Schweitzer Leadership Award Winners Announced

April 4, 2012 - PRLog -- The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship (ASF) today announced the recipients of its 2012 Schweitzer Leadership Awards—eight individuals local to ASF’s U.S. Program sites whose life examples have significantly mitigated the social determinants of health in their communities and whose commitments to service have influenced and inspired others:

•   Jon Bourgo
Outreach Program Manager at the Community Health Centers of Burlington, which provide more than 10,000 low-income patients each year with primary medical and dental care
Honored by the New Hampshire-Vermont Schweitzer Fellows Program

•   Ceil Furlong, RN/BSN
Nurse Case Manager at The Good Neighbor Health Clinic, which provides medically underserved and uninsured Upper Valley, Vermont residents with free primary medical and dental care
Honored by the New Hampshire-Vermont Schweitzer Fellows Program

•   Douglas Grey, MD; Paul Hofmann, Dr. PH; and William Schecter, MD
Founders of Operation Access, which has provided more than 7,500 low-income, uninsured people in the San Francisco Bay Area with donated outpatient surgical and specialty care
Honored by the Bay Area Schweitzer Fellows Program

•   John McDonough, DPH, MPA
Former Massachusetts State Representative and former Executive Director of Health Care for All; now Director of the Center for Public Health Leadership at Harvard School of Public Health
Honored by the Boston Schweitzer Fellows Program

•   Marjory Pizzuti
President and CEO of Goodwill Columbus, one of the largest nonprofit health and human services organizations in Franklin County
Honored by the Columbus-Athens Schweitzer Fellows Program

•   George L. Spaeth, MD
Founder and President of the Glaucoma Service Foundation to Prevent Blindness and Louis J. Esposito Research Professor at the Wills Eye Institute; his students have gone on to provide quality eye care to people in need in 34 countries on six continents
Honored by the Greater Philadelphia Schweitzer Fellows Program

The Schweitzer Leadership Awards—which will be presented to each winner this spring at his or her local Schweitzer Fellows Program site—bear the name of Nobel Peace Laureate Dr. Albert Schweitzer, a pioneering physician-humanitarian who was one of the 20th century’s most admired global citizens.

“With the hundred-year anniversary of Dr. Schweitzer’s iconic hospital in Africa approaching in 2013, the time is right to honor individuals who are following in his footsteps at a local level here in the U.S.,” says ASF President Lachlan Forrow, MD, Director of Ethics and Palliative Care at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. “We are thrilled to recognize these eight individuals. They are leaders who have taken great strides towards achieving health equity in their communities, and who are inspiring our Schweitzer Fellows and many others as they work to do the same.”

Each year, approximately 250 multidisciplinary graduate student Schweitzer Fellows at 13 ASF program sites throughout the U.S. partner with community-based organizations to develop and implement yearlong, mentored service projects that address unmet community health needs. Fellows also undergo rigorous and reflective leadership development programming. As a result, Schweitzer Fellows embark on their professional careers with the confidence and skill to address not only clinical health issues, but also the social determinants of health (including poverty, the environment, and education).

The Schweitzer Leadership Award will be presented at each program site’s Celebration of Service (the event marking the culmination of the Fellowship year). In addition to a physical award, winners will receive special recognition at ASF’s annual national conference (to be held in Boston on Nov. 2-3, 2012) and a day of service at the recipient’s chosen nonprofit/charity organized by the local 2012-13 class of Schweitzer Fellows.

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The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship (ASF)'s mission is to develop Leaders in Service: individuals who are dedicated and skilled in meeting the health needs of underserved communities, and whose example influences and inspires others.