Three Northwestern medical students are among 32 students from Chicago area schools who have been named 2005â06 Chicago Area Schweitzer Fellows. Each fellow will contribute at least 200 hours of service during the next year to local communities lacking access to adequate health services. Mark A. Applebaum will provide health and sexuality education to teens served by the Uptown Teen Clinic. Tracy Gertler’s project involves developing a social group for family members of hospice patients at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Working through Chicago Youth Programs, Breanne Pacheco will create a summer and after-school physical activity program for inner-city youth.
The stroke center at Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH), led by Mark J. Alberts, MD, professor of neurology, in January was named a Primary Stroke Center by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. The designation indicates that NMH has the staffing and infrastructure to treat acute stroke patients around the clock.
Arthur J. Atkinson Jr., MD, adjunct professor of molecular pharmacology and biological chemistry, received the 2005 Oscar B. Hunter Memorial Award in Therapeutics from the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics during the group’s annual meeting held in March in Orlando, Florida. Dr. Atkinson, who started the Northwestern medical school program in clinical pharmacology in 1970, is now senior advisor in clinical pharmacology to the director of the NIH Clinical Center.
Currently president-elect of the the Performing Arts Medicine Association, William J. Dawson, MD, associate professor emeritus of orthopaedic surgery, will become the group’s president in June. A symphonic and freelance bassoonist and bassoon teacher, Dr. Dawson serves on the editorial board of the journal Medical Problems of Performing Artists.
Paul A. Greenberger, MD, professor of medicine, serves as chair of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education’s Residency Review Committee for Allergy-Immunology.
Ann Harris, PhD, has been named director of the Human Molecular Genetics Program at Children’s Memorial Research Center. Dr. Harris is a full professor at the University of Oxford with more than 130 peer-reviewed articles to her credit. Her research focuses on the regulatory domains and mechanisms of the human cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene and potential applications to novel therapies for cystic fibrosis. Dr. Harris will join Children’s in September.
Research!America, founded in 1989 to promote medical and health research as a national priority, has named Mary J.C. Hendrix, PhD, professor of pediatrics, to its board. Dr. Hendrix is president and scientific director of Children’s Memorial Research Center.
Tripti C. Kataria, MD, MPH, assistant professor of anesthesiology, received the 2005 AMA Foundation Leadership Award during ceremonies held March 13 in Washington, in recognition of exemplary leadership skills.
In May John R. Poncher, MD, professor of clinical pediatrics, will receive the National Pediatric Community Teaching Award from the Pediatric Academic Societies and American Academy of Pediatrics. Although retired from private practice, Dr. Poncher serves as a board member of the Children’s Community Physicians Association and a volunteer in the Continuity Clinic at Children’s Memorial Hospital.
Robert P. Schleimer, PhD, professor of medicine and chief of the allergy-immunology division, has been named the Dr. Roy Patterson Professor of Medicine. Before joining Northwestern in 2004, Dr. Schleimer was a faculty member at Johns Hopkins University. He studies inflammatory responses in allergic diseases as well as the molecular basis for the action of anti-inflammatory steroids.
H. William Schnaper, MD, professor of pediatrics, has been appointed deputy director for academic development for Children’s Memorial Research Center (CMRC). In that role, he will support the growth of CMRC members as investigators, scholars, and mentors; facilitate the academic career advancement of research center faculty members; and promote the continued development of academic activity at the center.
Professor and Vice Chair of Surgery Nathaniel J. Soper, MD, has become the James R. Hines Professor of Surgery. Dr. Soper’s research interests include the application of laparoscopic surgery for gastrointestinal disease, alternative treatments for gallstones, and motility of the gastrointestinal tract. He directed Washington University’s Institute for Minimally Invasive Surgery before joining the Feinberg School of Medicine in 2003.
