Bar-Ilan University bestowed an honorary doctorate upon
Angelica Berrie, Chair of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, on May 22, 2012, during the
57th Meeting of the university’s Board of Trustees.
The degree was given for "her outstanding community leadership and commitment to training the next generation of activists who will lend their support to cultural, scientific and humanitarian causes.
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Angelica Berrie is CEO of Kate’s Paperie, a partner in Boston International, and Chairman of Global Nomad, an experiential travel design company based in Hong Kong.
Alongside her business pursuits, Berrie directs the Russell Berrie Foundation, a philanthropic venture created by her late husband as a means for expressing his passionate commitment to a range of causes. At Israel’s Technion, the Nanotechnology Institute bears Russell Berries’s name, while the Russell Berrie Foundation’s impact is prominently on display at New York’s Columbia University, where it launched the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center. The Russell Berrie Foundation is among the Founders of the Bar-Ilan University Faculty of Medicine in the Galilee.
Born in 1956 and raised a Catholic in the Philippines, Berrie has wholeheartedly embraced Judaism and is deeply devoted both to the Jewish community and to inter-religious dialogue. Berrie is a supporter of educational opportunity for underserved Israeli communities, and also underwrites Fellowships at the Pope John Paul II Center for Inter-Religious Studies in St. Thomas Aquinas University at the Angelicum, Rome.
A pillar of her home community, Berrie helped found Gilda’s Club of Northern New Jersey, a free cancer support community, and later became Board Chair of Gilda’s Club Worldwide. In capital projects related to health care, Berrie’s outstanding generosity has launched vital facilities in a number of hospitals. A patroness of the arts, Berrie’s philanthropic devotion to cultural pursuits is seen in the Russ Bergen Performing Arts Center and the Berrie Performing Arts Center at New Jersey’s Ramapo College.
An adventurous soul who enjoys skydiving and rappelling, Berrie has a special place in her heart for individuals whose fearless personal initiative leads to a better world. Through the Russ Berrie Award for Making A Difference, she provides cash grants to people who dedicate their lives to helping others and in honor of their examples of humanity and kindness.
The honorary doctorate was conferred in the Dahan Family Unity Park on Bar-Ilan University’s North Campus. The ceremony was broadcast live on the University website .
Berrie, Chair of SHI-North America, received the award for community leadership and commitment to training the next generation of activists 
