February Distinctions

By HSC staff writers

College of Dentistry

Roberta Pileggi

Roberta Pileggi, D.D.S., M.S., an associate professor and chair of the department of endodontics, was recently elected to a four-year term on the board of trustees of the American Association of Endodontists Foundation. Pileggi, who is also the program director of the Endodontic Graduate Program, joined the university in 2005.

College of Medicine

Kevin Behrns

Kevin E. Behrns, M.D., chair of the UF department of surgery, has been elected to a six-year term on the American Board of Surgery. He was nominated for the position by the American College of Surgeons. The independent, nonprofit American Board of Surgery serves as the certifying organization for surgeons who have met a defined standard of education, training and knowledge.

Phillip Dahm

Philipp Dahm, M.D., M.H.Sc., an associate professor of urology, has been appointed the Urology Residency Program Director for the department of urology. As a member of the American Board of Urology, Dahm pioneered the initiative to advance educational outcome assessment in urology residency training. Dahm assumes the directorship from Marc Cohen, M.D., who has served as residency program director since 2002.

Dietmar Siemann

Dietmar W. Siemann, Ph.D., a professor in the department of radiation oncology and the associate chair for research for the UF Shands Cancer Center, is the author of Tumor Microenvironment, published in December by Wiley-Blackwell. In collaboration with an international team of co-authors, Siemann examines the importance of the tumor microenvironment in cancer management, with emphasis placed on how the unique characteristics of the tumor microenvironment affect disease progression and response to conventional anticancer therapies, and the identification of potential new therapeutic targets and treatment possibilities for cancer patients.

College of Public Health and Health Professions

Lisa LaGorio

Lisa LaGorio, a joint degree student in the rehabilitation science doctoral and master’s in public health degree programs, received a New Century Scholars Program Doctoral Scholarship from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation. The $10,000 award supports her dissertation research on swallowing physiology in the elderly. LaGorio works in the UF Swallowing Research Laboratory under the mentorship of Michael Crary, Ph.D., and Giselle Carnaby-Mann, Ph.D.

Michael Morris

Michael Morris, a doctoral student in the health services research program, received an annual service award from the American Public Health Association for his work on the executive policy drafting committee of APHA’s Health Administration Section. He was a primary author of the association’s policy statement on public health system financing. In addition, Morris was recently appointed to APHA’s Education Board and was invited to serve as an item writer for the national Certified in Public Health exam. With support from a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant, Morris is developing a Web-based professional development site for public health finance.

Bridget Rahim-Williams

Bridgett Rahim-Williams, Ph.D., M.P.H., a research assistant professor in the College of Public Health and Health Professions’ department of behavioral science and community health, has received a Disparities Research and Education Advancing Mission (DREAM) Career Transition Award from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, part of the National Institutes of Health. The award takes Rahim-Williams to Washington, D.C., for two years, where she will work in the NIH Intramural Research Program as a senior research fellow, developing her skills as a health disparities investigator. Following her work at the NIH, the DREAM Award provides Rahim-Williams with three years of salary and mentored research support at an academic institution. Rahim-Williams’ research interests focus on minority health and health disparities in chronic disease self-management among African-American and Caucasian women ages 45 to 75 who have knee osteoarthritis. Rahim-Williams has conducted exploratory research on pain levels and functional mobility among women with knee osteoarthritis as they participate in “exergaming” — physical activity that combines interactive video games.

College of Veterinary Medicine

Daniel Brown

Daniel Brown, Ph.D., an associate professor of infectious diseases and pathology, has been voted chair-elect of the International Organization for Mycoplasmology, a nonprofit scientific group dedicated to the study of a type of bacteria that infect a wide variety of animals and plants. His term will be from 2012 to 2014. Brown’s work focuses on genetic and taxonomic analyses of pathogenic mycoplasmas and the diseases they may cause in animals and humans.

John W. Harvey

John W. Harvey, D.V.M., Ph.D., executive associate dean and a professor of hematology, has received the 2010 Heiner Sommer Prize from the International Society for Animal Clinical Pathology. The award is given in recognition of lifetime contributions to the field of animal clinical biochemistry. A board-certified veterinary clinical pathologist, Harvey has been a member of UF’s veterinary college faculty since 1974. Earlier this year, Harvey received the 2010 Mark L. Morris Sr. Lifetime Achievement Award for his lifetime contributions to the field of comparative hematology.