Celebrating Our Honorees
2022 Honorary Degree Recipients
Mr. Clifford White and Mrs. Deborah White
Philanthropists
Mr. Clifford and Mrs. Deborah White are generous benefactors of education and workforce development for young people and adults in Montgomery County. They also support organizations creating opportunities for vulnerable youth and residents in their community. They have supported the Achieving Collegiate Excellence and Success (ACES) program since 2012. During this time, they have provided multiyear scholarships for two cohorts of 20 ACES students who began at the College and transferred to the Universities at Shady Grove to complete their bachelor’s degree. Not only have the Whites helped numerous ACES students, they have inspired similar gifts from more than a dozen donors, providing scholarships for an additional 40 students.
Mr. White was a founding partner and financial architect of NEW Corporation (now Asurion Corporation), the world’s largest consumer product protection company. He is now a partner in SWaN Investors, a diversified fund with dozens of investments, including the Washington Nationals Baseball Club and Monumental Sports & Entertainment.
He serves on the board of the Greater Washington Community Foundation, where he helped create the Neighbors in Need Montgomery Fund. He was named their 2017 Montgomery County Philanthropist of the Year. He is also vice chair of Venture Philanthropy Partners, serving vulnerable youth in the National Capital region.
Mrs. White, a lifelong advocate for reading and education, is an active volunteer leader throughout Montgomery County, concentrating on early childhood education and language development.
She worked in the nationally recognized Montgomery County Public Schools for more than a decade, where she taught first and fourth grades. She is committed to fostering lifelong readers. To that end, she established book clubs at area schools—and created lending libraries at homeless shelters in Washington, D.C. Most recently, she led reading readiness programs at several shelters in the District of Columbia.
Mrs. White serves on the board of All Ages Read Together (AART), a Northern Virginia nonprofit providing free school readiness programs for at-risk preschool children. AART prepares these vulnerable learners for a positive entry into elementary school, engaging volunteers of all ages.
Mr. White earned a bachelor’s degree in business and economics from Lehigh University. Mrs. White earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree in school guidance and counseling from The Johns Hopkins University.
October 19, 2022, The Inauguration of Dr. Jermaine F. Williams. © Copyright 2022 Montgomery College. All rights reserved.