Denise Martinez has worked tirelessly to address health disparities throughout Iowa during her time with UI Health Care. Alongside her creation and support of student organizations focused on inclusion and belonging in medical training, she has connected students of all backgrounds with opportunities in medicine through individual mentorship. She has also encouraged the next generation of health professionals to serve rural and disadvantaged patient populations with empathy. Martinez served as interim associate VP for health parity and associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion through July 2023.
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Janifer Judisch co-founded the Children’s Cancer Center (CCC) in Tampa, Florida. The programs she developed at CCC brought together music therapy, social work, child life, and other disciplines to create holistic care for the social and emotional needs of sick children and their families. She revolutionized how children at CCC are informed of their diagnoses, going against the prevailing wisdom of the time to withhold the diagnosis from the child and instead leading with truth and empathy to promote better overall well-being during the child’s illness and treatment. After 25 years of service, Judisch retired in 2000 and continues to contribute as a CCC board member.
Susan Beebout has committed her life’s work to meeting health care needs in under-resourced communities in Africa. She has lived in Niamey, Niger, since 2007, where she worked with the Evangelical Church of Niger to establish the Clinic Olivia Primary Care Center. Two years ago, a second clinic was opened in Dongondoutchi, a commune in Niger. She also teaches students and residents at the public medical school in Niamey. Beebout collaborates with the Carver College of Medicine’s Global Health Programs to place medical students, faculty, and alumni in health care settings in Niger, where the trainees and their Nigerien colleagues can mutually exchange knowledge from their diverse health care experiences and backgrounds.
Anil Sood’s pioneering contributions to basic and translational cancer research began when he showed that short fragments of RNA can be harnessed to shut down dysfunctional cell processes. This finding opened the door to a new approach to targeted therapies, some of which are now FDA-approved. He is an internationally recognized expert on ovarian cancers, and he has led MD Anderson Cancer Center’s ambitious Moon Shots Program for ovarian cancer research since its inception in 2012. With extensive funding from the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Defense, among others, Sood has produced hundreds of peer-reviewed publications over the course of his career.
Harold Adams’ 50-year career in stroke research cemented his place as a titan of the field. He is among the originators of the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, a tool to assess stroke severity that still guides patient care today. As director of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, he spearheaded the development of vascular neurology as a subspecialty. Additionally, as principal investigator of the landmark multicenter study known as TOAST, Adams and colleagues steered physicians away from a commonly used anticoagulant toward safer and more effective therapies. He has served on national committees for the American Heart Association, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and more, but his proudest accomplishments were in teaching.
The goal of the All of Us Research Program is to advance precision medicine research, one day enabling clinicians to tailor patient care by accounting for individual differences in biology, behavior, and environment. To that end, the program has created a national research resource that will include comprehensive de-identified health information from more than 1 million people in the United States.
Four University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine faulty members will receive endowed professorship appointments during an investiture ceremony Friday, Sept. 15.
Gordon Buchanan, MD, PhD named director of the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) Sept. 1, 2023.
Harrison Cater is the third generation of his family to enroll in the physician assistant program at the University of Iowa, but the decision to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather was anything but easy. Witnessing how crucial patient rapport was throughout his father's PA career, Cater initially hesitated, as he didn’t see himself as a “people person.” Over time, he intentionally built the skills he would need to succeed in the field.
Emma Luhmann didn't consider herself a "science person" when she started college. Now she's starting her PhD at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine after discovering a passion for mass spectrometry while working in the UI lab of Lilliana Radoshevich, PhD.