April 21, 2003

Health Center Board To Recognize Faculty
By Kristina Goodnough

The Health Center's Board of Directors has established an award to celebrate and acknowledge excellence in faculty members.

Recipients of the new Board of Directors Faculty Recognition Award will receive a $10,000 prize and their names will be displayed on a permanent plaque in a public area of the Health Center.

"Those who receive the award will be recognized as role models to be emulated for their excellence in all parts of their personal and professional lives," said Peter Deckers, executive vice president for clinical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, chair of the seven-person committee that will accept nominations and recommend potential award recipients to the Board of Directors.

Claire Leonardi, chair of the Health Center's Board of Directors noted that the past few years have been extremely challenging, as declining federal reimbursements, compounded by the state's fiscal troubles, forced dramatic economies on the Health Center. "These troubled times required remarkable discipline and clarity from the entire faculty," Leonardi said. "This award is an opportunity to recognize the excellence that is crucial to the Health Center's success."

The award will go to a faculty member who has demonstrated outstanding, sustained (at least three to five years) accomplishment in two or more of the following areas: clinical care, research, education, community service, and administrative service to the Health Center. To be eligible, the faculty member must have been a full-time employee of either the School of Medicine or the School of Dental Medicine for at least three years.

The award may be offered each year and will be announced and presented during the Commencement ceremony for the Schools of Medicine and Dental Medicine.

The first recipient of the award will be announced next month.

Said Deckers: "This award celebrates significant sustained medical intelligence, innovative and creative skills, important academic contributions and scholarship, altruism, and superb mentorship of trainees - all core components of the consummate medical professional."