SOM Staff Awards

The Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award recognizes a staff member who has made significant achievements in ensuring the climate of the School of Medicine is characterized by inclusivity and organizational equity through leveraging the varied attributes of diversity in our community. Suanne "Sam" Engle is the communications specialist within the Department of Radiology. In addition to her duties as communications specialist, Suanne serves as co-chair of the department’s DEI committee, where her contributions are described as “indispensable” and “innovative.” Highlights of her work include launching virtual “fireside chats,” fostering meaningful discussions on critical DEI topics, spearheading a series of videos to highlight the diverse and talented faculty and staff within the department, and creating the DEI toolkit that is available on the radiology department website. 

The Learner Impact Award recognizes a staff member who contributes to learner success in a notable and measurable way through the personal, professional, or academic development of a learner or group of learners above and beyond the expectation of their position. Karen Woods, program manager for the multidisciplinary pain fellowship in the Department of Anesthesiology, is tasked with reviewing and identifying desirable applicants through an unbiased, systematic scoring paradigm. During her time in the role, she has improved the interview experience, creating an efficient schedule for seamlessly matching multiple applicants and faculty in an elegantly designed interview day grid. Most recently, Karen spearheaded the fellowship’s return to in-person recruitment and led the incorporation of Continued Medical Education credit for participating faculty. At a time when 30% of similar programs in the country fail to match, the Emory program’s remarkable match rate is a testament to Karen’s influence and appeal. 

The Going the Extra Mile (GEM) Award recognizes staff members who go above and beyond the routine call of duty and positively impact the School of Medicine, departments, programs, or committees from behind the scenes while exhibiting a commitment to excellence. Stephanie Carroll, program director in the Department of Radiation Oncology, is internally referred to as the “Director of Faculty Development,” as she is the individual who makes it possible for the department’s faculty to thrive. She is involved in many important areas, from recruitment and promotions to nominations and staff support. She develops and launches department initiatives, volunteers when others are overloaded, and provides exceptional quality work while serving as a capable partner to the chair. Her contributions include support for creating an entirely new division, the Division of Health Services Outcomes and Policy, within the department, developing a departmental mentorship network, and developing a departmental newsletter. 

The Team Excellence Award: Research/Science is focused on recognizing a basic sciences, laboratory, or clinical research team whose impact is evidenced by achieved or anticipated scientific/health impact on internal or external stakeholders, the establishment of productive interdisciplinary partnerships, or the development and implementation of novel approaches to work tasks. The Clinical and Translational Science Alliance (CTSA) Informatics Research team embodies this award. The team provides critical capabilities ranging from clinical data extraction and infrastructure building to data analytics and machine learning, supporting the CTSA’s mission of providing efficient and effective clinical and translation research support. A major highlight of their work is their support for deploying a home-grown sepsis prediction model to the Epic EMR environment. The team adapted the workflow and data for the Epic environment, developed two processing pipelines into which the predictive model could be deployed, developed Standard Operating Procedures for the model deployment, and supported the evaluation and continued development of the sepsis prediction models. The team’s work has been critical to the success of the predictive model, which can predict sepsis onset up to six hours earlier than the existing CDC sepsis-3 criteria. The Clinical and Translational Science Alliance (CTSA) Informatics Research team includes Sreekar Anugu, Ryan Birmingham, Barney Chan, Nita Deshpande, Dileep Gunda, Venkatesh Javvayi,  Matthew Pagel, Michael Proctor, Chad Robichaux, Julia Schneider, and Megan Schwinne. 

The second Team Excellence Award: Non-Research/Science is awarded to the Frontlines of Communities in the United States (FOCUS)​ team within the Department of Pediatrics. The goal of the FOCUS team is to implement universal opt-out HIV testing, as recommended by the CDC, in the pediatric emergency department. The team is currently deployed in the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta pediatric emergency departments and, within one year, has increased HIV testing by 109% across all three PED sites. The team worked diligently with doctors and nurses in the pediatric emergency department to streamline the HIV testing process and ensure that it did not disrupt the current clinical workflows. In addition, they provide weekly education at all three sites to increase awareness of the need for the testing. The Frontlines of Communities in the United States (FOCUS)​ team includes Jordan Bryant, Melissa Cameron, Sandy Francois, and Bridget Wynn.