Students and Community

Honoring Distinguished Achievement

Ewa Matuszewski, SHS BOARD member, awarded the Honorary Doctor of Science degree

A group of people holding a degree

InHealth

icon of a calendarMarch 1, 2023

icon of a pencilBy Jillian Wolf

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At Fall 2022 Commencement, Oakland University was pleased to award Ewa Matuszewski with the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science, Honoris causa.  

The honorary doctorate degree is awarded to individuals who have significantly impacted the University through momentous intellectual, cultural, aesthetic, social and civic contributions. 

Dr. Matuszewski was introduced by Oakland University President Ora Hirsch Pescovitz at commencement, with Provost Britt Rios-Ellis and Dean Kevin Ball of the School of Health Sciences assisting in the investiture. 

As the CEO and co-founder of MedNetOne Health Solutions, Ewa has enjoyed a long professional and service relationship with Oakland University. She is the founding Chairperson of the School of Health Sciences BOARD (Board Of Advocacy and Resource Development). In 2017, she was invited by Oakland University to give the Commencement Address. As a professional leader in southeast Michigan, she has helped champion innovative primary care and chronic initiatives and served as a practice mentor with the American Academy of Family Physicians’ Practice Enhancement Forum. Other achievements include being a guest lecturer at the Doctors’ Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program, a member of the Michigan Primary Care Consortium, and co-chair of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Physician Group Incentive Program (PGIP) Patient Centered Medical Home Committee. Additionally, she is a founding member of the Michigan Stanford Chronic Disease Self-Management Program Master Trainers Organization, American Medical Group Association and the Michigan Primary Care Consortium. 

Ewa accepted the honorary doctorate degree in honor of her parents, Polish immigrants who endured severe hardship in their young adult years. “From their want, and in learning to make their way in America,” says Dr. Matuszewski, “they instilled in me a world view and a voracious desire for learning and being taught.”

In her acceptance speech, Dr. Matuszewski stressed the importance of mentorship and how it can be a gift to both the mentor and the mentee. She encouraged graduates to pursue a mentoring relationship, saying that “having a mentor by your side or being a mentor yourself may lead to decades of successes and contentment on your journey.” Ewa is grateful to one of her earliest mentors, the late Myra Lenard, who taught her many life lessons and helped her become her best self.

We congratulate Dr. Matuszewski, our newest Honorary Doctor of Science, on her outstanding accomplishment and thank her for her contributions to not only Oakland University but society as a whole.

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