As schools and families across the county celebrate graduation season, Sheriff Peter J. Koutoujian and the Middlesex Sheriff’s Office received a unique, international academic honor for pioneering and innovative leadership in public service.
Recognizing his 15 years of work in building public-private partnerships, Spain’s Universidad de Alcalá presented Sheriff Koutoujian with the university’s Honorary Silver Medal for the 2025-26 academic year.
The Universidad de Alcalá was founded in 1499 by Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros to be the crown jewel of the Spanish higher education system. Its students over the centuries have included luminaries such as the writer Antonio de Nebrija, physician Francisco Valles de Covarrubias, and two saints in Ignatius of Loyola and Juan de la Cruz. Its best known patron, Miguel de Cervantes, lived by the institution for decades. The university awards the Cervantes Prize every year, considered Spain’s highest honor in literature.
Today the university serves nearly 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Its status as one of the first-ever planned university campuses also earned the school a designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998.
Sheriff Koutoujian was honored alongside Ambassador Alfredo Martínez Serrano, Spain’s emissary to Canada, as well as Belén Garijo, the CEO of Sanofi Pharmaceuticals and alumnae of the Universidad de Alcalá. University Rector José Vicente Saz presented the Silver Honorary Award to Sheriff Koutoujian and spoke to his enduring efforts to promote the Middlesex Sheriff’s Office locally and globally.
“It was a pleasure to honor Sheriff Koutoujian as this year’s Silver Honorary Medal recipient on behalf of the Universidad de Alcalá,” said Rector José Vicente Saz. “His dedication to academic partnerships, mentorship and scholarship, and the universal values of public service made him a deserving honoree. We are proud to recognize his accomplishments from Massachusetts to Madrid.”
In addition to receiving the medal during a formal ceremony, the Sheriff also spoke on lessons of leadership in public service at a conference organized by the university and the Franklin-UAH Institute, an academic program focused on North American studies.
“I am incredibly humbled to be presented with the prestigious Silver Honorary medal,” said Sheriff Koutoujian. “Public service isn’t a job, it’s a calling. I never expected that calling would bring me honorifics from a Spanish university, but I did always know it was the most noble thing I could do with my life. From serving as a bar advocate, an assistant district attorney, a state legislator and now as sheriff, I have never lost the sense of reverence for public service that I learned from two of the best civil servants I have known: my parents Connie and Peter. I’ve been fortunate to have a career that has allowed me to help my neighbors, serve my community and hopefully make the Commonwealth a better, healthier place to live.”
To learn more about Sheriff Koutoujian and the Middlesex Sheriff’s Office, please visit www.middlesexsheriff.org.
