John Brownstein, PhD ’04, was recently recognized by Becker’s Hospital Review as one of the “35 Hospital and Health Systems Chief Innovation Officers You Need to Know” in 2023. Brownstein is a professor of biomedical informatics at Harvard Medical School, director of innovation at Boston Children’s Hospital and a global leader in healthcare IT, particularly big data informatics and analytics. As Chief Innovation Officer, he leads a multidisciplinary team of 100 people focused on digital innovations that impact clinicians and consumers. His group is supported by a multimillion-dollar budget that includes grants from the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Department of Defense, the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from Google, Skoll, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. His work pioneered “digital epidemiology” using diverse digital data sources to understand population health. His work has been published in more than 300 peer-reviewed articles, all focused on new methods and applications in digital health. This work was recognized by the White House with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.
Robert W. Buckingham, DrPH ’78, is a professor of public health at the University of Michigan-Flint. Buckingham was the founding dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Saskatchewan from 2009 to 2014. He is the author of 12 books and numerous scientific articles, the most recent being titled “Understanding Loss and Grief for Women,” published by Praeger Publishers in 2018. Buckingham is the author of five books on palliative care, including “Care of the Dying Child.” published by Continuum Publishing, which has been translated into seven languages. Buckingham helped develop the first hospice in the United States and is considered one of the “founding fathers” of the hospice movement in North America. He was the first research director of Connecticut’s first hospice in 1974, and went on to help develop 81 palliative care programs around the world, including a hospice for children with AIDS in Thailand. For his humanitarian work in the field of palliative care for children with AIDS, he received the prestigious Ivanosky Prize for Humanitarian Medicine from the Russian Institute of Virology in 1992. In 2014, Buckingham received the Nelson Mandela Prize for Leadership academic for his work as Dean of the University of Saskatchewan at Harvard University. From 2016 to 2022. Buckingham served as a board member of the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER) which oversees 120 public health schools and programs across Europe. He is currently part of the ASPHER-WHO COVID -19 working group and has authored five scientific articles on COVID-19 that were published in international peer-reviewed scientific journals in 2020, 2021 and 2022. He is sought after for his advice and recommendations on management. of the COVID-19 pandemic around the world. He has participated in numerous media events related to the pandemic.
Shadrack Osei Frimpong, MPH ’20, and MD candidate at the Yale School of Medicine, recently received an honorary Doctor of Science (Social Sciences) from Royal Holloway, University of London. Frimpong received the honorary doctorate for his work with Cocoa360, the non-profit organization he founded in 2015 in his home village of Tarkwa Breman, in the Western Region of Ghana. Cocoa360 supports local cocoa farmers by providing free schooling and localized healthcare that farmers help fund and manage. To date, the organization’s Farm for Impact model has treated 21,200 patients, reached 35,000 farmers and trained 300 students. After receiving the honorary degree, Frimpong said: “(This honor is) an endorsement of our drive to radically transform the way global health and international development are achieved – truly placing communities at the forefront of the impact. »
Sharon K. Inouye, MD, MPH ’89, MACP, received the John Phillips Memorial Award for outstanding work in clinical medicine from the American College of Physicians (ACP), a national organization of internal medicine physicians. Established by the ACP Board of Directors in 1929, the John Phillips Memorial Award for Outstanding Work in Clinical Medicine is awarded to physicians in internal medicine in recognition of their innovative, impactful, and sustained contributions to this field. Clinical medicine includes all aspects of clinical research or the practice of medicine. Dr. Inouye is a recognized leader in internal medicine, geriatrics and clinical research, known for her transformative contributions to the clinical care of older adults and subsequent medical breakthroughs. She is currently a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, where she also serves as the Milton and Shirley F. Levy Family Chair. In addition to Dr. Inouye’s work at Harvard Medical School, she is also the director of the Aging Brain Center at the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the new editor-in-chief of JAMA Internal Medicine. For the past 30 years, she has been the leading investigator in the prevention of delirium and functional decline in hospitalized elderly patients. One of Dr. Inouye’s professional accomplishments includes the creation of the Confusion Assessment Method, the most widely used instrument for identifying delirium in hospitalized elderly patients. She also developed the Hospital Elder Life Program (HELP), a multi-pronged strategy that reduces delirium by 40%. Dr. Inouye’s innovative work has resulted in more than 400 publications and more than 70,000 citations, changing the lives of millions of older adults around the world.
