Heather Abbott To Deliver Providence College Commencement Address

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A survivor of the Boston Marathon bombings has been invited to deliver the commencement address at Providence College.

Newport resident Heather Abbott will also receive an honorary degree at the May 15 ceremony.

She created The Heather Abbott Foundation last year to help amputees obtain prostheses.

Abbott's lower leg was amputated in 2013 after she was struck by bomb shrapnel at the finish line and thrown through a doorway by the explosion.

She received her MBA from Providence College in 2003.

Others getting honorary degrees include George Wein (ween), who founded Newport's jazz and folk festivals; actor and singer Rose Weaver; retired Phoenix Life Insurance CEO Robert Fiondella; and physician Timothy Flanigan, a Brown University professor of medicine who treated Ebola patients in Liberia.

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