 1996, before spending 14 years in private law practice. She returned to government work in 2009 under then-President Barack Obama — serving in the offices of commerce and management and budget.
Since 2017, Washington has also served on the board of trustees for the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. She has chaired the board for about three years.
Having lived in D.C. for more than two decades, Washington discovered residents of the nations’ capital see museums as a tourist attraction that they don’t visit often. Just the opposite is true for Pittsburgh, she said.
“Coming here and seeing the impact those museums have on the lives of people in the city and how people go to them on a regular basis was just something I thought was really amazing and something I wanted to be a part of,” Washington said.
She was honored and humbled to be named a Distinguished Daughter, joining the ranks of women she considers mentors.
“I can only hope I continue to make them proud,” she said, “and that I can pay it forward and help mentor the next group of women.”
Quincey Reese is a TribLive reporter covering the Greensburg and Hempfield areas. She also does reporting for the Penn-Trafford Star. A Penn Township native, she joined the Trib in 2023 after working as a Jim Borden Scholarship intern at the company for two summers. She can be reached at [email protected].
