Medical Alumni Honor Seven This Weekend

The Duke Medical Alumni Association will honor seven individuals during its annual awards luncheon presentation on Friday, Oct. 18, at the Washington Duke Inn. The event is part of Medical Alumni Weekend 2002, which will be attended by more than 500 medical alumni and friends.

Faculty members Debra A. Schwinn, MD, and James R. Urbaniak, MD, will receive the Distinguished Faculty Award, and men's basketball coach Michael W. Krzyzewski will be named an Honorary Medical Alumnus. Distinguished Alumnus(a) Awards will be presented to John T. Dees, MD, of Burgaw; Earl Metz, MD, of Ohio State University; and Judith L. Swain, MD, of Stanford University. A. Everette James, MD, of Chapel Hill, will receive the Humanitarian Award.

Schwinn is a professor of anesthesiology, pharmacology/cancer biology, and surgery and vice chair of research in the Department of Anesthesiology. She also directs the Molecular Pharmacology Laboratories and Perioperative Genomics. Her current research focuses on understanding how stress and genetic differences between people relate to disease outcomes. Urbaniak recently stepped down after 17 years as chief of orthopedics. He is currently vice chairman of the Department of Surgery and the Virginia Flowers Baker Professor or Orthopedic Surgery. He is credited with having developed and refined many of the techniques and principles practiced widely by orthopedic surgeons today.

Dees, a member of the medical class of 1952, has been a family practitioner and community activist in Burgaw for 39 years. He is a past president of the North Carolina Medical Society and a recipient of the North Carolina Order of the Long Leaf Pine. Metz is a professor of hematology and oncology, emeritus, at Ohio State University (OSU), where he spent his career following his 1961 graduation from Duke medical school and four years of residency. He is widely published in medical and medical education journals and has received numerous awards for teaching and patient care. In 1997, OSU established the Earl N. Metz, MD, Award, given annually to the most outstanding physician in the University's Department of Medicine. Swain is the Arthur L. Bloomfield Professor and chair of the Department of Medicine at Stanford. She is widely known for advances in the field of molecular cardiology, including pioneering the use of transgenic animals to understand the genetic basis of cardiovascular development and disease. She was a resident at Duke from 1974 to 1980 and a member of the faculty from 1979 to 1991.

A. Everette James, MD, a radiologist and a member of the School of Medicine class of 1963, was given the humanitarian award for his efforts to promote the arts as a feature of the healing process. He has donated artwork to academic institutions throughout the country, including Duke, and he created a southern folklore museum and made many other contributions to his native Robersonville, community.

Coach Michael W. Krzyzewski received the honorary alumnus award, not for his basketball fame, but for his longstanding service to Duke Children's Hospital and Health Center. He serves as honorary chairman and on-air host for the Duke Children's Miracle Network and the MIX 101.5 Duke Children's Radiothon. He and his wife, Mickie, were members of the Duke Children's National Board of Advisors during fund raising for the McGovern-Davison Children's Health Center, completed in 2001.

Other events during the weekend include the Dean's Hour on Friday with special guest Yank Coble, MD, president of the American Medical Association, 4:30-5:30 p.m. in the Medical Center Amphitheater, Duke Clinic. Coble is a 1962 School of Medicine graduate. On Saturday, faculty and alumni will present on a variety of topics during the Continuing Medical Education program. The weekend concludes with class dinners Saturday night. Related Articles Two Elected to Institute of Medicine (Debra Schwinn)