The Knowledge for the World Award 2012*

Abraham D. Akoi, A&S '10 (MAG/MBA)
Abraham Akoi’s story is an inspiration to all who know him. Born in Sudan, he was forced to flee his village in South Sudan when he was 11, and he walked to Ethiopia. After ten years of refugee camps and losing family members in the war, he was able to make his way to the United States ten years ago as one of the “Lost Boys of Sudan.” Abraham has made the most of the opportunity. First, he earned a degree in History and Economics from the University of the South. Then, he arrived at Hopkins to earn his MBA at the Carey Business School and an MA in Government through the Advanced Academic Programs. Along the way, he has held internships at the Jimmy Carter Center in Atlanta and the US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs. Earlier this year, Abraham turned down numerous corporate offers so that he could return to South Sudan to help rebuild the government, and the president of Sudan has asked him to serve as the country’sPolicy Advisor. Abraham has consistently made time to give back to the community. He has been a Youth Mentor at the Gray Center/Camp Bratton Green in Jackson, Mississippi, and he traveled to New Orleans in 2005 to help with inner-city construction projects and teaching. He also volunteered in Jamaica in 2006 to help with construction, development, and entrepreneurial guidance for a local community in Kingston and St. Mary’s. Abraham is a true student of the world. He studied abroad in China and India during his time as an undergraduate and was also a consultant for The World Bank. Top

Richard S. Bransford, Med '67
Dr. Bransford, a global health physician and missionary, has spent almost three decades as a surgeon, transforming the lives of disabled children in some of the world's poorest regions. Today, his reputation and achievements rank him on par with some of history's great medical missionaries, including Albert Schweitzer and Tom Dooley. His career, while mostly centered in Africa, includes receiving a diploma in tropical medicine from the Prince Leopold School of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium. Dr. Bransford founded the Bethany Crippled Children's Centre in 1998 and served as Medical Director and Rehabilitation Pediatric Surgeon at this institution until 2004. The center treats children with burn contractures, hydrocephalus, spina bifida, cleft lip and palates, club feet, polio, scoliosis, hypospadias, cerebral palsy, and muscular dystrophies. Dr. Bransford founded BethanyKids in 2001 and, in 2004, established a partnership with Africa Inland Church Kijabe Hospital to create BethanyKids at Kijabe Hospital, a 67-bed facility that has become widely known in Africa as a referral center for disabled children. Dr. Bransford has also provided surgical care during disasters and crises elsewhere in Africa, including Rwanda, Somalia, southern Sudan, and Zaire. In 2010, Dr. Bransford received the American College of Surgeons/Pfizer Surgical Humanitarianism Award and the American Medical Association (AMA) Foundation’s Dr. Nathan Davis International Award in Medicine, presented in association with Pfizer, Inc. The latter award is part of the AMA’s Excellence in Medicine Awards program and is presented to a physician who has dramatically improved health care for an international patient population. Top

Chien-Jen Chen, SPH '83 (ScD)
Chien-Jen Chien is the Vice President of Academia Simica (the Taiwanese equivalent of the U.S. National Institutes of Health), a former dean of the College of Public Health of the National University of Taiwan, and a former Minister of Health and Minister of Science of Taiwan. He has dedicated himself to epidemiological research on chronic arsenic poisoning and virus-induced cancers. His study findings have been used to establish the maximal contamination level of arsenic in drinking water. The impact of his arsenic research is far reaching and has saved millions of lives worldwide. His studies on chronic arsenic poisoning are now considered to be classics in environmental epidemiology. He and his colleagues first documented that hepatocellular carcinoma can be prevented by vaccination against the hepatitis B virus. This important finding has led to a new era of vaccination against cervical cancer and new clinical guidelines for the management of chronic hepatitis B, which affects millions of people worldwide. Dr. Chien received the Presidential Science Prize, the most prestigious science award in Taiwan, in 2005. He was elected as the Dr. DV Datta Memorial Orator by the Indian National Association for Study of the Liver in 2008. In 2009, he received the Science and Engineering Achievement Award from the Taiwanese-America Foundation in the USA. In 2005, he received the Health Medal from the Department of Health and the Achievement Medal from Executive Yuan in Taiwan, as well as the 2009 Officier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques from the Ministry of Education in France .Top

