Annual Focus AwardS
About the Awards
In 2004, FOCUS introduced the "FOCUS Award for the Advancement of Women in Medicine." The award recognizes a faculty member (of any gender identity) who has shown role model-level excellence in paving the way for women across the continuum in academic medicine at the PSOM or beyond in areas including any or all of the following aspects: advocacy, structural change, mentorship, sponsorship, education, science, clinical care and administration. Associate and Full professors, on any of the four full-time tracks (Tenure, Clinician-Educator, Research and Academic Clinician), are eligible for nomination, excluding those who comprise the FOCUS leadership.
In 2023, FOCUS added a second award, the "FOCUS Early Achievement Award for the Advancement of Women in Medicine." Eligibility includes faculty at the assistant professor rank at the time of nomination.
The 2024 Call for Nominations will be sent to all faculty in April 2024
The awards will be presented during the annual FOCUS Fall Conference and will be announced afterwards via email to all PSOM faculty. In addition to the institutional honor that these awards bring, the recipient’s names will be added to the plaque that hangs alongside the PSOM Awards of Excellence.
Recipients
2023
Rachel R. Kelz, MD, MSCE, MBA, FACS
William Maul Measey Professor of Surgery
Attending Physician, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Surgeon Champion, ACS NSQIP, CEQI, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania,
Senior Scholar, Leonard Davis Institute of Healthcare Economics, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania,
Director, Center for Surgery and Health Economics, Department of Surgery, Perelman School of Medicine
Faculty Advisor, Elizabeth Blackwell Society, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
Associate Program Director, General Surgery Residency Program, Perelman School of Medicine
Executive Vice Chair, Department of Surgery, Perelman School of Medicine
2023
FOCUS inaugural Early Achievement Award
Nosheen Reza, MD
Associate Member, Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics
Assistant Program Director, Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship
Director, Penn Women in Cardiology Program
Faculty Advisor, FOCUS on Health & Leadership for Women Section for Residents and Fellows
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
2022
Kristy L. Weber, MD
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
Vice-Chair of Faculty Affairs, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
Director of the Sarcoma Program, Abramson Cancer Center
Abramson Family Professor in Sarcoma Care Excellence
2021
(Special one-time tribute)
FOCUS Lifetime Achievement Award
Stephanie Abbuhl, MD
Emeritus Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine
Co-Director of PATHWAYS Program for Penn STEMM Faculty
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
2020
Susan L. Furth, MD, PhD
Department of Pediatrics and Epidemiology
Chief, Division of Nephrology
Associate Chair, Academic Affairs, Department of Pediatrics|
Vice Chair, Department of Pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
2019
Eydie Miller-Ellis, MD
Professor of Clinical Ophthalmology
Vice Chair for Faculty Affairs and Diversity
Perelman School of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania
2018
Judith A. Long, MD
Sol Katz Professor of Medicine
Chief, Division of General Internal Medicine
2017
Lynn M. Schuchter, MD
C. Willard Robinson Professor of Hematology-Oncology
Attending Physician, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Co-Program Leader: Melanoma and Cutaneous Malignancies Research Program, Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania
Division Chief, Hematology-Oncology, University of Pennsylvania
Internal Advisory Board Member, University of Pennsylvania Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics
2016
Sarah E. Millar, PhD
Albert M. Kligman Endowed Professor and Vice Chair for Basic Science Research
Department of Dermatology
Director, Penn Skin Biology and Diseases Resource-based Center
2015
Dennis R. Durbin, MD, MSCE
Professor of Pediatrics
Perelman School of Medicine
Director, Office of Clinical and Translational Research
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) Research Institute
Division of Emergency Medicine
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)
2014
Deborah A. Driscoll, MD
