Described as an "award-winning scholar and champion of science," NCSE's founding executive director Eugenie C. Scott received an honorary degree from Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, at the university's Academic Convocation on September 15, 2017. Scott delivered an address on the importance of a liberal arts education, using the Kitzmiller v. Dover trial of 2005 as a source of examples and anecdotes.
The honorary degree was Scott's tenth. She was previously honored with honorary degrees from McGill University in 2003, the Ohio State University in 2005, Mount Holyoke College and the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, in 2006; Rutgers University in 2007; the University of New Mexico in 2008, the University of Missouri, Columbia, and Colorado College in 2010; and Chapman University in 2013.