The United Network for Organ Sharing honored social worker Barbara Lee, of Greenville, N.C., with the 2014 National Donor Memorial Award for Excellence in recognition of her work as a donation champion for more than two decades.
Lee has served as a social worker at Vidant Medical Center Transplant Services for more than 20 years and as an active volunteer at Carolina Donor Services for more than 10 years, according to a statement released by UNOS.
One of Lee’s first volunteer efforts was serving as a chaperone for Team North Carolina when it went to Salt Lake City for the 1996 U.S. Transplant Games, UNOS said. It was a rather modest beginning for efforts that since have reached out and educated various populations within the medical, interfaith and community settings — educating and increasing donor registrations across the state, the organization stated.
Barbara exemplifies how one individual can make a huge difference,” said Carolina Donor Services CEO Lloyd H. Jordan Jr.
UNOS established the National Donor Memorial Award for Excellence in 2010 to recognize exceptional advocates for organ and tissue donation.
Four distinguished social workers were recently elected to the National Academies of Practice in honor of their achievements and contributions to the health care profession.
They are Bruce Nisbet, distinguished practitioner and fellow in Orchard Park, N.Y.; Catherine N. Dulmus (photo, center), distinguished scholar and fellow from Buffalo, N.Y.; Elizabeth B. Strand (photo, right), distinguished scholar and fellow from Knoxville, Tenn.; and Shelly Cohen Konrad (photo, left), distinguished scholar and fellow from Portland, Maine.
Membership in the NAP is extended to those who have excelled in their profession and are dedicated to further practice, scholarship and policy in support of interprofessional care. NAP members advise public policymakers on health care issues using an interdisciplinary perspective.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has selected Louise Knight (photo lower right), the NASW nominee for the Medicare & Medicaid Advisory Panel on Outreach and Education.
Knight is director of the Harry J. Duffey Family Patient and Family Services Program at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
She guides a team of social workers who help navigate cancer patients through every realm of their care.
The panel’s role is to advise and make recommendations to the secretary of Health and Human Services and the administrator of CMS on the effective implementation of the programs for Medicare, Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program.
A growing focus for the panel is Affordable Care Act enrollment among vulnerable and underserved communities in the health care exchanges and the expanded Medicaid program.
Gerald Mallon, the Julia Lathrop Professor of Child Welfare and executive director of the National Center for Child Welfare Excellence at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College in New York City, received the Hostetter-Habib Award from the Family Equity Council.
The award is given to those who share an unwavering commitment to Family Equality Council’s core values of love, justice, family and equity.
According to organizers, Mallon has traveled to all 50 states, many territories and numerous tribes to deliver technical assistance on a range of child welfare related issues as the executive director of the NCCWE. He was one of the first child welfare professionals in the country to research, write about, and create programs for LGBTQ youth in child-welfare settings.