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Susanna Von Essen, M.D., with Mary L. Pritchard, Ph.D., a retired faculty member at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, at the recent College of Public Health awards banquet. Dr. Pitchard inspired Dr. Von Essen — the recipient of the Chancellor Robert D. Sparks Award in Public Health and Preventive Medicine — to go into research. |
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Interim College of Public Health Dean Keith Mueller, Ph.D., right, with master’s of public health student Chris Brown, recipient of the Chancellor Robert D. Sparks, M.D. Public Health Research Student Award. |
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Dr. Mueller with Stephen Krumland, recipient of the Chancellor Robert D. Sparks, M.D., Pre-professional Scholarship. |
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Dr. Mueller with the recipients of the 2009 Carruth J. Wagner, M.D. Scholarships for Outstanding Graduate Student. The scholarship recipients are, from left, Chris Brown, Aja Kneip, Lava Raj Timsina, Mona Sorouri and Kara Gehring. |
Susanna Von Essen, M.D., professor of pulmonary medicine, in the College of Medicine received the Chancellor Robert D. Sparks Award in Public Health and Preventive Medicine.
Dr. Von Essen — who was raised on a northeast Nebraska farm — joined the UNMC faculty in 1988 and started a research program with a focus on respiratory conditions related to exposure to grain dust and hog barn dust on the farm. She has since inspired a number of UNMC colleagues to launch their own projects in this area of study. Dr. Von Essen earned a Masters in Public Health degree from the University of Michigan in 1999 and teaches in the College of Public of Health MPH program.
A student from that program — Chris Brown — received the Chancellor Robert D. Sparks, M.D. Public Health Research Student Award.
Brown — who also works as a graduate research assistant in the COPH’s department of epidemiology — plans to use funds that come with the award to pursue a research project titled “Prevalence of genital human papilloma virus infection in men attending a student-run STD clinic in Omaha, NE.”
Stephen Krumland, a junior Spanish/Latin American Studies double major at UNL, received the Chancellor Robert D. Sparks, M.D., Pre-professional Scholarship. During the first half of 2008, Krumland studied and volunteered in Peru and Argentina. After UNL, he hopes to go to medical school to receive a M.D. and perhaps an MPH degree.
Brown also received one five Carruth J. Wagner, M.D. Scholarship for Outstanding Graduate Student awards that were presented during the ceremony.
The others who received Wagner scholarships were:
- Mona Sorouri;
- Kara Gehring;
- Lava Raj Timsina; and
- Aja Kneip.
All five Wagner scholarship recipients are MPH students.
Also honored during the ceremony were recent graduates of the MPH program — Jameca Price, M.D., (UNMC’s first M.D./MPH graduate), Christine Ross, Keerun Kamble and Jennifer Black-Shinn — and the college’s inaugural Excellence in Teaching Award winner, Toby Schonfeld, Ph.D.
About the awards
The Chancellor Robert D. Sparks, M.D., Award in Public Health and Preventive Medicine recognizes an individual who has shown outstanding innovation, excellence, collaboration and impact on health promotion, disease prevention and advancement of effective public health.
The Chancellor Robert D. Sparks, M.D., Pre-professional/Undergraduate Student Scholarship in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention scholarship is awarded to an undergraduate student who demonstrates academic excellence and a career interest and plan which will emphasize health promotion and disease prevention.
The Chancellor Robert D. Sparks, M.D., Public Health Student Research Award is given to support an excellent research project that demonstrates disease prevention and health promotion through public health education, research and/or practice, with particular attention to the needs of Nebraska and its citizens.
The Carruth J. Wagner, M.D., Scholarship in Public Health is given to outstanding public health graduate students who emulate the spirit of Dr. Wagner by demonstrating career goals and personal/professional potential to make significant contributions to the overall state of health. The recipients demonstrate the desire to strengthen public health practice through effective public service, promote physical and mental health and prevent disease, injury and disability and provide leadership in public health to meet tomorrow’s challenges.