Colby-Sawyer College will honor two individuals for their contributions to the college and the greater community at the institution’s 187th Commencement ceremony Saturday, May 10. 

Ann McLane Kuster, who represented New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives for more than a decade, will receive an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree. Alumna and former trustee Pamela Stanley Bright ’61 will be awarded the Susan Colgate Cleveland Medal for Distinguished Service.

The honorary doctorate recognizes Kuster’s significant contributions to the legal field and public service. As a community activist and congresswoman, Kuster has worked to improve access to affordable healthcare, combat climate change, create jobs and support veterans, women, students and seniors. 

Kuster’s storied family has exemplified the importance of public service. Her great-grandfather, John McLane, was governor of New Hampshire. Her father, Malcolm McLane, served in World War II and was mayor of Concord. And, her mother, Susan McLane, a champion of equal rights, served in the New Hampshire State Senate.  

Kuster and her mother, who developed Alzheimer’s disease, co-authored The Last Dance: Facing Alzheimer's with Love and Laughter. After her mother died, Kuster and her father traveled throughout the state to talk about the disease. 

Like her mother, Kuster has been a pioneer. She earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental policy in 1978 at Dartmouth College, just six years after it admitted women. She earned a law degree in 1984 from Georgetown University Law Center and worked for more than two decades as an adoption attorney. 

In 2012, when she won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, Kuster became a part of the country’s first all-female congressional delegation with Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Kelly Ayotte and Rep. Carol Shea-Porter. She went on to represent the 2nd district until 2024. Kuster was pivotal in creating the UNIQUE College Investing Plan to help parents save for their children’s education and the New Hampshire Medication Bridge Program to provide assistance in accessing medicine to people with low incomes. The New Hampshire Women’s Foundation presented her with its 2023 AmplifiHER award for lifting up women and girls in the Granite State. 

She has served on the boards of numerous organizations, including the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, New Hampshire Public Radio, the Capitol Center for the Arts and Child & Family Services of New Hampshire.  

Bright will receive the Susan Colgate Cleveland Medal for Distinguished Service, the college’s highest honor, which is presented to individuals who exemplify former trustee Susan Colgate Cleveland’s attributes, ensuring that her work, dedication and influence will be remembered by future generations. Cleveland, a former trustee, was the granddaughter of the college’s first teacher, Susan Colby Colgate. 

Bright, a dedicated alumna and the 2013 recipient of the college’s Distinguished Alumni Award, graduated from Colby Junior College with an Associate of Arts in liberal arts.  

She raised a family and worked as the development officer and assistant to the headmaster at Loudoun Country Day School in Leesburg, Virginia. She then earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology and psychology from St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa. 

While in Iowa, Bright was a trustee and member of the Executive Committee of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library Association and was on the boards of the Bettendorf Community Schools Foundation and the Friendly House, a neighborhood settlement house in Davenport. She also was a member of the Board of Directors of Critchlow Adkins Day Care Centers in Maryland.

Bright served on the Colby-Sawyer College Board of Trustees from 2004 to 2013, then again from 2014 to 2023. During that time, she chaired the Board Organization and Student Development committees and was a member of the Buildings and Campus Planning, Enrollment Management, Academics and Student Experience, Board Organization and Trusteeship, and Executive committees. She also served on the Facilities Subcommittee and the Innovation Task Force. 

Bright’s family connection to the college goes back to the days of Colby Academy, where her grandfather, Horace Clough Stanley, graduated in 1901. He served as a trustee, first for the academy, then for Colby Junior College, from 1915 to 1954. As a contractor in New London, he built McKean, Austin and Colby halls on campus and relocated a historic building called the Lodge from Old Main Street to Colbytown Camp on Little Lake Sunapee. The building has since been renovated and relocated to the college campus. In 2003, Bright and her husband, Stan, established the Horace Clough Stanley Scholarship at Colby-Sawyer in her grandfather’s memory.