April 05, 2011
William Zelman, PhD, and Peter J. Kolsky, PhD, have received UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health’s most prestigious awards for faculty members and alumni.
 
Zelman, recipient of the Greenberg Alumni Endowment Award for Excellence in teaching, research and service, and Kolsky, selected for the Barr Distinguished Alumni Award for achievements and contributions to the field of public health, were honored at the School’s annual Fred T. Foard Jr. Memorial Lecture on March 31.
 
The Greenberg Award

Dr. Bill Zelman (left) accepts the Greenberg Award from health policy and management colleague Dr. John Paul.

Dr. Bill Zelman (left) accepts the Greenberg Award from health policy and management colleague Dr. John Paul.

Zelman, professor of health policy and management, has been a member of the UNC faculty for more than 30 years. He has received the School’s John E. Larsh Jr. Award for Mentorship (2010) and McGavran Award for Excellence in Teaching (2000). In 2009, he was awarded a Gillings Innovation Laboratory grant for the project, “Teaching and Training in Public Health in the 21st Century.”

“In most every student’s life,” said School alumnus Fred T. Brown Jr., MPH, in his nomination letter, “there are one or two teachers who make learning exciting, the future intriguing, who help develop the self-esteem and intestinal fortitude that is the difference between great success and mediocrity. Dr. Bill Zelman is that teacher to so many of the graduates of the Gillings School of Global Public Health.”

 
The Greenberg Award was established by the School’s alumni association to honor Dr. Bernard G. Greenberg, founder and chair of the Department of Biostatistics from 1949 to 1972 and dean of the School from 1972 to 1982. The award is given annually to an outstanding full-time faculty member for excellence in the areas of teaching, research and service.
 
The Barr Award

Dr. Pete Kolsky

Dr. Pete Kolsky

Peter Kolsky has worked for the public sector (the World Bank, the government of Mozambique), the private sector (Camp Dresser & McKee; James M. Montgomery Consulting Engineers), civil society organizations (OXFAM, Church World Service, Catholic Relief Services) and academia (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine at the University of London).

“Working in each of these types of institutions has helped me to understand better their differing roles, perspectives and constraints,” he says.

Now, Kolsky is senior water and sanitation specialist with the World Bank, working in the Latin American and Caribbean regions.

“Pete Kolsky epitomizes what our school of public health aims to produce in its graduates – professional service in public health of the highest caliber for the neediest and most disadvantaged people of the world,” said Donald Lauria, PhD, professor emeritus of environmental sciences and engineering at the School.

“Time and again, Dr. Kolsky has offered his service to the students of Engineers Without Borders (EWB),” says Ryan Kingsbury, MS, past president of UNC’s EWB chapter. “The fact that…he has chosen to share himself with a student organization evinces an admirable degree of humility, character and commitment to service.”

“Nobody has childhood dreams of designing sewage works or building pit latrines, but I grew up in an era when Peace Corps ads on TV hit a nerve,” Kolsky said. “Early in my career, I met a lot of wonderful people, I liked the feel of international development, and rural water supply and sanitation seemed like a relatively honest way to make a living.”

 
Established in 1975, the Barr Award recognizes the achievements of alumni and their contributions to public health. For many years, the alumni award has carried the name of its 1980 recipient – the late Harriet Hylton Barr – to honor her contributions to the field. The Barr Award recognizes leadership, experimentation, collaboration and innovation within the profession; impact within the practice arena; and outstanding service beyond the requirements of the recipient’s employment.
 
 

UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu.

 

 

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