64R–­­gastroenterology

James Christensen is an internationally recognized physician, scholar, and scientist responsible for major contributions to the understanding and management of gastrointestinal tract diseases. He provided the first explanation of the motions of the human esophagus in swallowing, proved the existence of the lower esophageal sphincter, and discovered the pacemaker cells of the colon. Christensen became the first director of the Division of Gastroenterology in the Carver College of Medicine in 1971, serving there for 17 years and concurrently as the director of the division’s National Institutes of Health academic training program. Christensen received the Janssen Award for Lifetime Achievement in Gastrointestinal Motility from the American Gastroenterological Association in 1997. He has been a University of Iowa professor emeritus of internal medicine since his retirement in 1998.

83BS, 88MD, 92MS, 92R–psychiatry  

Debby Tsuang has made critical contributions to the understanding of dementia and related disorders through her research on their genetic, clinical, and neuropathological underpinnings. Tsuang’s cutting-edge studies of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) have informed its clinical classification and treatment by highlighting the role that behavioral disorders play in DLB. She is committed to compassionate clinical care for socioeconomically vulnerable populations. Her passion for helping aging veterans has influenced much of her research, and she has expanded telehealth options at the Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center (GRECC) of the VA Puget Sound Health Care System to increase rural veterans’ access to care. She has also achieved the distinction of being both the first woman and the first non‐white person to serve as director of the VA Puget Sound GRECC.

82MD

Sharon Goodwin Fogleman has dedicated her career to medical missions in Kenya, rural Appalachia, South Sudan, Uganda, and Ghana. She and her husband began their medical work in 1987 at Maua Methodist Hospital in rural Kenya, joining the medical staff there to provide medical care and mentorship. After 10 years, they moved back to the U.S. to work at Red Bird Clinic in rural Kentucky for 14 years, after which they returned to work in Africa. From 2012 on, Fogleman worked to provide health education and resources to combat malnutrition, malaria, and infectious disease in a region of central South Sudan alongside local government health care workers. When civil war led millions to seek refuge in Uganda, the Foglemans trained community health promoters, pastors, and lay workers in trauma healing within the refugee camps. Now in the U.S., she continues to travel internationally to work with vulnerable populations and mentor health care workers and students.

78R, 81F–internal medicine

Janet Schlechte’s clinical research on the relationship between prolactinomas and bone loss has shaped the understanding of how the endocrine and skeletal systems interact, garnering her invitations to present at conferences around the world. In 1996, Schlechte was elected to the most prestigious academic medical society in North America, the Association of American Physicians, and later she became the only woman among a handful of Iowans to be selected as Master of the American College of Physicians. She is a professor emerita in the UI Department of Internal Medicine.