P.E.I. Supreme Court Chief Justice Jacqueline R. Matheson will receive an honorary degree from the University of King's College in Halifax this spring.

Matheson will receive her degree alongside adult educator Mary Lu Redden.

"Their achievements remind us of the difference which strong individuals can make to society's well-being," said university president William Lahey in a news release.

Matheson graduated from the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University in 1977. She practised law in both Nova Scotia and P.E.I., and was appointed to the Supreme Court of P.E.I. in 1988, becoming the first woman on the trial division of the court.

In 2004 she made history again when she became the first woman to be chief justice in the province.