Tony Chiodo, M.D., professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation and director of the Spine Program and the Spinal Cord Injury Program, was selected as a distinguished clinician by the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. The distinction is given to a member of the organization who has made outstanding contributions to the field both clinically and academically, as well as provided service to the organization.

Dee Fenner, M.D. (Residency 1989), the Harold A. Furlong Professor of Women’s Health, professor of urology and of obstetrics and gynecology, has received the Rodney Appell Continence Care Champion Award from the National Association for Continence. The award recognizes health care providers who excel in the areas of diagnosis, treatment and management, and aims to raise awareness and elevate the importance of addressing incontinence in clinical practice.

Kevin Flaherty, M.D., associate professor of internal medicine, received the Marvin I. Schwarz Research Award from the Coalition for Pulmonary Fibrosis. The award recognizes a researcher’s commitment to improve the quality of life of those living with pulmonary fibrosis through patient care, education and support, while leading research efforts to find a cure.

Hope Haefner (M.D. 1985), professor of obstetrics and gynecology and co-director of the U-M Center for Vulvar Diseases, has been selected to become president of the International Society for the Study of Vulvovaginal Disease. The society educates health care providers on current research and understanding of difficult vulvovaginal conditions. Haefner’s interests are focused on lichen sclerosus, lichen planus and vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia.

David D. Howell (M.D. 1983), assistant professor of radiation oncology, was designated a fellow of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. He is the first U.S.-trained, board-certified radiation oncologist to receive this honor, and one of fewer than 200 of the academy’s more than 4,000 members to be named a fellow. Howell also serves as the medical director of radiation oncology at the Morey Cancer Center in Mount Pleasant, Michigan.

Dinesh Khanna, M.D., was named the 2011 Doctor of the Year by the Scleroderma Foundation during the National Patient Education Conference in July. The recognition is given to a skilled physician or researcher for his or her involvement within the foundation, and for helping provide guidance and support to the organization’s patient population. Khanna serves as the Marvin and Betty Danto Research Professor of Connective Tissue Research and associate professor of internal medicine in the Division of Rheumatology, as well as director of the Scleroderma Program.

Jeffrey S. Kutcher, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of neurology and director of the Michigan Neurosport Concussion Program, was named Advocate of the Year by the American Academy of Neurology’s Donald M. Palatucci Advocacy Leadership Forum. Kutcher was honored for his exemplary work in raising awareness about the neurologist’s role in treating sports concussion and improving educational resources for doctors.

Ralph Lydic, Ph.D., has been named to a five-year appointment as chair of the Sleep and Circadian Rhythms Team Grant External Advisory Panel for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Lydic is the Bert N. La Du Professor of Anesthesiology Research, professor of molecular and integrative physiology, and serves as associate chair for research and co-director of the Center for Sleep Science.

Monica L. Lypson, M.D., has been elected to a four-year term as a member-at-large of the National Board of Medical Examiners. Lypson is an associate professor of internal medicine and of medical education, and assistant dean of graduate medical education. She previously served on the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 Committee.

George A. Mashour, M.D., Ph.D., received the 2011 Presidential Scholar Award from the American Society of Anesthesiologists for his work related to consciousness and neuroanesthesiology. Mashour, assistant professor of anesthesiology and of neurosurgery, also directs the U-M Division of Neuroanesthesiology.

Rebecca M. Minter, M.D., associate professor of surgery and of medical education, has been appointed to the National Board of Medical Examiners, representing the Council of Medical Specialty Societies for a four-year term.

Ora Hirsch Pescovitz, M.D., U-M executive vice president for medical affairs and CEO of the U-M Health System, has been elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, the nation’s most prestigious body for professionals in health and medicine. A pediatric endocrinologist, she won national acclaim in the 1990s for her research on children’s metabolic diseases and puberty disorders. Her research involves the physiologic and molecular mechanisms responsible for disorders of growth and puberty, with a focus on development of novel therapies for these conditions. IOM was created in 1970 to honor the nation’s best medical minds and advise Congress on health issues. Additionally, on September 26, Pescovitz was elected to a three-year term on the board of the Association of Academic Health Centers, a non-profit dedicated to advancing the nation’s health and well-being through the vigorous leadership of academic health centers.

Beth A. Tarini, M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics and communicable diseases, has been selected to serve as co-medical director of a Genetics in Primary Care Institute grant awarded to the American Academy of Pediatrics. The three-year award is provided by the Health Resources and Services Administration Maternal and Child Health Bureau. Tarini conducts research on the use of genetic testing in children and is a member of the U-M Child Health Evaluation and Research (CHEAR) Unit.

Kara Zivin, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry, was named the 2010 Barry Lebowitz Early Career Scientist by the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. The award is given to an early career investigator with the best unpublished paper; in this case, Zivins’ “Cost-related medication non-adherence among beneficiaries with depression following Medicare Part D.” —MF

Monica Lypson: Champion for Medical Education

It makes sense that Monica Lypson, M.D., is interested in educational pipeline programs. She spent 14 years in such a program herself.

When Lypson was in seventh grade in her native Chicago, she was chosen for a program sponsored by the state of Illinois called the Chicago Area Health and Medical Careers Program, known by the nickname “Champ.” Its purpose is to increase the number of qualified minority applicants by identifying promising students very early and supporting them with structured academics, counseling, and motivational and financial support until they attain their doctorate.

“Brown had a dual degree program so I was admitted into medical school when I applied, but opted to go to Case Western for medical school,” she says. “Pipeline programs are the only way I became involved in medicine. If it hadn’t been for those types of programs, I don’t think I would have survived. I had a peer group ahead of me that showed me the way and what the medical culture was like, which is especially important for kids who don’t have physicians in the family.”

Lypson, did, however have teachers in the family — both of her parents — so it also makes sense that medical education has been a major focus of her career. A clinical associate professor of medical education and of internal medicine who serves as assistant dean of graduate medical education, Lypson also was recently named interim associate dean for diversity and director of the Diversity and Career Development Office.

“The fact that I do mostly teaching cracks my parents up because I kind of did follow in the family footsteps,” she says. They were rather impressive footsteps, too.

“I remember there were times when my parents’ classrooms were the only ones in their schools where test scores improved,” Lypson recalls. “I lived in that environment where you have to prove competence. Now I have a master’s in education; it took me a while to get it, but I did get it. My thesis was about applying K-12 principles to medical education. That’s another thing that my mother finds incredibly funny.”

The common denominator in her educational, administrative and clinical roles is problem-solving, she says. “I like to dig deep and figure things out, be it a clinical problem, which is probably why I’m a general internist; an administrative problem, like how we’re trying to implement lean business principles into our educational processes; or solve a problem in the diversity office, so that we can showcase the University of Michigan’s current diversity and attract more faculty, students and house staff from different backgrounds.

“Because once they realize the resources the university has at-large,” she says, “it’s perfectly tailored to engage their interest. The U-M has been committed for a long time.”

Still, it doesn’t take too much reflection to see how far things have already come. “When I was a medical student, my family’s best frame of reference to understand what I was going through was to watch ‘ER,’ ” Lypson says. “What my child will have to deal with if he decides to pursue medicine compared to what I had to deal with will be vastly different.” —JEFF MORTIMER