Coleney. Daniel, SPH '96
Ms. Daniel is the first woman to lead a large tertiary hospital in the Middle East. As the Chief Executive Officer of Hamad General Hospital, she leads a 600+ tertiary bed hospital with Level 1 Trauma Services. Hamad General Hospital provides over thirty specialties in surgery, medicine, emergency medicine, anesthesiology, pediatrics, laboratory, and radiology. As of 2010, the Level 1 Trauma and Emergency Medicine Programs provided care to 513,998 patients, 382,369 outpatients, and 441,769 urgent adult clinic patients and pediatric emergency care patients annually. Ms. Daniel manages QR 1.2 billion (US $329.5 million) in operational budget and a QR 2.1 billion (US $576.6 million) capital budget. On November 27, 2011, Hamad Medical Corporation formally recognized the conducting of Qatar’s first transplant service at Hamad General Hospital. Additionally, she has collaborated with the other hospitals in the Hamad Medical Corporation to develop a new comprehensive surgical cancer program that allows for the population to receive evidence-based cancer care in Qatar without having to travel abroad for the same quality care. Ms. Daniel has received an Appreciation Award for Excellence from the Saudi Arabian government for patient services. She has been rated among the top 25 Minority Executives in Healthcare and has been recognized with numerous leadership honors, which include the Women of Color Science and Research Award, the National Association of Health Service Executives Award for Community Service, and the Woman of Color Technology Award. Top

James E. Hildreth, Med '97, '87
Dr. Hildreth was recently named dean of the University of California, Davis, College of Biological Sciences. Prior to this, he was Director of the Center for AIDS Health Disparities Research, a National Institutes of Health-funded center at Meharry Medical College. He also served as Program Director of Research Centers in Minority Institutions, Associate Director of Vanderbilt-Meharry Center for AIDS Research, and a professor of Internal Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. In 2002, Dr. Hildreth became the first African American in the 125 year history of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine to earn full professorship with tenure in the Basic Sciences. He served as the first Associate Dean for Graduate Studies, where he created a summer research program for underrepresented minorities and was active in recruiting undergraduate students for graduate programs. Dr. Hildreth is known internationally for his research on the role of lipids in HIV infection. In 2001, while serving as Chief of the Division of Research for the National Institute of Health’s National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, Dr. Hildreth and his research team discovered that cholesterol is active in HIV’s ability to penetrate cells and that removing the fatty material from a cell's membrane can block infection. Dr. Hildreth’s team has used this discovery as the basis for developing an odorless, undetectable contraceptive cream that destroys the AIDS virus and holds promise for stopping the transmission of the disease. Top

Unni Krishnan Karunakara, SPH '04 (DrPH)
Dr. Unni Krishnan Karunakara is the International President of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which includes 19 national associations and branch offices. MSF provides aid in nearly 60 countries to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusion from health care, or natural disasters. MSF provides independent, impartial assistance to those most in need. Dr. Karunakara’s first engagement in MSF was in 1995, when he was tasked with setting up a tuberculosis control program in Jijiga, Ethiopia. He went on to become Medical Coordinator for MSF's activities in Azerbaijan, providing basic health care services to forced migrants from Nagorno-Karabakh; in Brazil, providing health care for the indigenous population in the Amazonas province; and in the Republic of Congo, working on a sleeping sickness program. In 2002, Dr. Karunakara joined the Public Health Department of MSF in Amsterdam, advising country programs in the Middle East, southern Africa, and South and Central America. Three years later, he became Medical Director of MSF's Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines. In 2007, he was part of the medical emergency response team that treated victims of cyclone Sidr in Mathbaria, Bangladesh. Dr. Karunakara also serves on the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues and its International Research Panel on protecting human subjects in scientific studies. The Panel includes experts on medical ethics, science, and clinical research. Top

Lawrence V. Manchester, