News and Honors

Catherine L. Hughes, HON’06, is a media pioneer, serving as founder and chairwoman of Urban One, Inc., the largest African American-owned, diversified media corporation in the nation. Through its subsidiaries, it reaches more than 80% of the African American media market: Radio One, with over 55 broadcast radio stations; TV One and CLEO-TV, two cable television networks; Reach Media, Inc., a syndication company that produces the “D.L. Hughley Show” among others; iOne Digital, a digital platform that offers social content and entertainment; and One Solution, a cross-platform marketing company.

Hughes’ humble beginnings in Omaha, Nebraska, including time as a student at Creighton University, where her father was the first African American in the University’s history to earn an accounting degree, fueled her ambition to empower African Americans to tell their stories.

She began her radio career locally at KOWH-AM, an African American-owned station, before moving to Washington, D.C., in 1971 to become a lecturer in Howard University’s School of Communications. As general sales manager at the university’s radio station, WHUR, she increased revenue from $250,000 to $3 million in her first year, eventually becoming the first woman vice president and general manager of a station in the nation’s capital.

In 1980, Hughes purchased her flagship station, WOL-AM, and served as morning show host for 11 years. In 1999, she became the first African American woman to chair a publicly held corporation and, along with her son and business partner Alfred Liggins III, grew Radio One into an urban radio market leader with more than 60 stations nationwide in hip hop, R&B, gospel and talk formats. It was the first African American radio company in history to dominate several major markets simultaneously, making Hughes the first woman to own a radio station ranked number one in a major market. TV One would follow in 2004 and Interactive One, now iOne Digital, in 2007.

Hughes has earned hundreds of prestigious awards and recognitions that include induction into the National Association of Broadcasters Broadcasting Hall of Fame and American Advertising Federation Hall of Fame; the Lowry Mays Excellence in Broadcasting Award; the naming of the Cathy Hughes School of Communications at Howard University and Cathy Hughes Boulevard in Omaha; the ADCOLOR Lifetime Achievement Award; the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Chair’s Phoe­nix Award; the NAACP Chairman’s Award; and the Giant of Broadcasting Award, among others.

She is also a longtime philanthropist and champion for the homeless; a mentor to countless women; an advocate for minority communities; and a fierce proponent of education, including serving as a member of Creighton University’s Board of Trustees since 2020 and supporting The Piney Woods School in Mississippi, which was established by her grandfather in 1901 and is the longest standing independent boarding school in the United States for African American students. Creighton previously awarded Hughes an honorary degree in 2006.

In 1949, Creighton University began conferring the “Spirit of Creighton” Award upon Creighton men and women who represent, to an extraordinary degree, the best qualities of Creighton’s founders.

Creighton University presented its 2026 Spirit of Creighton award during its undergraduate commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 16, to Paige Harty, a double major in exercise science and health professions and neuroscience in the College of Arts and Sciences with minors in Spanish and Hispanic Studies and Business Administration.

Paige earned a perfect 4.0 grade-point average while maintaining a demanding class schedule; serving as a four-year member of Creighton’s NCAA Division I rowing team, which she captained this year; and actively volunteering for a variety of community organizations.

Nominators describe her as an exceptional scholar, athlete and servant leader who truly embodies the mission and values of Creighton University. They also describe her as incredibly kind and genuine.

Her list of accomplishments is impressive. She made the Dean’s list every semester during her Creighton career; she was inducted into Alpha Sigma Nu — the Jesuit Honor Society — and into Creighton’s Chapter of Pi Beta Kappa — the most prestigious national academic honor society for the liberal arts; she was named a Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association Athlete Scholar and earned West Coast Conference All Academic Honors; she participated in the Dean’s Fellows Program; she engaged in research and co-authored a research paper that has been accepted for publication. And on top of all that, she performed in the top 6% in the nation when she took the MCAT.

One nomination letter noted that Paige experienced both the gifts and the challenges of growing up in a cross-cultural family and that those experiences allowed her, upon entering Creighton, to readily embrace the Ignatian call to discern meaning and purpose, truth, wonder, justice and joy far beyond the superficial world.

Another noted that Paige invests deeply in relationships — as a teaching assistant at Creighton, as a mentor to elementary students, as a volunteer supporting patients and families in hospice care, and as a teammate and friend. She meets people where they are with empathy, respect and genuine compassion, demonstrating a profound commitment to the dignity and well-being of each individual. She uses her gifts in service of others, approaching her work with gratitude and a sense of vocation.