Luigi Mastroianni, Jr. Professor and Chair, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Director of the Center for Research on Reproduction and Women’s Health
2013
Emily Fox Conant, MD
Professor, Department of Radiology
Chief of Breast Imaging,Department of Radiology
Vice Chair of Faculty Development, Department of Radiology
2012
Katrina Armstrong, MD, MSCE
Professor, Department of Medicine
Division of General Internal Medicine
Division Chief, General Internal Medicine
2011
Kathy N. Shaw, MD, MSCE
Professor, Department of Pediatrics
Associate Chair, Department of Pediatrics
Division Chief, Emergency Medicine
Director, Emergency Medical Services
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
2010
J. Richard Landis, PhD
Professor, Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology
Director, Division of Biostatistics
Department of Biostatistics & Epidemiology
Director, Biostatistics Unit
Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Faculty Co-Director, Clinical Research Computing Unit, CCEB
(Special one-time tribute)
FOCUS Visionary Leadership Award
Arthur H. Rubenstein, MBBCh
Dean, School of Medicine (2001-2011)
Professor, Department of Medicine
Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism
2009
Judy A. Shea, PhD
Professor, Department of Medicine
Division of General Internal Medicine
Associate Dean for Medical Education Research
2008
Jonni S. Moore, PhD
Professor, Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
Director, Cancer Center Flow Cytometry and Cell Sorting Facility
Director, Clinical Flow Cytometry Laboratory
2007
Marjorie A. Bowman, MD, MPA
Professor and Chair, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health
Director, Center for Public Health Initiatives
2006
Jo Buyske, MD
Associate Professor of Clinical Surgery
Chief, Department of Surgery
Penn Presbyterian Medical Center
2005
Karin L. McGowan, PhD
Professor, Department of Pediatrics
Director, Microbiology Laboratory
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
2004
Lisa M. Bellini, MD
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine
Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care
Vice Chair for Education and Inpatient Services
Arthur K. Asbury Award
This annual faculty mentoring award was initiated by FOCUS in 1999 in order to create a visible and prestigious way to formally recognize the critical value of mentoring in academic medicine. In 2004, at the request of the Dean, the award became one of the School of Medicine Awards of Excellence, the Arthur K. Asbury Award for Outstanding Faculty Mentoring. FOCUS is pleased and honored by the evolution of this award to a permanent place among the other School of Medicine awards and to have been the foundation for this Award of Excellence for Mentoring.
As a FOCUS award from 1999- 2003, this mentoring award was given to a faculty member chosen from the entire School of Medicine community who, according to the collective opinion of the University of Pennsylvania women medical faculty, served as an exceptional mentor to other faculty. All faculty, male or female and of any rank or track, were eligible for nomination. The Directors and Co-Directors of FOCUS and the Leadership Mentoring Program were not eligible for this award. While the definition of an outstanding mentor is complex, the following paragraph is a beginning:
A mentor is a trusted guide who supports and facilitates a mentee's development towards the realization of his/her short and long-term career and life goals. A mentor educates, encourages, protects, and facilitates appropriate risk taking to teach the values and skills necessary to successfully navigate the organization. A mentor also opens access to institutional resources and helps the mentee to develop a network of relationships that might otherwise be unavailable to someone at that level of their career and, in so doing, may risk putting his/her own career “on the line.”
The recipient of the FOCUS Mentoring Award for Excellence received a plaque and a $1,000 monetary prize.
(As a FOCUS Mentoring Award, 1999-2003)
2003
Allan I. Pack, MB, ChB, PhD
Professor of Medicine, Neurology, and Psychiatry
Chief, Division of Sleep Medicine
2002
Emma A. Meagher, MD
Assistant Professor, Medicine and Pharmacology
2001
Jane M. Lavelle, MD
Associate Professor, Pediatrics
2000
Helen Conrad Davies, PhD
Professor, Microbiology
1999 (a tie)
Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD, MBA
Professor, Medicine; Director, Institute on Aging;
Chief, Geriatrics
Annemarie Weber, MD
Professor, Biochemistry and Biophysics