Awards & Recognitions (Fall, 2008)
May 2008 – September 2008
For more information on these and many other faculty, student, alumni and staff awards, honors and recognitions, visit www.sph.unc.edu/school/recognitions.
Faculty
Dr. Myron S. Cohen , associate vice chancellor for global health and director of the Institute of Global Health and Infectious Diseases at UNC-Chapel Hill, received the O. Max Gardner Award on May 9, 2008, from the Board of Governors of the multicampus University of North Carolina.
Cohen is the J. Herbert Bate Distinguished Professor of medicine, microbiology and public health (epidemiology) and has served as director of the UNC School of Medicine’s Division of Infectious Diseases since 1989.
Recognized as a global authority on the transmission and prevention of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, Cohen was honored for his international leadership in advancing HIV research, treatment and prevention in countries around the world.
The Gardner award recognizes faculty who have “made the greatest contributions to the welfare of the human race.” Cohen was selected from among faculty at all 17 UNC campuses. The 2008 award carries a $20,000 cash prize.
Dr. Peggye Dilworth-Anderson , professor of health policy and management at the School, has been elected president of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA), a position she’ll assume in 2009. GSA promotes the scientific study of aging and fosters the use of gerontological research in forming public policy.
Dilworth-Anderson is associate director for aging and diversity in the UNC Institute on Aging and director of the Institute’s Center for Aging and Diversity (www.aging.unc.edu). She also chairs the Appointments, Promotions and Tenure Committee at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.
Dr. Cheryll D. Lesneski, clinical assistant professor in the School’s Public Health Leadership Program, received the 2008 Prudential-Davis Productivity Award. The awards program is a public-private initiative chaired by Florida’s lieutenant governor and sponsored by Florida Taxwatch, The Florida Council of 100 (a nonprofit advisory group) and the State of Florida.
The award recognizes state government employees whose work measurably increases productivity and promotes innovation. Lesneski worked recently with the Florida Department of Health to fine-tune its performance improvement process.
Dr. Barbara K. Rimer, dean of the School and Alumni Distinguished Professor of health behavior and health education, coedited the July 2008 supplement of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (Vol. 35, Issue 1).
Devoted to cancer screening and the translation of cancer research into practice in the community, the issue is titled “Increasing Screening for Breast, Cervical and Colorectal Cancers.”
Rimer and two other faculty members affiliated with the School — Dr. Cathy Melvin and Alexis Moore — contributed to the issue. Melvin is research associate professor of maternal and child health at the School and director of Child Health Services at the UNC Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research. Moore, an alumna of the School, is project director of the Dissemination Core at the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Abstracts of the articles are available at www.ajpm-online.net. Registered readers may access the complete text.
Dr. Pam Silberman, research associate professor of health policy and management at the School, was recognized with the sixth annual Ned Brooks Award for Public Service by the Carolina Center for Public Service in April 2008. Her research led to legislation concerning the state’s child health insurance law, dental care access, and insurance coverage for low-income populations. Silberman is president and chief executive officer of the North Carolina Institute of Medicine.
The Ned Brooks Award for Public Service, named for Dr. Edward F. (Ned) Brooks, associate professor of health policy and management at the School, recognizes faculty and staff who build sustained records of community service through individual efforts and promote involvement and guidance of others.
Megan Ellenson, 2008 graduate of the School’s master’s program in health behavior and health education, received the Robert E. Bryan Public Service Award from the Carolina Center for Public Service in April 2008. The award recognizes individual students and faculty for exemplary public service efforts.
While at Carolina, Ellenson worked with the Burmese immigrant community in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, N.C., to identify issues faced by these recent refugees. She later wrote a grant to support the children’s participation in a school-based art therapy program.
The American College of Emergency Physicians has recognized Dr. Judith E. Tintinalli, professor and founding chair in the department of emergency medicine at the UNC School of Medicine, as a “Hero of Emergency Medicine.” Tintinalli is adjunct professor of health policy and management in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.
The honor recognizes emergency physicians who have made significant contributions to emergency medicine, their communities and their patients. The American College of Emergency Physicians is a 25,000-member national medical specialty society representing emergency medicine.
UNC biostatistics professor Dr. Michael Kosorok has been appointed to the board of trustees of the National Institute of Statistical Sciences. Board members serve three years. Kosorok is chair of the Biostatistics Department at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and holds a joint appointment as professor of statistics and operations research in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences.
The National Institute of Statistical Sciences was established in 1990 by the national statistics societies and the Research Triangle universities and organizations. The organization seeks to confront complex scientific problems of national importance and to identify and foster cross-disciplinary, high-impact research involving the statistical sciences.
Staff
Brent Wishart, facilities coordinator at the School, received the School’s 2008 Staff Excellence Award this summer. His friends and coworkers honored him at a reception on July 18.
Wishart, who began working at the School in 2002, has helped oversee many renovation and construction tasks in Rosenau Hall and Michael Hooker Research Center during the last several years, while also serving as the “go-to” person for events planning, parking services, and other daily facilities issues. His efficiency, helpfulness and calm good humor were praised by School faculty and staff.
