From President Frank H. Wu:

I am pleased to announce the presidential medal recipients at this year’s Baccalaureate and Commencement ceremonies. At the Baccalaureate ceremony on Tuesday, May 27, I will present a presidential medal to Douglas Ress ’76, Esq. At commencement on Thursday, May 29, a presidential medal will be presented to journalist and educator Errol Louis who will also be the keynote speaker. The presidential medal is the highest administrative honor at Queens College. 

Douglas Evan Ress ’76, Esq. is of counsel at the firm Coren & Ress, P.C. A co-founding shareholder of the firm and member of the Bar Association in New York and Pennsylvania, Douglas’s practice is in the area of commercial, personal injury, and other litigation matters. In 2024, Douglas was appointed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court as a board member of the Pennsylvania Lawyers Fund for Client Security whose mission is to reimburse victims of attorney dishonesty in the practice of law. He has served the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in several capacities, including as member, vice president, treasurer, and chair of the court’s Continuing Legal Education Board, which also appointed him to the court’s Investment Advisory Board. In addition, he served as hearing officer for the Pennsylvania Disciplinary Board, federal arbitrator for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and judge pro tem in the Dispute Resolution Center of the Philadelphia County Court of Common Plea. In 2023, he was inducted as a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, an invitation-only institution drawn from the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Among his many accolades, in 2022, he was recognized by The Best Lawyers in America as Philadelphia’s only Lawyer of the Year in bet-the-company litigation, and he has been included annually in The Best Lawyers of America in the field of commercial litigation since 2007 and in the field of bet-the-company litigation since 2015. He has been repeatedly recognized as a Pennsylvania “Super Lawyer” in Philadelphia Magazine. Douglas earned his JD at Georgetown University Law Center. At Queens College, Douglas was the first state finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship and was a co-recipient of the Alumni Association’s Athlete-Scholar Award. In 2012, he was inducted as one of nine inaugural Members of the Queens College Athletics Hall of Fame. Among his many philanthropic pursuits, Douglas and his wife Amy Ress support Queens College students in music and athletics with full scholarships, and they are angel investors for the Queens College Foundation. In 2023, Douglas became a trustee of the Queens College Foundation. His achievements as a scholar, athlete, lawyer, arbitrator and mediator, administrator, and philanthropist bring great distinction to his alma mater.

Errol Louis has educated generations of Americans on politics and urban life. For years he has been a tireless print and broadcast journalist, anchor, and host, a podcaster, teacher, community organizer, and philanthropist in New York and nationally, whose integrity, clarity, and acute political analysis have earned the respect of citizens, fellow journalists, and civic leaders. A son of a police officer and bookkeeper, Errol rose from the middle class, earning an MA in political science from Yale, and a JD from Brooklyn Law School. An accomplished print reporter, he began writing columns as a student at Harvard. He became a columnist for Our Time Press, a weekly published in Bedford-Stuyvesant, then became associate editor of the New York Sun. He joined the New York Daily News in 2004, where he served as a columnist and editorial board member. He is a contributing writer to Vital City, dedicated to informed urban policy, and is a columnist for New York magazine. He was formerly host of the Morning Show on radio station WWRL and, since 2008, has been a CNN contributor, providing on-air commentary for breaking news ranging from presidential primaries to election night. Nationally known for his political acumen, he served as moderator in the 2016 Democratic debate between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. He is political anchor of Spectrum News NY1, where he hosts “Inside City Hall,” a nightly show featuring interviews with New York’s political and cultural leaders, and “The Big Deal,” a national politics show. Since 2019 he has hosted “You Decide with Errol Louis,” a weekly podcast offering in-depth discussions of politics and culture. A community leader, Errol co-founded the Central Brooklyn Federal Credit Union, and, with the endorsement of The New York Times, ran for a seat on the city council on the Green Party ticket. Today he is chair of the board of trustees at the Charles H. Revson Foundation, which awards grants in support of education, urban affairs, biomedical research, and Jewish philanthropy. Errol has been honored with numerous journalism awards, including a commentary award from the New York Association of Black Journalists. Errol teaches at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, and has taught at the Pratt Institute, Hunter College, Long Island University, and New York University. As an advocate for “more trained journalists,” he wrote in his farewell Daily News column, “The main check on bad behavior by the powerful—sometimes, the only check—is an informed citizenry.”

I hope you will join us at Baccalaureate and Commencement when we will have the opportunity to see these inspirational individuals be honored for their achievements.