Celebrating the 2024 AAMC Award winners

A cardiologist whose research informed the use of low-dose aspirin to reduce the risk of death in patients who have suffered heart attacks and strokes. A founding dean and president of the Morehouse School of Medicine who also served as U.S. secretary for Health and Human Services. The developer of the reporter-interpreter-manager-educator (RIME) framework for assessing the professional growth of medical students and residents. These are among the recipients of the 2024 AAMC Awards, which recognize individuals and institutions that have made outstanding contributions in medical education, research, clinical care, and community engagement.

Garret A. FitzGerald, MD: 2024 Award for Distinguished Research in the Biomedical Sciences

Throughout his career, Garret A. FitzGerald, the Robert L. McNeil Jr. Professor in Translational Medicine and Therapeutics at the Perelman School of Medicine (PSOM) at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, has worked to bring cutting-edge scientific findings into clinical practice with novel therapeutics. Dr. FitzGerald's research has led to several significant findings related to cardiovascular health, including the use of low-dose aspirin to reduce death in patients who have suffered heart attacks or strokes. Dr. FitzGerald also found that using ibuprofen could undermine the protective effects of aspirin, which led to a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory; subsequent research into cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors predicted and mechanistically explained the potential cardiovascular hazards of these drugs. In 2004, Dr. FitzGerald founded the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics (ITMAT) at PSOM. ITMAT has subsequently driven an institutional focus on translation that has resulted in FDA-approved chimeric antigen receptor T-cell, gene, and RNA vaccine therapies, leading to new cancer treatments, gene therapies for blindness, the development of RNA vaccines, and other novel therapeutics.

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Louis W. Sullivan, MD: 2024 Herbert W. Nickens Award

Born and raised in Georgia during the tumultuous 1930s and 1940s, Louis W. Sullivan, MD, received his undergraduate degree from Morehouse College in Atlanta in 1954 and his medical degree from the Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) in 1958, where he was the only Black student in his medical school class. Thereafter, Dr. Sullivan quickly established himself as a leading physician and medical educator, rising rapidly through the ranks from early positions at Harvard Medical School, the New Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry, and BUSM. Throughout his 40-plus-year career, Dr. Sullivan has proved himself a trailblazer in academic medicine, public service, and national leadership organization, and has become renowned for his efforts to increase diversity in medicine. In 1975, Dr. Sullivan became the founding dean and president of the Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM). In 1989, then-President George H.W. Bush tapped Dr. Sullivan to be U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), a position he held for four years, after which he returned to MSM and served until his retirement in 2002.

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Caroline N. Harada, MD: 2024 Arnold P. Gold Foundation Humanism in Medicine Award

Improving equity in health care is a humanistic pursuit and has long been a focal point for Caroline Harada, MD, associate dean for strategic initiatives and director of Project Advancing Health Equity through Alabama's Doctors (AHEAD), the longitudinal health-equity curriculum at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine (UAB Heersink SOM). A geriatrician by training, Dr. Harada served as the school's geriatrics-fellowship director before transitioning in 2015 to undergraduate medical education, to serve as assistant dean for Community-Engaged Scholarship. Dr. Harada also founded and directs the school's Office of Service Learning, which provides curricular and extracurricular service-learning experiences for medical students. In 2015, Dr. Harada helped found the Alabama chapter of the Albert Schweitzer Foundation, which offers fellowships to graduate students in Alabama so they can complete mentored projects that improve health in their communities. A year later she founded the Health Equity Scholars program for medical students planning to address health equity in their practice.

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Will Ross, MD, MPH: 2024 Louis W. Sullivan, MD, Award

Over the past nearly three decades, Will Ross, MD, MPH, associate dean for diversity, principal officer for community partnerships, and professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis (WUSTL School of Medicine), has focused his career on eliminating health care disparities and diversifying the health care workforce. Dr. Ross was a member of the advisory panel that established the Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience in 2013, a rigorous, four-year, public magnet high school program in St. Louis. The program's curriculum emphasizes science and math, while drawing students from backgrounds that have been historically underrepresented in medicine. At WUSTL School of Medicine, Dr. Ross' efforts have helped increase matriculation rates for students from underrepresented groups, from 5.7% in 1997 to 30% in 2023. Dr. Ross was also a charter member of the St. Louis Regional Health Commission, which has leveraged more than $500 million to maintain a network of primary care clinics and public health services in medically underserved communities.

