This summer, two MEHP Online faculty received top honors for researchers working in health care fields. Faculty associate director and Associate Professor Holly Fernandez Lynch was selected as a National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Emerging Leader in Health and Medicine. NAM Emerging Leaders are early- to mid-career professionals who work with the organization to address challenges in health and medicine and spark transformative change to improve health. Over their three-year term, they help shape NAM’s priorities, as well as receiving leadership training and mentoring from organization members. 

Prof. Fernandez Lynch’s work focuses on Food and Drug Administration (FDA) policy, access to investigational medicines outside clinical trials, clinical research ethics, and the ethics of gatekeeping in health care. “I am thrilled to be selected as an Emerging Leader,” she says. It “promises to be a tremendous opportunity to learn from a great cohort and from National Academy members, and hopefully to contribute to the Academy’s critical work in health and science policy.” 

In addition, Kevin Volpp, Mark V. Pauly President’s Distinguished Professor and instructor for Behavioral Economics and Decision Making, has been named an American Heart Association (AHA) Distinguished Scientist Awardee for 2022. Awardees are recognized for their extraordinary contributions to cardiovascular and stroke research. 

Dr. Volpp’s work focuses on developing and testing innovative ways of applying insights from behavioral economics in areas of health care, including smoking cessation, medication adherence, and weight loss. Chair of the Medical Ethics and Health Policy department Steve Joffe noted that Dr. Volpp “is among a tiny minority of general internists who have received the award.” And it is especially meaningful as Dr. Volpp is a survivor of cardiac arrest himself.