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HMS Community Awards and Recognition

2026

Exceptional Institutional Service Awards

The Awards for Exceptional Service were established to recognize significant contributions to institutional service — work that is essential to advancing the missions of Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Dental Medicine. These awards honor faculty and staff whose exemplary efforts set the standard for service at HMS/HSDM, both through their own initiative and through their ability to inspire others to contribute.

Barbara J. McNeil Faculty Award for Exceptional Service

  • Susan Dymecki, the George Fabyan Professor of Genetics in the Field of Comparative Pathology in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS and vice chair of genetics at HMS
  • Francesca Gori, associate professor of oral medicine, infection, and immunity at HSDM

Established in 2014, the McNeil Faculty Award is named for Barbara J. McNeil, the Ridley Watts Professor of Health Care Policy and former chair of health care policy at HMS.

Daniel D. Federman Staff Award for Exceptional Service

  • Arianna DeVoe, facilities and operations manager in Campus Planning and Facilities at HMS
  • Erin Farren, senior associate director of primary care and community-centered medical education at HMS

Also established in 2014, the Federman Staff Award is named for the late Daniel Federman, the Carl W. Walter Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Medical Education at HMS as well as dean for students and alumni from 1977 to 1989 and dean for medical education from 1989 to 2000, who was a steward of a long legacy of outstanding service in his more than 50 years at the School.

Program Award for Culture of Excellence in Mentoring

The Program Award for Culture of Excellence in Mentoring (PACEM) recognizes programs that foster a culture of excellence in mentoring. This year’s recipients are:

  • Mentoring Circles Program, Mass General Brigham
  • MGB Radiology Faculty Affairs Mentorship and Sponsorship Program, Mass General Brigham
    • Program leaders:
  • Program On Regulation, Therapeutics, And Law (PORTAL), Brigham and Women’s
  • Surgical Fellows Leadership Program, Boston Children’s Hospital
    • Program leaders:
      • Benjamin Shore, HMS professor of orthopedic surgery at Boston Children’s
      • Peter Waters, the HMS John E. Hall Professor of Orthopedic Surgery, Emeritus, at Boston Children’s

Dean’s Community Service Award

The Dean’s Community Service Award honors HMS faculty, trainees, staff, and students for their service to the community. Seven individuals were honored this year.

Faculty

Trainee

Staff

  • Dakota Roundtree-Swain, program manager for culture and community, Office of Student Affairs Culture and Community
    Organization: Advocacy Bridge
  • Kimberly LeBlanc, senior director, UDN Data Management Coordinating Center, Department of Biomedical Informatics
    Organization: Undiagnosed Diseases Network Foundation

Students

Medical Education Awards

The Medical Education Awards honor faculty and staff for excellence in teaching and educational leadership. This year’s awards were presented at a ceremony on Oct. 26.

Donald O’Hara Faculty Prize for Excellence in Preclerkship Teaching

  • Randall W. King, the Harry C. McKenzie Professor of Cell Biology in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS

Charles McCabe Faculty Prize for Excellence in Clinical Teaching

  • Craig Lillehei, HMS associate professor of surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital

Most Outstanding Pathways Preclerkship Course Director

  • Robert M. Stern, HMS assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital
  • Bonni Stahl, HMS assistant professor of medicine at Cambridge Health Alliance

Most Outstanding HST Preclerkship Course Director

  • Daniel Bauer, the HMS Donald S. Fredrickson, MD Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Boston Children’s
  • Jason Freed, HMS assistant professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
  • Sol Schulman, HMS assistant professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess

Most Outstanding Core Clerkship Site Directors

  • Sarah Berman, HMS instructor in psychiatry at Cambridge Health Alliance
  • Leigh Simmons, HMS assistant professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital
  • Amy Weinstein, HMS associate professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess
  • Katherine O’Donnell, HMS assistant professor of pediatrics at Boston Children’s

