Newsmakers: March 2013
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* Natalie McGill

## APHA members named to nurses credentialing board

Four APHA members in September were announced as new members of the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Credentialing Research in Nursing. The members, who were announced with nine others, were: Kaye Bender, PhD, RN, FAAN; Bobbie Berkowitz, PhD, RN, FAAN; Robert Dittus, MD, MPH, and Patrick Romano, MD, MPH.

## Wilson named new World Medical Association president

Cecil Wilson, MD, in October was named the new president of the World Medical Association. Wilson previously served as president of the American Medical Association.

## Holmes receives prize for neuroscience work

Andrew Holmes, PhD, in October received the Society for Neuroscience’s 2012 Jacob P. Waletzky Award for $25,000. Holmes received the award for his research on how drugs and stress affect the brain. Holmes is the chief of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s Laboratory of Behavioral and Genomic Neuroscience.

## Weiner joins health law board of directors

Robert Weiner, JD, in October became the newest member of the National Health Law Program’s board of directors. Weiner previously served as the associate deputy attorney general from 2010 to 2012 at the U.S. Department of Justice. The National Health Law Program is a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of low-income and uninsured people.

## Perrin named president-elect in pediatrics group

James Perrin, MD, FAAP, in October was named president-elect of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Perrin will serve as the president of the organization during the 2013-2014 term. Perrin previously chaired multiple committees for the academy such as the Committee on Children with Disabilities.

## New institute launched in October combats childhood obesity

The American Academy of Pediatrics in October unveiled its Institute for Healthy Childhood Weight at its annual conference in New Orleans. The institute will use scientific data on childhood nutrition to create tools that health providers can use to dispense advice on healthy childhood weights.

## Wong named to school health care board

Winston Wong, MD, MS, in October was named to a two-year term on the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care’s board of directors. Wong is Kaiser Permanente’s medical director for community benefit. The National Assembly on School-Based Health Care is an advocacy group for U.S. school-based health centers.

## Kaplan appointed to AIDS board

Michael Kaplan in September was named president and CEO of AIDS United, an advocacy group that works on HIV prevention and testing initiatives across the U.S. Kaplan previously served as executive director of the Cascade AIDS Project since 2008.

## Koelsch heads publications division at orthopaedics group

Hans Koelsch, PhD, in September was named director of publications at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Previously, Koelsch worked in editorial director positions for New York City-based Springer Science + Business Media LLC.

## Ten people receive young leadership award

Ten people in October received the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Young Leader Award of $40,000 for their initiatives to improve health care: Ruben Amarasingham, MD, MBA, of the Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation in Dallas; Ashley Atkinson, MSW, of The Greening of Detroit; Scott Halpern, MD, PhD, MBE, assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine; Naa Oyo Kwate, PhD, associate professor of human ecology at Rutgers University; Raina Merchant, MD, MS, assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine; Rebecca Onie, JD, of Health Leads, headquartered in Boston; Carmen Peralta, MD, MAS, a kidney specialist at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center; Doran Schrantz, executive director of ISAIAH in St. Paul, Minn.; Prabhjot Singh, MD, PhD, of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and Somava Stout, MD, of the Cambridge Health Alliance in Cambridge, Mass.

## Leaders named to new NIH groups on human genome research

The National Human Genome Research Institute in September named four people to serve in acting roles of the institute’s new divisions. In the Division of Genome Sciences, Jeffrey Schloss, PhD, will serve as director and Peter Good, PhD, will serve as deputy director. Teri Manolio, MD, PhD, will serve as director of the Division of Genomic Medicine and Bradley Ozenberger, PhD, will serve as the deputy director. Bettie Graham, PhD, will serve as director of the Division of Extramural Operations and Rudy Pozzati, PhD, will serve as deputy director. Mark Guyer, PhD, the National Human Genome Research Institute deputy director, will become acting director of the Division of Genomics and Society until a permanent replacement is selected.

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