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School Accolades

Professors Donald Steinwachs and Marie Diener-West

Only half-joking, Donald Steinwachs, PhD, MS, said that, as he’s gotten older, a new sense of urgency has overtaken his career-long quest to improve how health care is delivered: “I’d like to fix the health care system before I have to use it!”

Steinwachs, professor and chair of Health Policy and Management and director of the School’s Health Services Research and Development Center, made the remark last December, during his installation as the inaugural Fred and Julie Soper Professor in Health Policy and Management.

Although Steinwachs got his PhD in mathematical sciences and operations research from the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering, and could have chosen to analyze systems for the military or industry, he elected to focus on making health care systems work more effectively. “My passion is to accelerate the translation and dissemination processes, so as to reduce the lag time between finding new evidence and making use of it to improve health care systems,” he said.

Also in December, Marie Diener-West, PhD, became the first Helen Abbey and Margaret Merrell Professor in Biostatistics Education. Diener-West is the School’s only four-time winner of the Golden Apple Award, given by students each year in recognition of the School’s best teachers. Both Abbey and Merrell were renowned not only for being pioneers in biostatistics but also for their dedication to their students. It is this commitment to students that the Abbey-Merrell Professorship particularly honors. Diener-West, who studied with and was greatly admired by Helen Abbey, “is now a part of this unbroken line of the students’ favorite teachers at the School—and they have all taught biostatistics, the subject that all students fear the most,” noted Dean Alfred Sommer.

According to Scott Zeger, professor and chair of Biostatistics, Diener-West “possesses all the characteristics of an excellent teacher: a sharp intellect, a well-received style of communication and a sincere dedication to her students. Her brightness of mind is balanced by a brightness of spirit.”

In all, donors have so far endowed 14 named professorships and chairs at the Bloomberg School, positions that are often critical in recruiting and retaining top faculty. Said Sommer, “There are few things more inspiring than celebrating newly endowed professorships, or celebrating the accomplishments and promise of those who have the honor to fill them.” —Rod Graham

Gerard Anderson, PhD, (left), professor, and Peter S. Hussey, graduate student, both in Health Policy and Management, co-authored papers in Health Affairs that were its most-viewed article (about U.S. health care spending) and its third-most-viewed study (which compared quality of care in five countries).
Susan P. Baker, MPH ’68, professor, Health Policy and Management, was recently appointed to the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board, a continuing scientific advisory body to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs and the military Surgeons General.
Jessica Burke, PhD ’03, MHS ’98, research associate, Population and Family Health Sciences, was named a Health Disparities Scholar by the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities at NIH.
Susan DeFrancesco, JD, MPH ’84, adjunct faculty, and Shelley Hearne, DrPH, visiting scholar, both in Health Policy and Management, were awarded the 2004 National Delta Omega Curriculum Award for their course, Issues in Health Advocacy.
Manning Feinleib, MD, DrPH, professor, Epidemiology, was presented with this year’s Abraham Lilienfeld Award at the annual meeting of the American College of Epidemiology.
Claude Earl Fox, MD, MPH, professor, Population and Family Health Sciences, and director of the Urban Health Institute, was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Philosophy by the Arizona School of Health Sciences.
Pearl German, ScD ’72, professor emerita, Health Policy and Management, has received a Life-time Achievement Award from the Gerontological Health Section of the American Public Health Association.
	Thaddeus Graczyk, PhD, MSc, associate professor, W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, has been awarded the American Waterworks Association’s Best Presentation Award for his 2004 keynote lecture, “Cryptosporidium Contamination of the Chesapeake Bay Water.” In addition, Graczyk and the School have both received Unit Citation Awards from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration for his collaborative work that led to the discovery of Cryptosporidium in U.S. commercial shellfish.
Diane Griffin, MD, PhD, professor and chair of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, has been named the president-elect of the American Society for Microbiology. She is also chair-elect of the Section on Medical Sciences of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
	J. Marie Hardwick, PhD, professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, was named a Fellow of the AAAS. On September 27, Hardwick was also installed as MMI’s inaugural David Bodian Professor.
	D. A. Henderson, MD, MPH ’60, University Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus and Dean Emeritus of the School, was named an honorary fellow by the National Academy of Medicine of Mexico (the oldest in the Western Hemisphere). He also received honorary doctorates from the University of South Carolina and the New Jersey University of Medicine and Dentistry.
Thomas Louis, PhD, professor, Biostatistics, has been elected president of the International Biometric Society for 2006–2007.
Jorge Maciel, a PhD graduate student in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, was named a 2004–2007 recipient of a Robert D. Watkins Graduate Research Fellowship, a program managed by the American Society for Microbiology.
Jose G. Rimon II, MA, senior deputy director of the Center for Communication Programs (CCP), has received the 2004 Outstanding Professional Award in the field of communication from the University of the Philippines Alumni Association.
	Noel R. Rose, MD, PhD, professor, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, and director, Autoimmune Disease Research Center, was honored in November 2004 with the AESKU Award for Lifetime Contribution to Autoimmunity at the Fourth International Congress on Autoimmunity. Rose is also to receive the 2005 ASM Founders Distinguished Service Award from the American Society for Microbiology
Edyth Schoenrich, MD, MPH ’71, professor, Health Policy and Management, and director, Part-time Professional Programs, has been selected for induction into the State of Maryland’s Women’s Hall of Fame for 2005 by the Maryland Commission for Women.
	Amy Tsui, PhD, professor, Population and Family Health Sciences, and director, the Bill & Melinda Gates Institute of Population and Reproductive Health, was elected a Fellow of the AAAS.
	Daniel Webster,ScD ’91, MPH, associate professor, Health Policy and Management, received the Educator of the Year Award from the Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence for his work in developing a protocol for police and social workers to assess risks for severe and fatal forms of violence involving intimate partners.