Most Outstanding Core Faculty

  • Marya Cohen, HMS assistant professor of medicine at Mass General
  • Tracy Byrne, HMS instructor in obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology at Beth Israel Deaconess
  • Edward Kim, HMS assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology at Brigham and Women’s

Rising Star in Medical Education

  • William Crisler, HMS assistant professor of dermatology at Brigham and Women’s

Outstanding Innovation in Medical Education

Longitudinal Medical Education Award

  • Marie-France Hivert, HMS professor of population medicine at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute

Excellence in Civil Dialogue in Medical Education

  • Laura Garabedian, HMS assistant professor of population medicine at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute

Richard A. Gillis Award

  • Kari Hannibal, assistant director, Office of Scholarly Engagement
  • Marcia Feldman, student affairs project coordinator, Office of Student Affairs

Wiczai Award

  • Amanda Perry, PCE manager at Brigham and Women’s
  • Debbie Vitale, clerkship coordinator, general surgery, at Beth Israel Deaconess

Aramont Fellowships

Two young scientists from HMS have been named Aramont Fellows by the President of Harvard University. Established in 2017 and supported by a gift from the Aramont Charitable Foundation, the Aramont Fellowship Fund for Emerging Science Research supports early-career faculty and postdoctoral scholars at Harvard engaged in high-risk, high-reward research across the life and physical sciences, engineering, and medicine.

“Early-career support is so enabling for faculty and researchers,” said Senior Vice Provost for Research John Shaw, whose office administers the fund. “Coupled with the strong network of Aramont alumni, this program provides an invaluable opportunity for the University’s most promising scientists.”

The new fellows from HMS are:

  • Daisy Hoagland, research fellow in immunology in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS, who will investigate how coxsackievirus infection may cause lasting damage to the pancreas, even after the virus has been cleared from the body. By developing a new way to track cells that survive infection, Hoagland hopes to identify biological pathways that could lead to better treatments and help predict who is at risk for pancreatic diseases such as pancreatitis and type 1 diabetes. She is based in the lab of Ruth Franklin, assistant professor of stem cell and regenerative biology at HMS.
  • Shira Weingarten-Gabbay, assistant professor of microbiology at HMS, who will explore how viruses evade detection by the immune system while maintaining their ability to infect and reproduce. By identifying viral mutations that help viruses escape immune attack, Weingarten-Gabbay hopes to uncover new vaccine targets and develop more effective antiviral therapies.

Center for Bioethics Essay Award

SK Sharma, a student in the Master of Science in Bioethics (MBE) virtual program at HMS, has won the 2026 Bioethics Essay Award from the HMS Center for Bioethics. His paper, “The Aggregation Machine: Parfit’s Moral Mathematics and the Hidden Ethics of AI Triage Systems,” was selected from a record number of submissions as the best scholarly essay on ethics and medicine by a student at HMS or HSDM. The recognition comes with a $1,500 prize.

Fellow MBE student Siqi (Mandy) Zhou received an honorable mention for her paper, “Beyond the Clinical Gaze: Rational Mistrust, Structural Vulnerability, and the Demands of Relational Solidarity in BRCA Genetic Testing for African American Women.” Honorable mentions may receive a $500 prize.

Read the winning essays on SharePoint.

Joint Committee on the Status of Women (JCSW) Dean’s Awards

Since 1998, the JCSW has honored faculty and staff at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Dental Medicine for their contributions to advancing women’s careers. These awards, initiated by former HMS Dean Joseph B. Martin, recognize leadership in recruiting, retaining, and promoting women. Over the years, new awards have been introduced, including the Shirley Driscoll Dean’s Leadership Award for the Enhancement of Women’s Careers and the Nancy J. Tarbell Dean’s Award for Emerging Leaders in Women’s Careers, celebrating individuals at different stages of their efforts to support gender equity in academia.

This year’s awards were presented at a ceremony on June 3 in the Gordon Hall Waterhouse Room.

