OU to recognize honorary degree recipients at spring commencement ceremonies

For outstanding achievements in their respective fields, Curtis Armstrong, Lainie Friedman Ross and Michael T. Trese have been selected to receive honorary degrees from Oakland University. They will be recognized at the university’s spring 2023 commencement ceremonies. 

Curtis Armstrong was selected to receive a Doctor of Arts Honoris Causa

Curtis Armstrong graduated from Oakland University’s Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1975 and went on to a career in theatre, film, television and voice-over that continues today.  Following his graduation, he appeared at Meadow Brook Theatre for several seasons and founded with members of his graduating class a theatre company, Roadside Attractions, which later became Detroit’s Attic Theatre.  

He appeared in numerous off-Broadway and regional productions and toured nationally in Hugh Leonard’s Tony-winning drama, “Da.” His film work includes “Risky Business,” “Revenge of the Nerds,” “Better Off Dead,” “Ray,” and “Akeelah and the Bee” and his television work includes “Moonlighting,” “Supernatural,” “The Closer” and “New Girl.”  He has been a regular voice on “American Dad,” “Emperor’s New School,” and “Monsters at Work.”

In 2018, he wrote the memoir “Revenge of the Nerd, or The Singular Adventures of the Man Who Was Booger,” published by St. Martin’s Press and, with Elliott Milstein, co-authored “A Plum Assignment: Discourses on P.G. Wodehouse and His World,” published by Winch and Clutterbuck.  His archive is stored at OU’s Kresge Library.

Armstrong will be recognized at the 9 a.m. ceremony on Friday, April 28.

Lainie Friedman Ross was selected to receive a Doctor of Humanities Honoris Causa

Lainie Friedman Ross, M.D., Ph.D., joined the University of Rochester in January 2023 as Professor and inaugural Chair, Department of Health Humanities and Bioethics and Director of the Paul M. Schyve MD Center for Bioethics with secondary appointments in the Departments of Pediatrics and Philosophy. Prior to her move, Dr. Ross was the Carolyn and Matthew Bucksbaum Professor of Clinical Medical Ethics; Professor, Departments of Pediatrics, Medicine, Surgery and the College; Co-Director of the Institute for Translational Medicine, and Associate Director of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago.  Clinically, Dr Ross is a board-certified primary care pediatrician. 

Dr. Ross earned her undergraduate degree from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs (1982), her medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine (1986), and her doctorate in philosophy from Yale University (1996). She trained in Pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and New York-Columbia Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital. 

For Dr. Ross, philosophy is important to medicine because moral convictions shape how medicine is practiced, how health institutions are structured and function, and how health policy is designed and implemented. Dual training in philosophy and medicine is uncommon; even rarer is the clinician-philosopher—one who practices clinical medicine and uses philosophy as the tool for one’s research. Dr. Ross has made major contributions in the ethical and policy issues raised by pediatrics; organ transplantation; genetics; and human subjects protections. Her main focus has been an analytical examination of moral relationships and their implications for health care decision-making and health care policies.

In pediatrics, Dr. Ross wrote “Children, Families, and Health Care Decision Making” (Oxford University Press, 1998), which was the first full-length manuscript that addressed the moral underpinning of the triadic pediatric relationship between doctor, patient and parents. She rejected holding parents to a “best interest of the child” standard because it implies that there is an objective best interest and that we can know what is best for all children in all cases.  Instead, she offered a novel framework focused on constrained parental autonomy.  Her work has been cited widely. 

In transplantation, Dr. Ross was the lead author on the 1997 New England Journal of Medicine  publication on kidney paired exchange programs that currently accounts for over 1,400 transplants annually. She has co-authored the seminal books in deceased donor and living donor transplantation with Bob Veatch and Dick Thistlethwaite respectively.  

Dr. Ross has written or co-written five books and has published over 200 articles in the peer-reviewed literature and another 200 invited articles. She has served on numerous national and international committees in pediatrics, transplantation, and genetics. She was the 2009 recipient of the Patricia Price Brown Prize in Biomedical Ethics from the Oklahoma Health Sciences University, a 2014 recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, and the 2015 recipient of the William G. Bartholomew Award in Ethical Excellence from the American Academy of Pediatrics. Dr. Ross is married to John Ross, and they have two grown daughters.

Dr. Ross will be recognized at the Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine ceremony at 2 p.m. on Friday, May 12.

Michael T. Trese was selected to receive a Doctor of Science Honoris Causa.

Dr. Michael T. Trese was an adult and pediatric vitreoretinal surgeon who, throughout his nearly 40-year career, made numerous seminal contributions to the field of ophthalmology. Prior to his tenure, pediatric retinal detachments were largely considered hopeless and frequently culminated in irreversible blindness. His simple, yet brilliant observation that pediatric retinal detachments are guided by different principles than adult retinal detachments, has resulted in countless individuals maintaining their sight. These surgical techniques, in particular lens sparing vitrectomy, are now taught the world over. 

Through careful clinical observation, Dr. Trese, helped to define the classification criteria for several pediatric vitreoretinal diseases including, retinopathy of prematurity, X-Linked Congenital Retinoschisis and Familial Exudative Vitreoretinopathy. After defining these criteria, Dr. Trese worked diligently in the laboratory at the Eye Research Institute to develop the first Food and Drug Administration-approved pharmacologic agent for vitreolysis. Additional research conducted at the Pediatric Retinal Research Laboratory at Oakland University, has helped to understand and modulate a critical cellular signaling pathway within the retina that possesses the potential to unlock retinal regeneration.

Dr. Trese pioneered imaging systems and software which are used to acquire images and measure retinal landmarks in infants. These advancements paved the way for the tele-screening of premature infants with retinopathy of prematurity and promoted the use of telemedicine within the field of ophthalmology.        

In addition to his translational medicine success, Dr. Trese was a consummate educator. He held numerous positions within prestigious professional societies including being the Past President of the Retina Society and the Past President of The Club Jules Gonin. He gave countless invited lectures across the globe, wrote textbooks, book chapters and authored more than 300 peer-reviewed articles. He worked closely with the Italian Consulate and had a clinic in Rome where he trained Italian doctors regarding the medical and surgical management of pediatric retinal disease. Because of this, he was recognized by the Italian Government as a Cavailiere. In addition, he trained international research fellows from many other countries around the world. More recently, he was recognized by the American Academy of Ophthalmology as the 2022 Laureate Award recipient for his numerous contributions. Despite these accolades, Dr. Trese remained steadfast in the belief that his greatest contribution was the vitreoretinal surgical fellows that he trained. Because of all of this, Dr. Trese is largely regarded as the Father of Modern Pediatric Vitreoretinal Surgery.

To be a posthumous recipient of Oakland University’s highest honor, Doctor of Science, is a special capstone to a remarkable career. However, Dr. Trese’s scientific success did not occur without the dedicated support of the individuals at the Eye Research Institute and The Pediatric Retinal Research Laboratory. It is the sincere hope of the Trese family that Dr. Trese’s legacy will act as a foundation of scientific innovation that will make a direct impact in the lives of people with visual impairment.      

Dr. Trese will be recognized at the 2 p.m. ceremony on Friday, April 28, with his wife and son accepting the honor on his behalf. 

Honorary degrees are awarded by OU’s Board of Trustees in recognition of distinguished accomplishment and service within the scope of the arts and letters, sciences, professions and public service as recognized and supported by the University. The awarding of honorary degrees reaffirms Oakland University’s scholarly, creative and humanitarian values, and ties the university to the community at large.