Each year, the Washington University Medical Center Alumni Association has the distinct pleasure of honoring a select group of alumni whose professional achievements, service to the community and dedication to our institution are noteworthy.
The WUMCAA Alumni Awards Subcommittee evaluates nominations each fall as part of the selection process. The Alumni Association Executive Council has the final voting decision.
Eligibility: Washington University School of Medicine alumni members of one of the current year’s MD reunion classes. Nominate alumni who graduated in a class year ending in 4 or 9 for a 2024 award through Dec. 29, 2023. Awardees will be recognized during Celebration Weekend.
Current award recipients
Congratulations to our 2023 Alumni Achievement Award recipients!
An expert in medical education and public policy, Vineet Arora, MD, is internationally recognized for improving the clinical learning environment in academic medical centers and enhancing the delivery of health care to hospitalized adults.
The Herbert T. Abelson Professor of Medicine at the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago, Arora introduced innovative approaches to the education of medical students and residents. Her research on resident sleep, fatigue, and handoffs transformed the clinical training regimen for residencies. In 2021, Arora was appointed dean for medical education of the Biological Sciences Division. Under her leadership, Pritzker was one of only three institutions in the nation to receive both the American Medical Association Accelerating Change in Medical Education Award and support from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Pursuing Excellence Initiative.
Arora is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and serves on the board of directors for the American Board of Internal Medicine and the Joint Commission. Her work has been integral to the development of patient handoff guidelines for the Society of Hospital Medicine. An author of more than 130 peer-reviewed papers, Arora also has secured critical funding from the National Institutes of Health to improve mentoring for women and minority physician-scientists and has leveraged social media to promote careers in medical research among minority youth.
During the pandemic, Arora led the Illinois Medical Professionals Action Collaborative Team (IMPACT) to tackle COVID-19 misinformation through social media. Her work was recognized by the Association of American Medical Colleges with the 2022 Innovations That Bolster Community Trust in Science Award.
Arora earned her bachelor’s degree from John Hopkins University and her medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine. She completed her residency training and earned a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Chicago.
Carol North, MD, served on the faculty at Washington University School of Medicine for 18 years before being recruited to The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center as the Nancy and Ray L. Hunt Chair in Crisis Psychiatry in 2005. While at Texas, North held a joint appointment in the Department of Emergency Medicine and served as the director of the Division of Trauma and Disaster. Since her retirement in 2021, she donates significant time volunteering.
For several decades, North conducted federally funded research to examine the impact of disaster mental health, psychiatric aspects of medical illness, and psychosocial aspects of homeless populations. Her expertise is recognized internationally, and her work has been integral to the development of disaster mental health epidemiology. North has testified before Congress and has served in an advisory capacity to the Carter Center, the White House, and the US Federal Drug Administration, among other institutions.
After 9/11, North created comprehensive mental health training programs that were deployed to several thousand mental health professionals in New York City. This initiative was later expanded into the P-FLASH program, which was commissioned by the September 11 Fund to train New York City-area disaster responders in disaster mental health. North went on to provide this program nationally. In 2021, Expertscape named her among the top 0.1% of scholars for her expertise on terrorism. Her diagnostic rigor has been highlighted in more than 400 peer-reviewed academic publications and four books, including the 6th and 7th editions of Psychiatric Diagnosis.
North earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa and her medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine. She stayed to complete her residency training, followed by a National Institute of Mental Health postdoctoral fellowship and a master’s degree, both in psychiatric epidemiology. North’s autobiography, Welcome Silence, recounts her experience with schizophrenia while in medical school. She credits the university and its faculty for their encouragement to put her experiences into practice.
Audrey Rostov, MD, is the director of cornea, cataract and refractive surgery and a specialist in complex anterior segment surgery at Northwest Eye Surgeons in Seattle. In addition to these roles, Rostov has committed extensive expertise and time to improving eye health internationally.
As global medical director at Sightlife, the world’s leading nonprofit eye bank, she has established a global curriculum to train cornea surgeons in developing and middle-income countries. Under her leadership, the organization has created an international source for sustainable cornea tissue procurement, evaluation, and distribution. Today, Rostov provides continuing medical education and trains fellows and faculty in corneal transplant techniques at eye hospitals in India and Nepal.
