UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN
HONORARY CONFERRING
Tuesday, 1 September 2015 at 2.30 p.m.
TEXT OF THE INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS DELIVERED BY PROFESSOR CIARÁN Ó hÓGARTAIGH on 1 September 2015, on the occasion of the conferring of the Degree of Doctor of Literature, honoris causa on MICHAEL J. DOWLING
President, Honoured Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
When we award honorary degrees, the University signals what we value. In particular, on a day like today, we reflect on what we want our graduates to bring with them in to the world. In the case of Michael J. Dowling, his is a life of resilience, determination and hard work. For us as educators, these are attributes that are challenging to teach but that we hope we have cherished, encouraged and inculcated during your time with us here at UCD and at the UCD Lochlann Quinn School of Business.
Michael J. Dowling was born in the rural village of Knockaderry in Co. Limerick, the eldest of five children. He won a National League title in hurling with Limerick in 1971 – by the time that tram went on to win an All-Ireland, Mike had gone to the US. In an interview with Irish America, he recalls how he grew up in thatched cottage without indoor plumbing and electricity, as he remarked in an Irish Times interview, the kind of place we now build for tourists.
Today, he is president and chief executive officer of the (opens in a new window)North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System. Headquartered in (opens in a new window)Great Neck, (opens in a new window)New York, North Shore-LIJ is the largest integrated health system in New York State, based on patient revenue, and the 14th largest healthcare system in the United States. Its service area encompasses more than eight million people throughout the New York metropolitan area. With more than 54,000 employees, North Shore-LIJ is the largest private employer in New York State. Before joining North Shore-LIJ in 1995, he was a senior vice president at (opens in a new window)Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield.
Mike served in New York State government for 12 years, including seven years as state director of Health, Education and Human Services and deputy secretary to former governor (opens in a new window)Mario Cuomo. He was also commissioner of the (opens in a new window)New York State Department of Social Services.
A graduate of UCC and of Fordham University, before his public service career, he was a professor of social policy and assistant dean at the (opens in a new window)Fordham University Graduate School of Social Services and director of the Fordham campus in Westchester County.
He has received the 2012 (opens in a new window)B'nai B'rith National Healthcare Award, the 2011 Gail L. Warden Leadership Excellence Award from the (opens in a new window)National Center for Healthcare Leadership (NCHL), the 2011 CEO Information Technology Award from (opens in a new window)Modern Healthcare magazine and the (opens in a new window)Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, the National Human Relations Award from the (opens in a new window)American Jewish Committee, the (opens in a new window)Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Public Service Award from the (opens in a new window)State University of New York’s (opens in a new window)Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, an Outstanding Public Service Award from the Mental Health Association of New York State, an Outstanding Public Service Award from the Mental Health Association of Nassau County, the (opens in a new window)Alfred E. Smith Award from the (opens in a new window)American Society for Public Administration, and the Gold Medal from the (opens in a new window)American Irish Historical Society.
He is a member of the (opens in a new window)Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. He served as chairman of the North American Board of the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School from 2011 until 2014. He also serves as a board member of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and board member and Fellow of the (opens in a new window)New York Academy of Medicine. Dowling is also past chairman and current board member of the (opens in a new window)National Centre for Healthcare Leadership, the Greater New York Hospital Association, the Healthcare Association of New York State and the League of Voluntary Hospitals of New York.
Throughout his career, he is a man who has cherished education, from his own determination as a young man to go to College, his continuing, life-long education as a part-time student of social policy at Fordham University, his bringing together of Hoftra University to the North Shore-LIJ family to form the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine and his service to us as Chairman of the North American Advisory Board of UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School.
In that context, one of the things that always struck me about Mike is that, every year, at the UCD Smurfit School Annual Dinner in New York, the North Shore-LIJ table would be a table of nurses from the hospital, a signal for me that here is a man who has not forgotten his roots, has not forgotten what matters and who matters and shows the respect of a decent member of the human race for those around him.
Above all, however, here is a man who is resilient, determined and hard working, emblematic of generations of Irish who went away and not only found but made – etched out –a better life on foreign shores. He is also an example of a man with a social policy background who has worked – and who leads – at the interface and at the coalface of medicine and business. This is a life that teaches us what we don’t get in textbooks:
For his resilience, determination and hard work, I am proud to present to you Michael J. Dowling for the award of an honorary degree.
Praehonorabilis Praeses, totaque Universitas,
Praesento vobis hunc meum filium, quem scio tam moribus quam doctrina habilem et idoneum esse qui admittatur, honoris causa, ad Gradum Doctoratus Scientiae; idque tibi fide mea testor ac spondeo, totique Academiae.