2021 Awardees
Sara Auld, MD, MSc, Department of Medicine
“Over the last year, Dr. Auld has demonstrated exceptional service to the Emory community through her strong work ethic, an innovative spirit, and commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration. Her contributions have informed clinical care for critically ill patients with COVID and led to a collaborative, interdisciplinary research network to rapidly advance COVID research. Dr. Auld has championed these service efforts in addition to her heavy clinical and research demands, making her an ideal candidate for this award.”
“Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and alongside the intensive clinical demands that accompanied it, Dr. Auld quickly poised herself as a cornerstone of Emory’s systemwide response. Given her natural leadership skills, as well as her incredible work ethic, she rose to the occasion when asked to undertake several collaborative projects, including leading both the Quality and Clinical Research Collaborative and the COVID-19 Anticoagulation Working Group.”
“It is critical to note that Sara made key, transformative contributions to all three arms of the tripartite mission of an academic health setting. From a clinical point of view, the greater than 10 protocols Sara led resulted in us having a mortality index of 0.66 for over 2000 ICU patients in the Vizient database – an extraordinary accomplishment. Further, her leadership directly led to teaching not only the providers at Emory how to care for COVID, but providers across the US (and the world) by her efforts to share our protocols via the AAMC website.”
“Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and alongside the intensive clinical demands that accompanied it, Dr. Auld quickly poised herself as a cornerstone of Emory’s systemwide response. Given her natural leadership skills, as well as her incredible work ethic, she rose to the occasion when asked to undertake several collaborative projects, including leading both the Quality and Clinical Research Collaborative and the COVID-19 Anticoagulation Working Group.”
“It is critical to note that Sara made key, transformative contributions to all three arms of the tripartite mission of an academic health setting. From a clinical point of view, the greater than 10 protocols Sara led resulted in us having a mortality index of 0.66 for over 2000 ICU patients in the Vizient database – an extraordinary accomplishment. Further, her leadership directly led to teaching not only the providers at Emory how to care for COVID, but providers across the US (and the world) by her efforts to share our protocols via the AAMC website.”
Nicole Franks, MD, Department of Emergency Medicine
“Dr. Franks began her career at Emory School of Medicine in 1995, first as an Emergency Medicine resident and then as Chief Resident. From that moment on, Dr. Franks was destined to be the leader she is today, serving as the Chief Quality Officer at Emory University Hospital Midtown. During her almost two decades at Emory, Dr. Franks developed leadership skills and acumen focusing on health care quality for our most vulnerable patients used her administrative skills to articulate and advance a vision for quality care for all patients.”
“As the Chief Quality Officer of Emory University Midtown Hospital, Nicole has developed a collaborate approach to teaching her fellows and staff that she works with. Providing others with a solid quality foundation and guiding them towards achieving measurable goals. She has been instrumental in developing a quality curriculum for our emergency medicine residents that fills a needed gap. She lectures at national meetings and is known in her areas of expertise.”
“As the Chief Quality Officer of Emory University Midtown Hospital, Nicole has developed a collaborate approach to teaching her fellows and staff that she works with. Providing others with a solid quality foundation and guiding them towards achieving measurable goals. She has been instrumental in developing a quality curriculum for our emergency medicine residents that fills a needed gap. She lectures at national meetings and is known in her areas of expertise.”
Alexis Pavlov, PhD, Department of Pediatrics
“Dr. Pavlov is an invaluable member of our team at the Marcus Autism Center. Within our Severe Behavior program, we provide assessment and treatment services to individuals who present with challenging behavior. Specifically, our patient population engages in severe forms of self-injurious (e.g., hitting, biting, or scratching oneself), aggressive (e.g., punching, kicking, biting, choking), and destructive (e.g., breaking valuable items, putting holes in walls) behavior.”
“Dr. Pavlov was hired to spearhead a new arm of the Severe Behavior services, harnessing her skill set to solve problems within the CHOA hospital system. This new service line has two primary purposes. The first being to assist with any type of medical appointment or service for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or other developmental disabilities on an ad hoc basis. This means that the hospital reaches out to Dr. Pavlov for assistance with patients who are likely to display challenging behavior during medical appointments. Dr. Pavlov works with the medical team (e.g., physicians, nurses, child life specialists, techs, paramedics) and the family to develop a plan in order to avoid or reduce the impact problem behavior can have on these appointments.”
“With very little outside direction, Dr. Pavlov has led the effort improve how our system cares for these patients in medical settings. She has single handedly built a consultation service for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta so that when a difficult patient like this is encountered she is made aware and helps whichever team is dealing with that patient to maintain safety of the patient and staff, while also ensuring that the patient is able to get the medical care needed. She has also built a crisis admission format for children with ASD who present to the ED in a behavioral crisis.”
“Dr. Pavlov was hired to spearhead a new arm of the Severe Behavior services, harnessing her skill set to solve problems within the CHOA hospital system. This new service line has two primary purposes. The first being to assist with any type of medical appointment or service for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or other developmental disabilities on an ad hoc basis. This means that the hospital reaches out to Dr. Pavlov for assistance with patients who are likely to display challenging behavior during medical appointments. Dr. Pavlov works with the medical team (e.g., physicians, nurses, child life specialists, techs, paramedics) and the family to develop a plan in order to avoid or reduce the impact problem behavior can have on these appointments.”
“With very little outside direction, Dr. Pavlov has led the effort improve how our system cares for these patients in medical settings. She has single handedly built a consultation service for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta so that when a difficult patient like this is encountered she is made aware and helps whichever team is dealing with that patient to maintain safety of the patient and staff, while also ensuring that the patient is able to get the medical care needed. She has also built a crisis admission format for children with ASD who present to the ED in a behavioral crisis.”
2020 Awardees
- Michael Clery, MD (Emergency Medicine)
- Tracey Henry, MD (Medicine)
- Terri McFadden, MD (Pediatrics)
2019 Awardees
- Meredith Lora, MD (Medicine)
- Adedapo Odetyinbo, MD (Medicine)
- Tammie Quest, MD (Emergency Medicine) - Pictured above
2018 Awardees
- Joanna Bonsall, MD, PhD (Medicine)
- Elizabeth Duggan, MD (Anesthesiology)
2017 Awardees
- Mikhail Akbashev, MD (Medicine)
- Wendy Armstrong, MD(Medicine)
- Scott Boden, MD (Orthopaedics)
- Paula Frew, PhD, MA, MPH (Medicine)