Among other global health initiatives, Rostov developed the Village Eyecare Worker program in India, which employs female village members and trains them to diagnose and treat corneal eye injuries. Through this training, Rostov’s students have resolved 95% of eye injuries presented. As an affiliate surgeon with the Himalayan Cataract Project, a global health organization committed to treating and curing needless blindness in under-resourced countries, Rostov also established a global corneal fellowship to train corneal surgeons in Nepal and Ethiopia and is expanding care to Ghana.
Rostov earned her undergraduate degree from Boston University and her medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine. She completed her residency at Washington University and undertook fellowships with Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Minnesota Eye Consultants PC. Committed to mentoring the next generation of ophthalmologists, she provides guidance to students interested in ophthalmology residencies and young ophthalmologists pursuing opportunities in clinical research or industry.
Richard Wahl, MD, is the Elizabeth E. Mallinckrodt Professor of Radiology, director of the Edward Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology and chair of the Department of Radiology at Washington University School of Medicine. Prior to WashU, Wahl was the vice chair of radiology and the inaugural Henry N. Wagner, Jr. Professor and director of the Division of Nuclear Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Wahl is a renowned nuclear medicine physician and pioneer in the use of PET scans to diagnose, stage and assess treatments of a wide range of cancers. He was among the first to harness the power of the immune system to accurately target and treat cancers with radioactive drugs, a technique that has become known as radioimmunotherapy. He has been at the forefront of efforts to combine quantitative data from multiple scans to form so-called “fusion images” that can help physicians more precisely diagnose and characterize cancers and use quantitative imaging data to guide cancer treatments.
An elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the American Association of Physicians, and the National Academy of Medicine, Wahl serves on several editorial boards. He recently ended his term as president of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. A fellow with three professional organizations, Wahl holds 18 radiology patents and has published more than 500 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts.
Wahl earned his undergraduate degree from Wartburg College and medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine, where he remained to complete his residency in nuclear medicine and undertook a research fellowship.
Past award recipients
2022
Pamela G. Freeman, MD ’77
Jondavid Menteer, MD ’97
Leana S. Wen, MD ’07
2021
Sam B. Bhayani, MD ’96, HS ’98, HS ’02
Ellen F. Binder, MD ’81
Gary D. Luker, MD ’91
Mark A. Mintun, MD ’81, HS ’85
Jeffrey G. Ojemann, MD ’92, HS ’99 (reunion year ’91)
Janice Wann Semenkovich, MD ’81
2020
George A. Mensah, MD ’85
Scott A. Mirowitz, MD ’85, HS ’89
Bradley L. Schlaggar, MD/PhD ’94, HS ’99 (reunion year ’90)
James L. Sweatt III, MD ’62
Peter Westervelt, MD/PhD ’92; HS ’94, HS ’99 (reunion year ’90)
2019
Andrew C. Chan, MD/PhD ’86, HS ’89 (reunion year ’84)
Ann Randolph Flipse, MD ’59, HS ’61
Gurjit K. Khurana Hershey, MD/PhD ’92, HS ’97 (reunion year ’89)