The Staff Excellence Award was first presented in 1991. A committee of staff members from throughout the School vote on nominees, using the criteria of leadership, initiative and attitude.
Students
School runners shine at Boston Marathon
Several members of the School community — including one fast-moving graduate student — modeled healthy behaviors recently when they participated in the 26-mile Boston Marathon on April 21, 2008.
Environmental sciences and engineering doctoral candidate Marc Jeuland finished 15th overall and third among American men in a field of more than 22,000 in the event. His time of 2 hours, 20 minutes, 57 seconds, was only 13 minutes longer than the first place runner, Robert Cheruiyot, of Kenya, who completed the course in 2:07.46.
Other participants from the School included:
- Patricia Drummey, recent environmental sciences and engineering master’s graduate, whose time was 3:30:13;
- Dr. David Leith, professor of environmental sciences and engineering and recent Greenberg Award winner, whose time was 3:51:34, 155th in his age division; and
- Dr. Harsha Thirumurthy, assistant professor of health policy and management, whose time, 2:35:58, placed him 99th among men in the race.
Kosha Rajesh Shah, a 2008 health policy and management graduate at the School, was among 125 UNC Chapel Hill students inducted into Phi Beta Kappa this spring. The organization is the nation’s oldest and most venerated honorary society.
Phi Beta Kappa membership is open to undergraduates in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences and professional degree programs who meet stringent eligibility requirements.
Dr. Jennifer Espiritu, a health care and prevention student in the School’s Public Health Leadership Program, has received the American College of Preventive Medicine’s (ACPM) Don Gemson Resident Award. The award recognizes individuals with outstanding achievement in community service, scholarship, research, teaching and leadership, who have strong potential for future contributions to preventive medicine.
Espiritu, an officer in the U.S. Navy and chief resident in the UNC Preventive Medicine Program, has served as a visiting scholar in the Department of Homeland Security. She currently works on a statewide quality-of-care initiative with the UNC Family Practice Department and the N.C. Academy of Family Physicians.
Alumni
Dr. Heather Munroe-Blum received an honorary doctor of science degree at the School’s spring 2008 commencement ceremony.
Munroe-Blum, principal and vice chancellor of McGill University in Montreal and an alumna of our School, was the School’s 2008 commencement speaker. She earned her doctorate in epidemiology from the School in 1983.
A specialist in psychiatric epidemiology, Munroe-Blum has held faculty positions at the University of Toronto and York University. She has led large-scale epidemiological investigations of the distribution, prevention, course and treatment of major psychiatric disorders. Her work in the field has earned her major support from the National Institute of Mental Health, the Canadian National Health Research and Development Program.
Dr. Philip Palmer Green III received an honorary doctor of science degree at the School’s spring 2008 commencement ceremony.
Green, a Chapel Hill native, worked in the School’s biostatistics department early in his career. Currently, he is professor of genome sciences at the University of Washington and an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Credited with key algorithms and software tools that made possible the systematic analysis of complex genomes, Green received an undergraduate degree from Harvard and a doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley.
Nobel Prize winner Dr. James D. Watson stated that, “without his (Green’s) Phred and Prap computation tools, the assembly of the human genome would have moved ahead much more hesitantly, if not chaotically.”
Carolina for Kibera honored with Oklahoma’s Reflections of Hope Award
The Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum honored Carolina for Kibera, Inc., as recipient of its 2008 Reflections of Hope Award. The award, established in 2005 as part of the 10th anniversary commemoration of the Oklahoma City bombing, honors a living person or group whose extraordinary work has significantly impacted a community, state or nation. The award also exemplifies that “hope not only survives but also thrives in the wake of political violence.” It includes a $25,000 honorarium which may be used for program development.
Alumni of our School are among Carolina for Kibera’s (CFK) leaders. Kim Chapman, who received a Bachelor of Science degree from the Department of Health Policy and Management and a Master of Public Health from the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education at UNC, is chair of CFK’s board of directors. The organization was founded by U.S. Marine Captain Rye Barcott and Executive Director Salim Mohamed, from Kenya.
Established in 2001, CFK is an international, nongovernmental organization based in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya. In the United States, CFK is an affiliated program of the UNC Center for Global Initiatives.
Run by Kenyans and advised by American and Kenyan volunteers, the organization promotes youth leadership and ethnic and gender cooperation in Kibera through sports, young women’s empowerment, and community development. CFK also works to improve basic health care, sanitation and education in Kibera. Serving as a model for holistic, community-based urban development worldwide, CFK has helped grassroots organizations develop youthbased programs in six other nations and dozens of communities in Kenya.
For more information on Carolina for Kibera, visit http://cfk.unc.edu.
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Carolina Public Health is a publication of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health. To subscribe to Carolina Public Health or to view the entire Fall 2008 issue in PDF, visit www.sph.unc.edu/cph.