For the Record: Cheers

Cheers is a monthly listing of honors and awards received by faculty, staff and students plus recent appointments and promotions. Contributions must be submitted in writing and be accompanied by a phone number.

 

American Heart Association Honors Hopkins Cardiologist Myron Weisfeldt

The American Heart Association has honored Johns Hopkins cardiologist and chief of medicine Myron L. Weisfeldt with its James B. Herrick Award for outstanding achievement in clinical cardiology. The award was presented to Weisfeldt during the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2004, held in November in New Orleans.

The Herrick Award, consisting of a medallion and citation, is among the most prestigious AHA awards, given to one physician each year for achievements that have contributed to the practice of cardiology. Weisfeldt is the second Johns Hopkins cardiologist to be honored with the Herrick Award: Richard S. Ross, dean emeritus of the School of Medicine and former chair of Cardiology, was the recipient in 1982.

"The Herrick Award is important because it is named for the physician who discovered the link between diseases of the coronary arteries and heart attack. Dr. Weisfeldt has carried on in that tradition with important work in the physiology of cardiac resuscitation," Ross said.

Among his many accomplishments, Weisfeldt led efforts to make automated external cardiac defibrillators more widely available. His discoveries have been incorporated into the AHA's guidelines for CPR and advanced cardiac life support. He is also acknowledged for his mentoring and training of many leaders of American cardiology and medicine.

A past president of the American Heart Association (1989-90), Weisfeldt is the William Osler Professor of Medicine and director of the Department of Medicine at the School of Medicine as well as physician in chief at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.

For nearly two decades, Weisfeldt was director of the Cardiology Division at Johns Hopkins. As director, he conducted research on cardiopulmonary resuscitation and survival from sudden cardiac death, the treatment and management of acute myocardial infarction and acute ischemic syndromes, and age-associated changes in cardiovascular function and response to stress. During much of this time, he was also director of the Johns Hopkins Specialized Center of Research in Ischemic Heart Disease.

Weisfeldt previously received the Gold Heart Award and the Award of Merit by the American Heart Association.

 

Bayview Medical Center

Matthew McNabney, assistant professor of medicine and medical director of Hopkins ElderPlus, a federal program of all-inclusive care for the elderly, has been named chairman of the research committee for the National PACE Association, which helps the frail elderly avoid premature admission to nursing homes. ElderPlus is the only PACE program in Maryland.

 

Bloomberg School of Public Health

Jonathan Samet, the Jacob I. and Irene B. Fabrikant Professor of Health, Risk and Society and chair of the Department of Epidemiology, will receive the 2004 Prince Mahidol Award for public health. The award was established in Thailand in 1992 to commemorate the centenary of the birth of His Royal Highness Prince Mahidol of Songkla, the late Prince Father, who is recognized as the father of medicine in that country. Samet, who is also the director of the Institute for Global Tobacco Control, is being recognized for his research into the effect of air pollution on human health. His work has been part of the basis for air quality control in the United States and elsewhere. His Majesty the King will confer the award, which consists of a plaque and $50,000, at a Jan. 27 ceremony in the Grand Palace in Bangkok, Thailand.

Donald Steinwachs was installed this month as the inaugural Fred and Julie Soper Professor of Health Policy and Management. Steinwachs is chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management, director of the Health Services Research and Development Center, and co-director of the Center for Research on Services for Severe Mental Illness. He holds a bachelor's degree in engineering mathematics and a master's degree in systems engineering, both from the University of Arizona, and a doctorate in mathematical sciences and operations research from the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering. The professorship is funded by an endowment created by Fred Soper, who received his doctorate from Hopkins in 1925, and his wife, Julie. Fred Soper was a world authority on yellow fever and led the successful effort to eradicate the disease in Brazil, where he and his wife lived for 23 years. He was the first recipient, in 1946, of the Lasker Award for his eradication campaigns against yellow fever and malaria.

 

Homewood Student Affairs

Alicia Grogan, human resources manager, has received mediation certification through the Maryland Commission on Human Relations. As a volunteer mediator, she has a one-year commitment to MCHR to mediate one case per month.

 

JHPIEGO

Sheena Currie, JHPIEGO's midwifery adviser based in Kabul, Afghanistan, received the President's International Outreach Award from the Royal College of Midwives, the world's oldest and largest midwifery organization. Currie's award was given in recognition of her work for HealthNet International with assistance from JHPIEGO to establish a community midwifery education program in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. The award ceremony, held in London and attended by U.K. Health Minister Stephen Ladyman, paid tribute to the work of midwives in midwifery practice, education and research.

 

Johns Hopkins Health System

Jay Blackman has been named executive vice president and chief operating officer of Howard County General Hospital. He was the Wilmer Eye Institute's administrator before going to HCGH as senior vice president of operations in 2002.

