University of Iowa Distinguished Alumni Award
CPH winners of the University of Iowa’s Distinguished Alumni Award
Each year, the University of Iowa Alumni Association presents accomplished alumni and friends with the association's highest honor—the Distinguished Alumni Award. Below are College of Public Health alumni and friends who have been honored with this award.
2011: Richard F. Hansen
As founder, partner, and director of the Hansen Lind Meyer healthcare architectural firm, Richard F. Hansen oversaw the planning and design of more than $1 billion in health facilities, including the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Hansen has since become one of the staunchest supporters of the UI College of Public Health, endowing a leadership award and lecture series, serving as an adjunct professor, and leading the campaign to finance the new building and support its students, faculty, and programs.
2011: Marta VanBeek
In a remarkably short time, Marta VanBeek has distinguished herself as a leader in academic medicine at the state and national level. A key member of the American Academy of Dermatology, she played an active part in the recent national debate over healthcare reform. VanBeek showed her outstanding potential early at the UI, where she earned the Hancher Finkbine Medallion and the Medical Student Service Award. Now director of the division of surgery in the UI Department of Dermatology, VanBeek recently received the prestigious North American Young Dermatologist International Achievement Award.
2011: Janice Ellig
As co-CEO of Chadick Ellig, one of the nation's premier executive search firms, Janice Reals Ellig has achieved impressive professional success and earned admiration for her efforts to advance women and minorities. Reals Ellig also maintains close ties with her alma mater, serving on the executive committee and as a director of the UI Foundation board of directors, on the UI College of Public Health building campaign committee, and on other university boards. Reals Ellig also inspires students as a regular speaker at the Tippie College of Business and through a UI College of Public Health scholarship she funds in memory of her sister.
2010: Richard Knapp
Richard Knapp has devoted a distinguished career to advocating for academic medicine and helping find policy solutions to some of the nation’s most pressing health care and educational issues. In his 40 years at the Association of American Medical Colleges, culminating in his role as executive vice president, he demonstrated an unfailing moral compass that earned him the respect of his peers. Knapp also has a strong service ethic, as evidenced by his work as a founding member of the UI College of Public Health’s external advisory board and as president of the Department of Health Management and Policy’s alumni board. In recognition of such personal and professional accomplishments, Knapp received the college’s 2005 Outstanding Alumni Award.
2008: Maryfran sowers
An internationally known researcher in musculoskeletal disorders, MaryFran Sowers (d. 2011) contributed significantly to the understanding of osteoporosis and bone health in women. Sowers earned a Ph.D. from the UI in preventive medicine in 1984, studying in an area that is now the Department of Epidemiology. Her groundbreaking studies deepened the medical community’s understanding of the physiological changes of the aging female body, including the genetic and nutritional factors of bone loss and other diseases. A professor of epidemiology, Sowers also served as director of the University of Michigan’s Center for Integrated Approaches to Complex Diseases.
2007: Stephen L. Ummel
Regarded as something of a miracle worker in the immensely complicated and always challenging health care industry, Stephen L. Ummel has served his profession in many ways. During the 1970s, he was instrumental in working with University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics director John Colloton to plan, fund, and systematically rebuild the university's clinical care system. Committed to containing costs, improving access to health care, and enhancing services, Ummel has provided guidance to many health organizations and is today director of PriceWaterHouseCoopers Healthcare Advisory Practice in Chicago.
2006: Ronald K. Ross
An outstanding cancer epidemiologist, Ronald Ross focused on the interaction between the environment and the genetics in the etiology of cancer. As chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine at the University of Southern California-the nation's highest-ranking preventive medicine department in terms of National Institutes of Health funding-and deputy director of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ross was highly regarded not only as a scientist but as an administrator, leader, and role model. With more than 300 scientific papers to his name, this internationally recognized researcher made several seminal contributions to the fight against cancer. Ross lost his own battle with cancer in April 2006; he received his award in February 2006.
2003: Martin Sepulveda
Martin J. Sepulveda, 85F, is highly respected as one of the leading occupational health physicians in the country. As vice president of global occupational health services and health benefits at IBM, he has helped IBM achieve national distinction as the only corporation to twice receive a national award given to the company with the most outstanding occupational health and safety program.
2002: Thomas Dolan
Thomas Dolan, a 1977 Ph.D. graduate in Hospital and Health Administration, has received a 2002 University of Iowa Distinguished Alumni Award for Achievement. The award is given by the UI Alumni Association to UI graduates or former students for significant accomplishments in business or professional life or for distinguished human service to their community, state, or nation.
2000: James Cavanaugh
James H. Cavanaugh, 61MA, 64Ph.D., is president and a general partner of HealthCare Ventures, LLC in Princeton, New Jersey, which manages the largest venture capital fund devoted exclusively to health care. The firm funds research in leading-edge health care products, creating and managing health science companies with a strong focus on genetics, immunology, and transplant medicine.