Honorary Degree, Doctor of Humane Letters

Matt O’Donnell

Engaged Blue Hen, you earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and journalism with a minor in political science from the University of Delaware. As a student, you were news director of WVUD-FM and worked as a reporter for the student newspaper, The Review. As an alumnus, you serve on the College of Arts and Sciences Advisory Council.

Enterprising reporter, just after graduating from UD, you moved to upstate New York to work as a do-it-yourself news reporter for WICZ-TV in Binghamton covering news and politics. You then went on to WSTM-TV in Syracuse before returning to the Philadelphia area in 1996 as a general assignment reporter for Action News at WPVI-TV 6abc.

During your time at Action News, you have visited virtually every town in the region and have worked on assignments that have taken you across the country and around the world. You have covered three political conventions and interviewed three presidents.

Trusted news anchor, you are widely known, respected, and followed as co-anchor of Action News Mornings, which has held the number one status in your time slot since you joined the program in 2004. In addition, you co-host the Sunday political show Inside Story, where you engage panelists who debate important issues of the day and challenge the newsmakers who make the decisions. You also produce and host the True Philadelphia Podcast, in which you sit down with movers and shakers to discuss what’s great about Philadelphia.

You have proven yourself again and again as a reporter, anchor, and host as you engage and inform news viewers at 6abc.

Therefore, under the authority of the Board of Trustees of the University of Delaware, I have the honor of conferring on you, Matt O’Donnell, the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. In testimony thereof, I am pleased to present to you this diploma.

Terri L. Kelly
May 24, 2025