Three DOM physicians and researchers honored in 2021 Health Care Heroes awards

The Atlanta Business Chronicle has selected Emory University and Emory Healthcare physicians, faculty, and staff as winners and finalists of its 2021 Health Care Heroes awards. Many of Emory’s winners and finalists this year played major roles during the COVID-19 pandemic — from caring for patients to researching a new disease to evaluating COVID-19 tests to developing processes and procedures to keep frontline workers safe. Their tireless work and endless contributions are to be celebrated and honored following a difficult and challenging year.

Click here to view the full Emory News Center announcement.

View the featured Department of Medicine faculty below.

Award Winner

David S. Stephens, MD, chair of the department and professor of medicine, was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his longstanding career in infectious diseases, unwavering dedication to bettering the lives of people — most of whom he will never meet — and training future generations of scientists. As vice president of research for Emory’s Woodruff Health Sciences Center and as a seasoned infectious diseases veteran, Stephens was perfectly placed to lead Emory’s COVID-19 research. Under his watch, Emory has emerged as a global leader in SARS-CoV-2 research. Stephens oversees all scientific endeavors related to tackling the pandemic including: vaccine development such as the clinical trials for Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and the next generation of COVID-19 vaccines; monoclonal antibodies and therapeutic drugs; and surveillance, immunological, and epidemiological studies that furthered understanding of the virus and the communities it impacted.

 

Award Finalists

Marybeth Sexton, MD, assistant professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases, was a finalist in the Rising Star Category for her crucial leadership role in the COVID-19 preparedness and response across the Emory Healthcare system. From developing and implementing policies to address patient and staff safety to crafting communications to educate staff and the community to helping to lead efforts around COVID-19 vaccinations and therapeutics, Sexton’s expertise and guidance has been outstanding.

 

 

Ted Johnson, MD, director of the Division of General Internal Medicine, was a finalist in the Community Outreach Category, along with Nicole Franks, MD, for their work on Emory’s initiative to address the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 in Atlanta’s Black and Brown communities. Together with physicians, social workers and communicators, Johnson and Franks formed the Emory Collaborative for Community Outreach and Health Disparities group in May 2020. The two colleagues reached out to Atlanta’s diverse community to build an advisory board to help with discerning why important information about COVID-19 was not being effectively communicated to communities at highest risk. They then worked to rally a cadre of individuals and teams, working on various independent COVID-19-related initiatives to come together, in a relentless push to ensure reliable, credible information about COVID-19 was being delivered and heard in communities of color.