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Lisa I. Iezzoni, MD, MSc: 2024 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation David E. Rogers Award

Lisa I. Iezzoni, MD, MSc, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, has dedicated her career to shining a light on inequities in health care that affect people with disabilities. Dr. Iezzoni launched her disability-related research with a 1996 Investigator Award in Health Policy Research from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. That work culminated in her 2003 book, When Walking Fails: Mobility Problems of Adults with Chronic Conditions. Her qualitative studies, informed by her lived experience as a wheelchair user, have given voice to people with disabilities, leading many to rethink their approaches toward this historically marginalized population. Dr. Iezzoni has been a member of numerous committees and advisory boards, including serving as chair, from 2012 to 2013, of the U.S. Access Board's Medical Diagnostic Equipment Accessibility Standards Advisory Committee, which provided advice on making medical diagnostic equipment accessible to people with disabilities. The HHS also cited Dr. Iezzoni's research in proposed federal regulations issued in September 2023 to update disability nondiscrimination rules in health care under Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act.

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University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and UChicago Medicine: 2024 Spencer Foreman Award for Outstanding Community Engagement

By embedding community engagement into every aspect of medical education, research, and clinical care, the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine (Pritzker) and UChicago Medicine (UCM) have demonstrated profound commitments to improving the health and well-being of all individuals who call the South Side of Chicago home. At Pritzker and UCM, learners engage with the community throughout the medical education continuum. Medical students learn about health inequities and social determinants of health directly from community members through required coursework, by volunteering at six student-run free clinics, and through outreach programs. At the graduate medical education level, residents across multiple specialties collaborate with community members to address health needs through the Graduate Medical Education Community Champions program, in partnership with UCM's Urban Health Initiative. Faculty, learners, and community partners also regularly collaborate on research to develop, implement, and evaluate programs and initiatives to address community-identified concerns. Likewise, in clinical care, UCM leverages its multisector partnerships to address community-wide health concerns.

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Louis N. Pangaro, MD: 2024 Award for Excellence in Medical Education

During his distinguished career, Louis N. Pangaro, MD, MACP, professor of medicine and health professions education at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences F. Edward Hébert (USUHS) School of Medicine, has had a lasting impact on medical education, through his development of innovative assessment tools and advancement of career development for clinician-educators. Dr. Pangaro has advanced the clinical education career pathway by helping to create two national organizations, Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine (CDIM) and the Alliance for Clinical Education (ACE). He is most notably recognized for developing the reporter-interpreter-manager-educator (RIME) framework. In the 1990s, RIME introduced a model of synthetic, developmental frameworks as an alternative to the knowledge-skills-attitude model for assessing the competency of students and residents as they progress from understanding to action. At USUHS School of Medicine, Dr. Pangaro has served as medicine clerkship director, vice chair for education, and department chair (2008-2018), enabling the creation of the Center for Health Professions Education, which grants master's and PhD degrees while fostering educational research.

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Lily M. Belfi, MD: 2024 Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Award

For all its astonishing revelations - allowing students to literally peer into the human body to see what's working and what's not - radiology as a specialty is often underrepresented in medical school curricula. But at Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC) in New York City, students now have access to more robust radiology teaching throughout their medical education, thanks to Lily M. Belfi, MD, who has served as the director of medical student education in the department of radiology for nearly 15 years. Dr. Belfi first boosted radiology education at WCMC in 2011, when she designed and implemented a mandatory introductory clerkship in radiology. In the same year, Dr. Belfi developed and piloted the Interactive Clinical Anatomy and Radiology Utilization Simulator (ICARUS), a first-of-its-kind virtual-learning-environment simulator that allows students to test diagnostic skills with real-life patient scenarios. In 2014, Dr. Belfi founded the Clinical Radiologist Educator Alliance for Teaching Excellence program. She subsequently designed and launched two websites to host peer-reviewed learning modules published by program participants.

