Jeremy Cauwels’ (02MD) leadership and advocacy have redefined the patient experience at Sanford Health System, the nation’s largest rural nonprofit health care system. He was recognized as a leader early in his career when, after completing his internal medicine residency at the University of Kansas Medical School in 2005, he was selected to lead the program the following year. In 2014, he became the director of the hospitalist program at Sanford, where he doubled the size of the program. Now as chief physician at Sanford, his colleagues look to him as a role model of patient-focused care.

Alireza Shamshirsaz (09R–obstetrics and gynecology) ranks among the world’s foremost experts in fetal surgery and in the treatment of abnormally adherent placenta, a rare pregnancy complication also known as placenta accreta spectrum. He has pioneered novel surgical techniques for neural tube defects and twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, and he was part of the team that performed the first successful fetoscopic repair to treat spina bifida in the U.S. Shamshirsaz is board certified in OB-GYN and maternal fetal medicine and an appointed reviewer of 22 medical journals. He has published more than 250 peer-reviewed manuscripts in English language journals and 18 in Farsi. Shamshirsaz serves as director of the Maternal Fetal Medicine Care Center at Boston Children’s Hospital, part of Harvard Medical School.

Debby Tsuang (83BS, 88MD, 92MS, 92R–psychiatry) 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.

Nicholas Mohr built the emergency care research program in the UI Department of Emergency Medicine as its first tenured professor. His main research focus is improving community and rural hospitals’ care for critically ill adults through telemedicine and other operational interventions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he distinguished himself with research related to the pandemic’s effect on health care workers through his leadership of the Project PREVENT study. As a medical educator, Mohr has been honored with teaching and mentorship awards from medical students and resident physicians.

Denise Martinez has worked tirelessly to address health disparities throughout Iowa during her time with UI Health Care. Alongside her creation and support of student organizations focused on inclusion and belonging in medical training, she has connected students of all backgrounds with opportunities in medicine through individual mentorship. She has also encouraged the next generation of health professionals to serve rural and disadvantaged patient populations with empathy. Martinez served as interim associate VP for health parity and associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion through July 2023.

Janifer Judisch co-founded the Children’s Cancer Center (CCC) in Tampa, Florida. The programs she developed at CCC brought together music therapy, social work, child life, and other disciplines to create holistic care for the social and emotional needs of sick children and their families. She revolutionized how children at CCC are informed of their diagnoses, going against the prevailing wisdom of the time to withhold the diagnosis from the child and instead leading with truth and empathy to promote better overall well-being during the child’s illness and treatment. After 25 years of service, Judisch retired in 2000 and continues to contribute as a CCC board member.

Susan Beebout has committed her life’s work to meeting health care needs in under-resourced communities in Africa. She has lived in Niamey, Niger, since 2007, where she worked with the Evangelical Church of Niger to establish the Clinic Olivia Primary Care Center. Two years ago, a second clinic was opened in Dongondoutchi, a commune in Niger. She also teaches students and residents at the public medical school in Niamey. Beebout collaborates with the Carver College of Medicine’s Global Health Programs to place medical students, faculty, and alumni in health care settings in Niger, where the trainees and their Nigerien colleagues can mutually exchange knowledge from their diverse health care experiences and backgrounds.

Anil Sood’s pioneering contributions to basic and translational cancer research began when he showed that short fragments of RNA can be harnessed to shut down dysfunctional cell processes. This finding opened the door to a new approach to targeted therapies, some of which are now FDA-approved. He is an internationally recognized expert on ovarian cancers, and he has led MD Anderson Cancer Center’s ambitious Moon Shots Program for ovarian cancer research since its inception in 2012. With extensive funding from the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Defense, among others, Sood has produced hundreds of peer-reviewed publications over the course of his career.

Harold Adams’ 50-year career in stroke research cemented his place as a titan of the field. He is among the originators of the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, a tool to assess stroke severity that still guides patient care today. As director of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, he spearheaded the development of vascular neurology as a subspecialty. Additionally, as principal investigator of the landmark multicenter study known as TOAST, Adams and colleagues steered physicians away from a commonly used anticoagulant toward safer and more effective therapies. He has served on national committees for the American Heart Association, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and more, but his proudest accomplishments were in teaching.

James Christensen (64R–­­gastroenterology) 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.