In a world in which visibility and acclaim often define success, Paige remains grounded, humble and focused on the greater good.
 

J. William (Bill) Scott, a lifelong Nebraskan who passed away in 2024, started as Warren Buffett’s first employee. Following his retirement, Bill and Ruth L. Scott, his wife of 73 years, dedicated their lives to charitable giving.

With their children, the Scotts have made a generational impact at Creighton and across Nebraska. The family has given hundreds of millions of dollars to more than 160 local and statewide organizations.

Growing up on a farm north of Ashland, Nebraska — where she met Bill when she was 8 — Ruth read by the light of a kerosene lamp in a house that didn’t receive indoor plumbing until she was 12. Ruth started her career in education, teaching kindergarten, and first grade. When Bill was not searching corporate reports for undervalued companies, he was leading one of Omaha’s popular polka bands, The Polonairs.

Bill and Ruth’s humble beginnings and love for their home state have translated into far-ranging support for not only Omaha and Lincoln but dozens of rural towns across Nebraska, supporting education, healthcare, research, housing, childcare and community centers alike. Ruth says that she and Bill have “gotten maximum enjoyment from our philanthropy.”

At Creighton, the Scott family has supported University operations, scholarships and facilities, including the construction of the Ryan Athletic Center, McDermott Center, the Rasmussen Center, the School of Dentistry, and the CL and Rachel Werner Center for Health Sciences Education.

This year, Ruth and her son, Don Scott, made the lead gift to the future sports performance facility, The Bill. The Bill is taking shape next to The Ruth, the practice facility the volleyball team chose to name after her. Through support of such facilities, as well as scholarships, Ruth’s passion for volleyball has left an indelible mark on women’s athletics — at Creighton and throughout Nebraska.

Valerie B. Ackerman, JD, was named the fifth Commissioner of the Big East Conference on June 26, 2013. She was the founding President of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and is a past President of USA Basketball, which oversees the U.S. men's and women's Olympic basketball program.

She is an inductee of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (2021), the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame (2011), the New Jersey Hall of Fame (2021) and the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame (2023).

While at the helm of the BIG EAST, she has presided over the rebirth of the conference as one of the premier conferences in college basketball, with ten of the league’s 11 men’s basketball programs, including Creighton, receiving NCAA tournament bids since 2013-14.

Conference initiatives launched under Ackerman’s leadership include the annual BIG EAST Student-Athlete Well-Being Forum, which provides programming on a wide range of student-athlete mental and physical health and wellness matters; a career networking event for students from all BIG EAST schools; meetings of member school provosts and admissions and development officers; the BIG EAST Investment Summit and the BIG EAST Research Poster Symposium, an undergraduate academic competition.

She attended the University of Virginia as one of the school's first female student-athlete scholarship recipients. She graduated with high distinction with a degree in political and social thought in 1981 and played one year of professional basketball in France before earning a law degree from UCLA in 1985. She received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Providence College in 2021.

Ackerman started her legal career as a corporate and banking associate and joined the National Basketball Association as a staff attorney in 1988. She was as an executive at the NBA for eight years before being named the WNBA's first President in 1996. She guided the league to a much-heralded launch in 1997 and headed its day-to-day operations for its first eight seasons.

In 2005, she was elected President of USA Basketball for the 2005-08 term, leading the organization to gold medal performances by the U.S. men's and women's basketball teams at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. She is currently a member of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Oversight Committee and is an advisor to the Vatican’s Sport at the Service of Humanity initiative.

Ackerman is on the Board of Directors of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame and is a Life Trustee of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, which presented her with the John Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. She assisted in 2011 in formulating a long-term plan to support women's ice hockey, and the NCAA, for which she prepared a comprehensive white paper in 2013 on growth strategies for women's college basketball.

Ackerman’s accomplishments in the sports business have earned her numerous awards, including induction into the GTE Academic All-America Hall of Fame; the Girls Scouts of America National Women of Distinction Juliette Award; the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association President’s Citation; the International Olympic Committee Women and Sport Achievement Diploma; the Sports Business Journal Champions in Sports Business Award; and inclusion as a Women’s Sports Foundation/ESPNW 40 for 40 Honoree.

She is married to Charlie Rappaport, a retired tax partner of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. They have two adult daughters, Emily and Sally, and a daughter-in-law, Sunday Helmerich.