SPA Dean Barbara Romzek, left, and Connie Morella, right, former congresswomen and ambassador-in-residence at the Women & Politics Institute (WPI), welcome Muriel Bowser, an SPA alum and Democratic candidate for DC mayor, at WPI's graduation exercises in the Katzen Arts Center.

Bowser received an Alice Paul Award during the ceremonies. Paul led a successful campaign in the early 20th century for women's suffrage that resulted in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibiting gender discrimination in the right to vote.