Honorary Awards

Leah Algier, MD and Virginia McKenna, MD, second-year residents at the Department of Family Medicine in Madison received the McGovern-Tracy Scholarship presented in June at the Monona Terrace in Madison.

Byron J. Crouse, MD received the National Rural Health Association Distinguished Educator Award at the NRHA 29th Annual Conference in Kansas City, MO. The NRHA Distinguished Educator Award strives to recognize that education and curriculum development dedicated to the needs of rural health professionals has the potential to encourage, assist, enhance, expand and improve rural health careers. Criteria used to review nominees are:

• Scope of accomplishments
• Significance of the work to rural health
• Sophistication of the scholarly effort
• Evidence of the outcome of the work in rural health

John Frey III, MD is being honored this year with the F. Marian Bishop Award at the annual meeting of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine from the STFM Foundation for contributions to the academic credibility of Family Medicine. Dr. Frey has long been deeply involved in STFM and in Family Medicine. He served as STFM Communications Committee chair from 1982-1984 and was president of STFM in 1998-1999. But his real contributions have come in his writings and his talks:

• Dr. Frey served as editor of Family Medicine from 1983-1991.
• He has been a plenary speaker at many STFM meetings, including the Annual Spring Conference.
• He has served as chair of the Department of Family Medicine from 1993 to 2006 at the University of Wisconsin.
• He was a co-organizer of the Keystone III conference, which led to the Future of Family Medicine project.
• He has been a Kellogg Fellow and has received the STFM Recognition Award.

Dr. Frey's thoughtful, gentle questioning has enabled us to ask the hard questions and think about where we are going. He continues to inspire and guide us.

Artin Gevorkian, MD, a resident at the Eau Claire Family Medicine Residency, received the "Sunshine Award" from one of the local TV stations, WEAU-TV. Sunshine Awards began in 1985 as a way for TV-13 viewers to publicly thank others for acts of kindness and good deeds. Dr. Artin Gevorkian received a Sunshine Award from Kitty Rahl, who says "He is the kindest, most caring doctor I have ever had."

Linda B. Manwell, MS has been elected as the Vice Chair for the Medical School Committee on Academic Issues.

Gerald Ryan, MD received the first Teacher of the Year award given by the Physicians Assistant program.

Melee Thao, an outreach specialist at Wausau Family Practice will receive the 2006 Distinguished Alumni Humanitarian Award from Minnesota State University, Mankato. Ms. Thao works with the Hmong community as a nurse, social worker, case manager and patient advocate. She helped produce the first Hmong language education video about sexually transmitted diseases, presented several conferences on Hmong health and is currently producing a Hmong language video about maintaining a healthy heart. Additionally, Ms. Thao is the first woman to receive both the 2005 Women of Vision award and the Woman of Tomorrow award from the YWCA in Wausau in the same year.