May 3, 2017
Congratulations to Donald G. Therasse, BSPharm’78, MD, who has been named the 2017 Alumni Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award winner.

Donald G. Therasse, BSPharm’78, MD, has been named the 2017 Alumni Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award winner. This award honors alumni who have made significant lifetime contributions to their profession or society through practice, research, education, or public service.

Dr. Therasse, has been a consultant and strategic advisor with YourEncore, a life sciences consulting firm since early 2014.  Prior to that, he spent 26 years with Eli Lilly and Company.  He joined Lilly as a clinical research physician in the infectious diseases division, and subsequently held positions as medical director for infectious diseases research and the infectious diseases global business unit, director of infectious diseases discovery research and clinical investigation, and executive director of the US medical division. Later he assumed a newly created role of vice president, global medical affairs, where he built a central organization that oversaw and coordinated the medical affairs resources and responsibilities across Lilly’s global affiliate offices.  As vice president, global patient safety and bioethics, he established the company’s internal bioethics program and chaired the bioethics advisory committee.

Dr. Therasse received both a BS degree in pharmacy and his MD degree from the University of Michigan. He trained as an intern and resident in internal medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle and did a subspecialty fellowship in infectious diseases at the University of Michigan Medical Center.

Dr. Therasse has received several honors and awards including the Merck Award in Pharmacy, the Upjohn Award in Pharmacy, the Carl V. Weller Award in Pathology, and the William Dodd Robinson Award for Excellence in Internal Medicine, all at the University of Michigan.  At Lilly, he was recognized with the Lilly Research Laboratories President’s Award, and in 2004, received the Chairman’s Ovation Award. Dr. Therasse is a member of the American Society for Microbiology and the Infectious Diseases Society of America and a member of the adjunct faculty at the Berman Institute of Bioethics at Johns Hopkins University.