Jennifer Mandelbaum, MPH ’16, recently received the Rising Star Award from the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors for his work at the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC). This award recognizes “a state, tribal, or territorial chronic disease unit staff member…who has demonstrated exceptional leadership and innovation in promoting health “. As a Program Evaluator at DHEC, Jennifer is working on two CDC-funded grants to address South Carolina’s persistent racial and socioeconomic disparities in diabetes and heart disease by expanding health systems capacity in high-burden and medically underserved areas. Jennifer is the lead data manager and quantitative analyst for a statewide survey of rural health clinics and federally qualified health centers in South Carolina. Jennifer also recently defended her doctoral dissertation in the Department of Health Promotion, Education and Behavior at the University of South Carolina. Her dissertation focused on the use of nutrition labels among American adolescents.
George Simeon MPH ’94, shared the exciting news that his company, Curevo Vaccine, completed a $26 million Series A1 funding round last November and has raised a total of $86 million in 2022, allowing the company to continue its successful more aggressive its clinical and research activities on CRV-101, a clinical stage. adjuvanted subunit vaccine under study for the prevention of shingles in the elderly.
In 2019, George visited the newly opened CNBG Museum (CNBG is China’s century-old vaccine manufacturer) and unexpectedly came across a photo of a Yale graduate, Yan Fuqing. In addition to being the first Asian student to receive an M.D. at Yale, he was a pioneer in public health in China. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yan_Fuqing
Judy Stavisky, MPH ’80, MEd, has spent a lot of time over the past decade attending Amish schools, sharing meals with Amish families, and participating in events in the Amish community. Judy has a long career in philanthropy and helping nonprofit organizations succeed. She is co-author of Do It Better! How the children of St. Francis de Sales exceeded everyone’s expectations, chronicling the journeys of student refugees from Philadelphia. Recently, Judy has supported the city’s refugee resettlement efforts, including food-insecure Philadelphians in meals. She has taught public health programming at Arcadia and Drexel Universities.
Irene Trowell-Harris, MPH ’73, EdD, received the R. Louis McManus Award, the most prestigious award given by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN). The award is given for sustained and significant contributions through the highest commitment and dedication to the mission and vision of NCSBN. In awarding Trowell-Harris this award, the NCSBN noted: Booker T. Washington once said: “Success should not be measured so much by the position one has reached in life as by the obstacles one has overcame. » For Major General Irene Trowell-Harris, titles alone do not define her success. To successfully achieve her personal and professional goals, she faced many social and economic obstacles as well as race and gender. Despite facing many daunting challenges, each accomplishment motivated her and further inspired her to build on each success. Her lived experience is the foundation of her leadership at the community, state and national levels, where she inspires and mentors others to overcome obstacles. As the first African American woman to be promoted to general officer in the Air National Guard and the only woman to be honored with a Tuskegee Airmen chapter in her name, Trowell-Harris never lost sight of her goals. Serving on numerous committees representing senior government and military officials, she exerts her influence to improve the experience of military women serving their country as well as after they leave active duty. It is thanks to her visionary leadership that all women veterans now enjoy a level of health benefits that meets their needs. Trowell-Harris knows it takes sustained commitment, the right relationships, a bold vision and clear intention to make a positive and lasting impact as a leader.
Leon F. Vinci, DHA, MPH ’77, has been named a member of the Virginia Western Community College (VWCC) Scholarship Advisory Council. On behalf of the Virginia Western Educational Foundation, Inc., his responsibilities include awarding annual scholarships to eligible students. VWCC is one of 23 colleges in the Virginia Community College System and comprises its largest campus across the Commonwealth. In the VWCC catchment area, 45% of those seeking a college education attend Virginia Western. Eighty-five percent of VWCC graduates remain in the region after graduation, fueling the economic engine of the entire Roanoke Valley, Virginia.
