Dr. Michael Curry, Peter Pereira ('92), and Captain Scott Tingle ('87) to be honored during 2025 Doctoral Ceremony
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As part of UMass Dartmouth's 2025 Commencement celebrations, the University will award honorary degrees—the highest award that the University can bestow—to Dr. Michael Curry, Peter Pereira ('92), and Captain Scott Tingle ('87) during the Doctoral Commencement ceremony on May 15 at 4 p.m. in the Main Campus Auditorium.
These individuals were selected because of their extraordinary impact on their professions, civic and cultural life, and higher education.
Dr. Michael A. Curry, Esq., President & CEO, Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers
Dr. Michael Curry, Esq. is President & CEO of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers, which represents 52 health centers, serving over one million patients out of over 300 practice sites. He was named one of the Boston Business Journal's Power 50 Movement Makers of 2023 and 2022, one of Boston's Most Influential Men of Color by Get Konnected! and one of Boston Magazine's 150 Most Influential Bostonians in 2023, and a Bostonian of the Year in 2021 (along with his member health centers) by The Boston Globe and Boston Magazine. During the early battle with the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Curry was appointed by the Massachusetts Senate to the legislatively created Health Equity Task Force, which he co-chaired, aimed at addressing the health disparities that have been realized and magnified by COVID-19. He was also appointed by then Governor Charlie Baker to the COVID-19 Vaccine Working Group and served on the Department of Public Health's Health Equity Advisory Group, the City of Boston's Health Inequity Task Force, and the City of Brockton's Social Justice Task Force. These experiences led him to co-found the Health Equity Compact (HEC), a collection of over 80 C-suite leaders of color aimed at driving health equity reform in Massachusetts.
Peter Pereira ('92), Award-winning photographer & photojournalist for the New Bedford Standard-Times
Peter Pereira is an award-winning photographer for the New Bedford Standard-Times. Born in Figueira da Foz, Portugal, he immigrated to the New Bedford in 1978 at the age of eight. Pereira graduated from UMass Dartmouth in 1992 with a degree in computer engineering and initially started his own computer company. However, in 1998, he decided to pursue his true passion: photography. Since then, Pereira's photographs have been featured in numerous prestigious publications, including Time, Newsweek, US News and World Report, Vogue (Australia), The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Observer (UK), Le Monde, The Boston Globe, Courrier International, International Herald Tribune, Harvard Magazine, News Photographer Magazine, Outdoor Magazine, Shutterbug Magazine, MSNBC.com, CNN.com, ABCNews.com, FoxNews.com, and CNN's Anderson Cooper 360. In 2016, Pereira was awarded the Medal of the Order of Infante D. Henrique by the President of Portugal, Aníbal Cavaco Silva. He has been recognized as the National Press Photographers Association - New England Region Photographer of the Year eight times between 2006 and 2016 and was named the New England Newspaper & Press Association Photographer of the Year twelve times between 2004 and 2020.
Scott D. Tingle ('87), NASA Astronaut and U.S. Navy Captain
Scott D. Tingle, raised in Randolph, Massachusetts, is a distinguished NASA astronaut and U.S. Navy Captain. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Southeastern Massachusetts University in 1987. Before his commission as a naval officer in 1991, Tingle worked at the Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, California, focusing on propulsion systems. Tingle contributed to the FA-18E/F Super Hornet program and served with Carrier Air Wing Eleven on the USS Carl Vinson during the initial air response to the September 11, 2001, attacks and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Over his military career, he accumulated more than 4,500 flight hours in 51 aircraft types, 750 carrier arrestments, and 54 combat missions. Selected by NASA in 2009 as part of the 20th astronaut class, Tingle underwent extensive training, including International Space Station (ISS) systems, spacewalks, and robotics. He served as a Flight Engineer for Expeditions 54 and 55 aboard the International Space Station from December 17, 2017, to June 3, 2018. During this mission, he participated in a 7-hour, 24-minute spacewalk to replace a latching end effector on the station's robotic arm and conducted numerous scientific experiments. In 2020, Tingle was selected as part of NASA's Artemis Team, aiming to return humans to the Moon and establish a sustainable lunar presence by the decade's end.