Arcadia University is proud to announce that it will award two honorary doctoral degrees at its 2025 Commencement ceremonies: Marissa Boyers Bluestine, assistant director of the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, will receive an honorary doctorate on Thursday, May 15, where she will address doctoral and master’s degree candidates. Villanova Law Professor and Immigration Advocate Michele Pistone will receive an honorary doctorate and address baccalaureate candidates in the Class of 2025 on Friday, May 16. 

Marissa Boyers Bluestine

Marissa Boyers Bluestine is the Assistant Director of the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. Bluestine joined the Quattrone Center after a decade leading the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, a nonprofit dedicated to exonerating individuals wrongfully convicted of crimes. As Legal Director and later Executive Director, she transformed the organization into a statewide leader in criminal justice reform, overseeing efforts that led to 17 wrongful conviction reversals. Under her leadership, the organization also collaborated with law enforcement across Pennsylvania to implement evidence-based practices aimed at preventing wrongful convictions.

Before her work with the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, Bluestine served at the Defender Association of Philadelphia, including in the major trials and appellate units. There, she spearheaded the office’s successful challenge to Pennsylvania’s 40-year-old ban on expert testimony in eyewitness cases, resulting in the landmark Commonwealth v. Walker decision by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. She also focused on forensic science, false confessions, digital evidence, and scientific testimony, developing office-wide training and policies to strengthen courtroom advocacy on these issues.

At the Quattrone Center, Bluestine leads its project as a national Technical Training and Assistance provider for the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), working with prosecutor offices nationwide to enhance conviction review unit efficiency and foster collaboration with innocence organizations. She helps these offices adopt best prosecutorial practices and establish robust policies and procedures. Bluestine also teaches as an adjunct professor at both the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and Temple University Beasley School of Law.

Bluestine’s groundbreaking work has earned her numerous honors, including the Andrew Hamilton Award from the Philadelphia Bar Association, the Philadelphia Legal Intelligencer’s Woman of Distinction Award, the Maureen Rowley Award from the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, and the Liberty Award from the Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Michele Pistone

Since 1999, Michele Pistone has served as a Professor of Law at Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law and the Founding Faculty Director for Villanova University’s Strategic Initiative for Migrants + Refugees. Pistone speaks and publishes regularly on migration and asylum law, access to justice, technology, and on topics related to legal education, including online and hybrid teaching, student-centered course design, formative assessment, as well as Catholic Social Thought on immigration. She is presently an expert advisor to the Holy See Mission to the United Nations on human rights and migration, a Fellow at the Center for Migration Studies in New York, and a Fellow at the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System. Pistone was also a Fulbright scholar at the University of Malta, where she helped to launch Malta’s first clinical education program in the law faculty. Pistone founded the Charles Widger School of Law’s first in-house Clinical Program and founded and directed the Clinic for Asylum, Refugee and Emigrant Services (CARES) for close to 20 years.  

In 2019, Pistone was awarded the J.M.K. Innovation Prize to launch the first-ever online university-based certificate program to train non-lawyers to become immigrant advocates and Accredited Representatives authorized to provide legal representation to immigrants in immigration courts and before US Citizenship and Immigration Services. Her award-winning program, Villanova Interdisciplinary Immigration Studies Training for Advocates (VIISTA), is offered through the College of Professional Studies. Pistone is also partnering on the Colibrí Fellowship with The Resurrection Project in Chicago, Illinois, and Innovation Law Lab in Portland, Oregon. She was a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Resident in March 2024. During her residency, Pistone wrote a whitepaper, Expanding Immigrant Justice Through A Movement for New Legal Careers, setting out a 5-year strategic plan for fostering an enabling environment to support growth of the field of immigration justice professionals and Accredited Representatives.  

Commencement

Arcadia University will award doctoral and master’s degrees to candidates on Thursday, May 15, and baccalaureate degrees to candidates on Friday, May 16. More information is available at arcadia.edu/commencement.

Nominating Future Honorary Degree Recipients

Marissa Boyers Bluestine, Michele Pistone, and all of Arcadia’s honorary degree recipients were first nominated by an Arcadian, then reviewed by a committee of Arcadia students, faculty, staff, and alumni and forwarded to President Nair. If you have someone you would like to nominate to receive a future honorary degree, fill out the Honorary Degree Nomination Form. If you cannot answer a question, skip it. We can fill in the details. Someday you may get to meet the person you admire on Haber Green.