William E. Klunk, MD/PhD ’84
Mary V. Mason, MD ’94, HS ’98, MBA ’99
2018
Richard J. Auchus, MD/PhD ’88
Brad T. Cookson, MD/PhD ’91
Mark E. Frisse, MD ’78, HS ’82, MBA ’97
V. Michael Holers, MD ’78, HS ’85
Lisa M. Moscoso, MD/PhD ’98, HS ’02
2017
Thomas R. Burklow, MD ’87
J. William Campbell, MD ’77, HS ’80
Gary A. Ratkin, MD ’67, HS ’72
Charles W.M. Roberts, MD/PhD ’95
2016
Robert H. Allen, MD ’66, HS ’76
Nancy L. Bartlett, MD ’86
Deborah Veis Novack, PhD/MD ’95, HS ’00
C. Leon Partain, PhD, MD ’75
Eric T. Vaughn, MD ’91
2015
William A. Blattner, MD ’70
C. Robert Cloninger, MD’70, HS
Ellen Li, MD/PhD ’80
Joseph R. Williamson, MD ’58
2014
Jerry Cohen, MD ’64, HS ’71
C. James Holliman, MD ’79
Charles C. Norland, MD ’59
J. Andy Sullivan, MD ’69, HS ’74
2013
John Constantino, MD ’88
Sandeep Jauhar, MD ’98, PhD
Joseph K.T. Lee, MD ’73
Stephen Young, MD ’78
2012
Keith Bridwell, MD ‘77
Warner C. Greene, MD, PhD ’77
Gary S. Rachelefsky, MD ‘67
Pejman Salimpour, MD ‘87
2011
Richard L. Baron, MD ’76
Michael J. Lenardo, MD ’81
Kathleen Brogan Schwarz, MD ’72
Ira A. Tabas, MD ’81
2010
Floyd E. Bloom, MD ’60
Dan R. Littman, MD ’80
2009
Michael Georgieff, MD ’79
David Hussey, MD ’64
2008
R. Edward Coleman, MD ’68
Charles O. Elson, III, MD ’68
Alexander Gottschalk, MD ’58
James P. McCulley, MD ’68
2007
Michael Adams, MD ’67
David D. Chaplin, MD ’80, PhD ’80
Guido Guidotti, MD, PhD ’57
John H. Stone III, MD ’62
2006
Marshall E. Bloom, MD ’71
Willard B. Walker, MD ’46
2005
James E. Darnell Jr., MD ’55
Eric D. Green, MD, PhD ’87, HS ’91
2004
Danny O. Jacobs, MD ’79
David E. Smith Jr., MD ’44
2003
Barry M. Farr, MD ’78
W. Allan Walker, MD ’63
2002
Ewald W. Busse, MD ’42
Robert D. Fry, MD ’72
Charlotte D. Jacobs, MD ’72
Clifford B. Saper, MD, PhD ’77
2001
Herbert T. Abelson, MD ’66
Theodore C. Feierabend, MD ’51
Frank Vellios, MD ’46
2000
Clay M. Armstrong, MD ’60
Richard L. Landau, MD ’40
William T. Shearer, MD, PhD ’70
1999
C. Garrison Fathman, MD ’69
Robert E. Hermann, MD ’54
Carolyn Robinowitz, MD ’64
1998
William B. Blythe, MD ’53
John I. Sandson, MD ’53
Lynn M. Taussig, MD ’68
1997
John M. Eisenberg, MD ’72
Helen Hofsommer Glaser, MD ’47
Kenneth R. Smith Jr., MD ’57
1996
Gladden V. Elliott, MD ’46
Lowell A. Gess, MD ’51
Larry J. Shapiro, MD ’71
1995
Philip O. Alderson, MD ’70
Dennis P. Cantwell, MD ’65
Margaret C. Telfer, MD ’65
1994
Samuel P. Bessman, MD ’44
A. Martin Lerner, MD ’54
Raymond G. Schultze, MD ’59
1993
Joseph M. Davie, MD, PhD ’68
Gerald T. Perkoff, MD ’48
Edwin W. Salzman, MD ’53
1992
Harry S. Jonas, MD ’52
Brent M. Parker, MD ’52
Robert D. Utiger, MD ’57
1991
Ronald G. Evens, MD ’64
Lawrence W. O’Neal, MD ’46
Meredith J. Payne, MD ’50
1990
Purnell W. Choppin, MD, HS
Leonard Jarett, MD ’62
Dorothy D. Reister, MD ’50
1989
Richard ‘David’ Aach, MD ’59
Charles L. Eckert, MD ’39
Jonathan Mann, MD ’74
1988
Henry L. Barnett, MD ’38
Edwin G. Krebs, MD ’43
Seymour Reichlin, MD ’48
1987
Pedro Cuatrecasas, MD ’62
Alfred Gellhorn, MD ’37
C. Barber Mueller, MD ’42
1986
Robert M. Filler, MD ’56
Thomas F. Hornbein, MD ’56
Kenneth E. Pletcher, MD ’36
1985
Ralph Berg Jr., MD ’45
John P. Roberts, MD ’45
Richard A. Sutter, MD ’35
1984
Daniel Nathans, MD ’54
Albert L. Rhoton Jr., MD ’59
David W. Talmage, MD ’44
1983
Jack Barrow, MD ’46
Russell J. Blattner, MD ’33
C. Read Boles, MD ’43
Samuel D. Soule, MD ’28
1982
Carroll Behrhorst, MD ’47
George Sato, MD ’47
Hugh E. Stephenson Jr., MD ’45