Awards
- Honorary Degree (2019)
- L.H.D.
- Doctor of Humane Letters
- IUPUI Spring Commencement
- Indianapolis, Indiana
About Donald Berwick
A graduate of Harvard College, Dr. Donald Berwick holds a master of public policy degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government and an MD from Harvard Medical School. He is considered one of the nation's leading authorities on health care quality and improvement, and is president emeritus and a senior fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. In July 2010, President Barack Obama appointed him as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a role he held until December 2011.
Berwick served as a clinical professor of pediatrics and health care policy at Harvard Medical School, as a professor of health policy and management at the Harvard School of Public Health, and as a staff member of Boston's Children's Hospital Medical Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Brigham and Women's Hospital. He was vice chair of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, the first independent member of the Board of Trustees of the American Hospital Association, and chair of the National Advisory Council of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. He is an elected member of the American Philosophical Society and of the National Academy of Medicine. He served on President Bill Clinton's Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Healthcare Industry.
Berwick's awards include the 1999 Joint Commission's Ernest Amory Codman Award, the 2002 American Hospital Association's Award of Honor, the 2006 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award for Individual Achievement from the National Quality Forum, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the 2012 Gustav O. Lienhard Award, and the 2013 Nathan Davis Award.
In recognition of his work with the British National Health Service, in 2005, Queen Elizabeth II appointed him Honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire, the highest honor awarded by the United Kingdom to non-British subjects. As author or co-author of over 160 scientific articles and six books, he currently serves as a lecturer in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School.
He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters at the spring commencement ceremony at IUPUI for outstanding achievement in the arts and humanities, and for community engagement and public service.