 

Krieger School of Arts and Sciences

Margaret Keck, professor of political science, is a recipient of a Research and Writing Grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. She and Rebecca Neara Abers of Lago Sul, Brazil, will each receive $50,000 over 18 months for work titled "The Politics of Stakeholder Governance: Political Sustainability and Watershed Communities in Brazil."

 

School of Medicine

Grant Anhalt, vice chairman of the Department of Dermatology, has received an outstanding service award from the International Pemphigus Foundation.

David Berman, assistant professor of pathology, has received the 2004 Wilson S. Stone Memorial Award from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center for his work in clarifying roles for the Hedgehog signaling pathway in cancer. His research offers clear implications for new approaches to mechanism-based cancer therapy.

Janice Clements, director of Comparative Medicine and vice dean for faculty affairs, has been named chair of the National Institutes of Health's NeuroAIDS and Other End-Organ Diseases Study Section, Center for Scientific Review, for a two-year term beginning in July.

Todd Dorman, associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine, has been named acting associate dean for continuing medical education. He has served as chairman of the CME advisory board for the past three years.

Betsy Hunt, assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine, has been named the first director of the new Johns Hopkins Simulation Center. Hunt, who is known for her work in CPR simulation, and the center's associate directors, John Shatzer and P. Randy Brown, will work with medical students, residents, nurses and practicing physicians to employ simulation as a way of enhancing their educational experience, promoting patient safety and fostering medical education research.

Jeffrey Janofsky, associate professor of psychiatry, has been elected vice president of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law.

Alex Kolodkin, professor of neuroscience, is one of eight recipients of this year's Sen. Jacob Javits Award from the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Strokes. The award provides for up to seven years of research funding.

William McLean, director of corporate security, has been elected vice president of the Maryland chapter of the International Association of Healthcare Security and Safety for 2005 and will serve as its president in 2006. He holds the certified healthcare protection administrator designation from the association.

Heather Molnar, director of Johns Hopkins Medicine's Web Center, has been named chair of the Web Guidelines Subcommittee of the Institutional Computing Standards Committee, a group of Web and technology colleagues from across the Johns Hopkins institutions.

Alan Partin has been named director of the Department of Urology and the Brady Urological Institute and urologist in chief of The Johns Hopkins Hospital. One of the world's leading investigators in the early detection and treatment of prostate cancer, he is known for his role in developing the Partin tables, which have given thousands of men an accurate prediction of their likelihood of being cured.

Noel R. Rose, professor of pathology, was honored with the Aesku Award for Lifetime Contribution to Autoimmunity at the fourth International Congress on Autoimmunity, held in November in Budapest, Hungary. In addition, Rose has been elected by the American Society for Microbiology to receive the 2005 ASM Founders Distinguished Service Award at its general meeting in June in Atlanta.

Rafael Tamargo, professor of neurosurgery, otolaryngology and head and neck surgery and director of the Division of Cerebrovascular Neurosurgery, has been named to the Walter E. Dandy Professorship in the Department of Neurosurgery.

Richard Thomas, administrator of the Wilmer Eye Institute, has been chosen chairman-elect of the American Association of Eye and Ear Hospitals.

The first Stanley L. Blumenthal, M.D., Cardiology Research Awards for the top American Heart Association accepted abstracts by a postdoctoral fellow went to Veronica R. S. Fernandes for clinical science, Amy McDonald for basic science and Craig Smith for translational research. Roger Blumenthal, associate professor of medicine, and his mother, Anita, created the awards to honor his late father's contributions to Johns Hopkins.

The Johns Hopkins Hospital is one of 12 teaching hospitals chosen by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to receive an Achieving Competence Today grant, designed to determine if groups of medical professionals can partner with senior hospital management to improve patient care. The grants are part of an initiative developed by RWJ, the Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Association of Colleges for Nursing.

 

School of Nursing

Linda Pugh, associate professor and baccalaureate program director, received the Excellence in Nursing Research Award from the Eta Eta Chapter of the nursing honor society, Sigma Theta Tau International.

Joan Kub, assistant professor, received the Research/Theory Award from the International Nurses Society on Addictions.

 

University Administration

William R. Brody, president, has been elected to the board of trustees of the Baltimore Community Foundation, which raises, manages and distributes funds for charitable purposes in the greater Baltimore region. One of the largest charitable foundations in Maryland, BCF has more than 400 different charitable funds and assets of $142 million. In 2003, BCF distributed $23 million in grants to hundreds of nonprofit organizations in the Baltimore region and beyond.

Charlene Moore Hayes, vice president for human resources, has joined the client advisory board of Prudential Retirement, a business of Prudential Financial, for a two-year term. The board is composed of senior-level leaders from select Prudential Retirement clients nationwide who meet twice a year to provide guidance and feedback on ways to enrich and expand retirement-planning solutions for the company's Taft-Hartley, not-for-profit and governmental clients. Johns Hopkins has been a client since 1953. Prudential administers the university's defined benefit pension plan.

 
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