Awards & More

Issue Date: 
August 26, 2009

Ann Dugan, founder and director of Pitt’s Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence (IEE), received Ernst & Young LLP’s Entrepreneur of the Year award for the upstate New York, Western Pennsylvania, and West Virginia region. Through her work at IEE, Dugan has been instrumental in developing essential infrastructure for entrepreneurs that enables the growth and sustainability of businesses.

Audrey Murrell,
a professor and director of the University of Pittsburgh’s David Berg Center for Ethics and Leadership, was recently awarded the U.S. Small Business Administration Minority Small Business Champion Award. The award recognizes Murrell’s volunteer and research efforts to advance the small-business interests of underrepresented populations within the community, state, and beyond.

Yuting Zhang,
an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Public Health’s Department of Health Policy and Management, received the Excellence in Mental Health Policy and Economics Research Award from the International Center of Mental Health Policy and Economics. She received the award for her article “Cost-Saving Effects of Olanzapine as Long-Term Treatment for Bipolar Disorder,” published in the Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics.

Anthony P. Yates, an assistant clinical professor in Pitt’s School of Medicine and a Pittsburgh Steelers team physician, was awarded the Jerry “Hawk” Rhea Award by the National Football League (NFL) Physicians Society. The award is presented each year to an NFL team physician for distinguished years of service to the respective team, the NFL, and long-standing relationships with the members of the Professional Football Athletic Trainers Society.

Kathy S. Magdic, coordinator of the Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Area of Concentration, Pitt School of Nursing, was elected president of the Nurse Practitioner Association of Southwestern Pennsylvania. The organization’s members comprise  nurse practitioners who work in many clinical settings.

Stephen Strom, a professor of cellular and molecular pathology in the School of Medicine’s Department of Pathology, was elected president of the Cell Transplantation Society, an international organization that promotes research and collaboration in cellular transplantation and regenerative medicine throughout the world.. Strom also is the Hepatocytes section editor for Cell Transplantation: The Regenerative Medicine Journal.

Jinhan He, a postdoctoral research associate in the School of Pharmacy’s Center for Pharmacogenetics, was selected to receive the American Liver Foundation (ALF) Irwin M. Arias, M.D., Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. Only eight scholars nationwide are selected for the fellowship each year. The ALF’s mission is to promote education, support, and research for the prevention, treatment, and cure of liver disease.

Mark W. Ochs, a professor, associate dean, and chair, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, School of Dental Medicine, received the American Dental Association’s 2009 Golden Apple Award for Inspiring Careers in Dental Education. This student-nominated award is presented nationally to one individual each year.

Richard Henker, a professor and vice chair of Acute and Tertiary Care, School of Nursing, and nurse anesthetist, UPMC Presbyterian, received a 2009 Health Volunteers Overseas (HVO) Golden Apple Award. The award honors volunteers’ extraordinary educational contributions to international program sites. Henker was recognized for his volunteer work in Cambodia’s Angkor Children’s Hospital, where he trained Cambodian nurse anesthetists to improve their anesthesia care and to share their knowledge with others. He also is responsible for the recruitment and design of a nurse anesthesia program in Bhutan that began earlier this year.

Eugene N. Myers,
a professor in the School of Medicine’s Department of Otolaryngology, received a gold medal from the International Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies for his international work with otolaryngology. This award was presented at the XIX World Congress of Otolaryngology in São Paǒlo, Brazil.

Fadi G. Lakkis,
a professor of surgery and immunology in the School of Medicine and scientific director of the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute, received the American Society of Transplantation (AST) Basic Science Established Investigator Award at the Professor Level. Recipients of AST’s 2009 Achievement Awards were selected for the originality, innovation, and commitment they bring to the field of transplantation.

G. Kelley Fitzgerald, a professor in the Department of Physical Therapy, received the American Physical Therapy Association’s (APTA) 2009 Catherine Worthingham Fellow Award. A member of the orthopaedic and research sections of APTA, he also is the 2001 recipient of APTA’s Dorothy Briggs Memorial Scientific Inquiry Award and the 2002 Manuscript Reviewer of the Year Award from Physical Therapy, the scientific journal of APTA.

Lewis Kuller, Distinguished Professor of Public Health and professor of epidemiology in the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, was named a 2009 American Heart Association Distinguished Scientist for major contributions to cardiovascular disease and stroke research. For more than 40 years, Kuller has studied risk factors for individuals with heart disease and the development of atherosclerosis and heart disease. He established and directed the Healthy Women’s Study, the first and longest study of women from pre- to post-menopause. He also is nationally recognized for his contributions to the study of cardiovascular disease and the use of noninvasive techniques, such as ultrasound and coronary computed tomography, to detect early heart disease in people without symptoms.