John Carroll University Announces Commencement Speaker

From JCU: Father Myles Sheehan, S.J., M.D., assistant to the Provincial for Senior Jesuits of the Maryland Province and the USA Northeast Province, will present the keynote address at John Carroll University’s 2017 commencement on Sunday, May 21, at 11 a.m.

Fr. Sheehan is a physician with specialties in Internal Medicine and Geriatrics. In his role at the Maryland Province and the USA Northeast Province, he works alongside provincial assistants to oversee healthcare centers and strengthen the overall care for the older Jesuits. He is an alumnus of Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Medical School. After his residency at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, Fr. Sheehan entered the Society of Jesus in 1985. Fr. Sheehan also earned a master’s degree in philosophy and health care ethics from Loyola University Chicago. Later, he served as a fellow at Harvard Medical School’s Geriatric Program and earned a Master of Divinity degree from the Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Massachusetts.

After his ordination in 1994, Fr. Sheehan was assigned to Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago, where he served briefly as director of the section of Internal Medicine and became senior associate dean of the medical school in 2000. Between 2000 and 2009, Fr. Sheehan became a professor of medicine, was named the Ralph Leischner Professor of Medical Education, and served as director of the Leischner Institute for Medical Education. During this time, he continued his practice as a geriatric physician and was actively involved in teaching and developing curricula for improving palliative care, with a focus on Catholic hospitals in the U.S. He served as Provincial of the New England Province from 2009 to December 2014, when the New England and New York Provinces merged to create the USA Northeast Province.

Although he no longer actively practices medicine, Fr. Sheehan is a member of the board of trustees for Mercy Health (Cincinnati, Ohio) and continues to be involved in writing and speaking on issues of health care, medical ethics, end of life care, and spirituality. He has also hosted “Aging Gracefully,” a miniseries that addressed the needs of the elderly, which aired on CatholicTV.

The success of the John Carroll’s Pre-Health Professions Program will be highlighted during the ceremony, and the University will confer honorary degrees on the following alumni who have excelled in the medical field:

• Michael R. Anderson, M.D., ’86, President of UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in San Francisco
• Robert Hostoffer, D.O., ’81, Physician at Allergy Immunology Associates (South Euclid, OH)
• Robert “Bob” S. Juhasz, D.O., ’77, Physician at Willoughby Hills Family Health Center (Cleveland Clinic)
• George Lewandowski, M.D., ’78 Physician-in-Residence, John Carroll University
• Holly B. Perzy, M.D., ’85 Vice President of care delivery and Executive Director of MH Select at MetroHealth Medical Center

Photo courtesy of the Jesuits USA Northeast Province