Joseph B. Martin Dean’s Leadership Award for the Advancement of Women Faculty

  • Carla Kim, HMS professor of pediatrics in the field of regenerative medicine at Boston Children’s
  • David S. Friedman, the HMS Edith Ives Cogan Professor of Ophthalmology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear

Joseph B. Martin Dean’s Leadership Award for the Advancement of Women Staff

  • Piper Derenoncourt, associate director of strategic projects for The Family Van at HMS

Shirley Driscoll Dean’s Leadership Award for the Enhancement of Women’s Careers

  • Barbara Weissman, HMS professor of radiology, emerita, at Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Nancy J. Tarbell Dean’s Award for an Emerging Leader in Women’s Careers

  • Loren Rabinowitz, HMS assistant professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

President’s Innovation Challenge

The President’s Innovation Challenge is an annual competition for students across all 13 schools at Harvard University as well as select alumni and affiliates pursuing ventures that address the world’s most pressing problems.

To learn more about the 2026 finalists and winners and watch a recording of the May 6 awards ceremony, visit the Harvard Innovation Labs website.

Winning teams led by HMS and HSDM students, faculty, and postdocs are:

$25,000 award

  • FIND Neuro: Revolutionizing drug-resistant epilepsy surgery with an FDA-path clinical decision support platform. Represented by Noam Peled, HMS instructor in radiology at Mass General, and Steven Stufflebeam, HMS associate professor of radiology at Mass General.

$2,500 awards

  • Bite By Byte: An AI-powered custom night guard embedded with micro-pressure sensors that continuously measures bite force, frequency, and duration in real time, transmitting data to an app for both patients and clinicians. Represented by HSDM student Mhary Grace de Francia.
  • VitaLoop: Shifting dialysis care from centralized supply chains to resilient, point-of-care manufacturing with low-cost, on-demand production of sterile peritoneal dialysis fluid using local water and non-grid-dependent energy. Represented by Nang San Hti Lar Seng, HMS clinical fellow in medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess.

Excellence in Mentoring Awards

The Excellence in Mentoring Awards were established at HMS to recognize the value of quality mentoring relationships and the impact they have on professional development and career advancement in basic and clinical medicine, research, teaching, and administration.

This year’s awards were presented at a ceremony on June 11. Recipients are:

William Silen Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award

This award was established in 1997 as the Lifetime Excellence in Mentoring Award and renamed in 2001 to honor and acknowledge the lifetime commitment William Silen made to mentoring students, residents, and faculty.

  • Robert Barbieri, the HMS Kate Macy Ladd Distinguished Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology at Brigham and Women’s
  • Edward Marcantonio, HMS professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess
  • Long Ngo, HMS associate professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess
  • Rachel Lee Rosen, HMS professor of pediatrics at Boston Children’s

A. Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award

This award was established in 1995 as the Excellence in Mentoring Award and in 1997 was renamed to honor the memory of A. Clifford Barger, who, among other things, devoted his career to bringing out the best in those who studied, trained, and worked at HMS.

  • Hermioni Amonoo, HMS associate professor of psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s
  • Irene Ghobrial, HMS professor of medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
  • Tara Kent, HMS associate professor of surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess
  • Cindy Liu, HMS associate professor of pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital
  • David O. Williams, HMS professor of medicine, emeritus, at Brigham and Women’s

Young Mentor Award

This award was established in 2005 to recognize faculty who are still in the early stages of their career but are devoting their time to providing mentoring for others.

HMS Scholars in Medicine Excellence in Student Mentoring Award

Each year, graduating HMS students are invited to nominate their mentors. Faculty from the Scholars in Medicine Program select the finalists.

  • Suneet Agarwal, HMS associate professor of pediatrics at Boston Children’s
  • George Dyer, HMS associate professor of orthopedic surgery at Brigham and Women’s
  • Katherine Koh, HMS assistant professor of psychiatry at Mass General