Community Programs for Families, Children Garner Recognition
The third annual Dr. David Satcher Community Health Improvement Awards will be presented by the University of Rochester Medical Center at 5 p.m. Monday, March 19, in the Class of ’62 Auditorium at the University of Rochester Medical Center. The awards are named in honor of the 16th Surgeon General of the United States, who completed his medical residency at URMC in 1972 and received an honorary degree from the University in 1995.
Satcher, who went on to become a leading voice in the field of public health and has dedicated his career to improving public health policy, will be on hand March 19 to give the annual grand rounds address. His talk, titled “The World Health Organization Committee and Its Impact on An Approach for Health in America,” will precede the awards ceremony.
In their third year, the community health improvement awards distinguish individuals who have made significant contributions to community health in the greater Rochester region through research, education, clinical services and outreach efforts. The awards reflect URMC’s mission to continue to develop and expand university-community partnerships that support participatory research and interventions that reduce health inequalities and improve the community’s health.
The Dr. David Satcher Community Health Improvement Awards recipients for 2012:
- Ann M. Dozier, R.N., Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, has devoted more than three decades of her career to community-partnered work to improve health for women and children. Together with her community partners, and guided by the URMC Community Advisory Council, she is currently conducting a $1.7 million NIH community-based research project to increase breastfeeding among low-income mothers. These mothers represent an underserved population that bears the brunt of infant morbidity and mortality.
She also helped establish the HealthiKids Breastfeeding Policy Action Team to improve breastfeeding rates across the community, an initiative that is now part of a $3.6 million CDC-funded Community Transformation Grant. Her community partners include the Perinatal Network of Monroe County, Monroe County WIC, Monroe County Department of Public Health, and the Healthi Kids Coalition.
- Sheree L. Toth, Ph.D., associate professor in the departments of Clinical & Social Psychology and Psychiatry and director of Mt. Hope Family Center, is committed to reducing the devastating impact of childhood trauma and achieving both short- and long-term mental health, developmental and physical health outcomes.
The Mt. Hope Family Center has attained national and international renown as a leader in the treatment of childhood trauma, maternal depression and attachment disorders. It also has achieved membership in the prestigious National Child Traumatic Stress Network, while locally providing evidence-based interventions in several collaborative programs, including Healthy Futures, Starlight Pediatrics, the Incredible Years Collaborative, BASIC prevention and intervention services, and Building Healthy Children, a collaborative with URMC Pediatrics and Social Work, and the Society for the Protection and Care of Children.
Parking for event guests without URMC parking permits is available in the Kornberg Medical Research Building lot. For more information, call (585) 224-3053 or e-mail Mary Anne Gombatto at maryanne_gombatto@urmc.rochester.edu.