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Kent Vrana, PhD: 2024 Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Award

As the Elliot S. Vesell professor and past-chair in the department of pharmacology at Penn State College of Medicine (PSCM) in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Kent Vrana, PhD, has more than 35 years of research experience in molecular neuropharmacology. He has also been actively involved in research to help unravel the mysteries of health conditions ranging from Parkinson's disease to substance-use disorders. But Dr. Vrana's contributions to the medical education field have been just as wide-ranging. He spent 15 years directing PSCM's Problem-Based Learning program, which has become the primary preclinical pedagogy of the curriculum. For over 20 years, Dr. Vrana has also served on the Medical Student Academic Progress Committee, directing institutional efforts to certify the competency of students and skillfully address behavioral and academic deficiencies. A mentor to scores of faculty members over the years, Dr. Vrana, in 2007, created and continues to codirect the annual Grants Academy for junior faculty members, which has helped more than 200 participants obtain funding and leadership positions at PSCM and other institutions.

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Daniel M. Clinchot, MD: 2024 Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Award

During his more than 35 years with The Ohio State University (OSU) College of Medicine in Columbus, physiatrist Daniel M. Clinchot, MD, vice dean for education and inaugural chair of the department of biomedical education and anatomy at OSU College of Medicine, has served on virtually every major committee related to resident and student training in foundational and clinical disciplines. Named associate dean for clinical education and outreach in 2003 and continuing as the associate dean for medical education in 2009, Dr. Clinchot has combined his extensive experience in resident education with his expertise in helping faculty members become effective educators for learners who are transitioning from undergraduate education to graduate medical training. As one of the founding faculty members of OSU College of Medicine's biomedical sciences graduate program and a creator of one of its senior capstone courses, Dr. Clinchot also has made himself indispensable to the school as the visionary leader of the Lead.Serve.Inspire. curriculum.

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Abbas A. Hyderi, MD, MPH: 2024 Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Award

Abbas A. Hyderi, MD, MPH, vice dean for education at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine (Pitt Med) and former founding senior associate dean for medical education at the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine (KPSOM) in Pasadena, California, has been instrumental throughout his career in ensuring excellence in medical education. At KPSOM, Dr. Hyderi helped build the school from the ground up by developing the curriculum, mentoring, advising faculty, and supporting leadership and organizational growth. In his new role at Pitt Med, he will be responsible for overseeing accreditation; admissions; clinical education; diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts; financial aid; global health education; graduate medical education; and student affairs and research. A family medicine physician, Dr. Hyderi has focused on teaching medical students how to provide care for LGBTQ+ individuals and those at risk for or living with HIV. Dr. Hyderi also authored and advocated for the passage of Oregon House Bill 2706 of the 73rd Oregon Legislative Assembly in 2005, which shifted HIV testing for pregnant women to an opt-out approach.

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Richard I. Levin, MD: 2024 Special Recognition Award

Ensuring that patients remain at the center of all care interactions is a fundamental aspect of humanism in medicine, and Richard I. Levin, MD, has dedicated much of his career to furthering that noble aim. As president and CEO of the Arnold P. Gold Foundation from 2012 until his retirement on June 30, 2023, Dr. Levin extended the reach of the organization from its roots in medical education to embrace a wider spectrum of relationship-centered care across the various health professions. Under his transformative leadership, Dr. Levin also deepened the Gold Foundation's long-standing partnership with the AAMC. That partnership is most vivid at Learn Serve Lead: The AAMC Annual Meeting, which hosts the Arnold P. Gold Foundation Humanism in Medicine Award Lecture, among other events. Previously, Dr. Levin, a cardiologist by training, served as vice dean for education, faculty, and academic affairs at NYU School of Medicine, and as dean of the faculty of medicine and vice principal for health affairs at McGill University Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences in Montreal.

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William W. Pinsky, MD: 2024 Special Recognition Award

As president and CEO of the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) and board chair of the Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER) from 2016 through 2023, William W. Pinsky, MD, provided strategic leadership that reimagined the structure of ECFMG and FAIMER, transforming and uniting these organizations to promote better health care for all. He refined how they were governed, expanded the executive leadership team, and instituted progressive realignments of the various business units to maximize organizational impact. Dr. Pinsky's efforts culminated in 2021 with the creation of Intealth, which fulfilled his vision for fully integrating ECFMG and FAIMER to ensure a common focus and efficient use of resources. Prior to joining ECFMG and FAIMER, Dr. Pinsky served as executive vice president and chief academic officer of Ochsner Health in New Orleans for more than 17 years.

Learn more about Dr. Pinsky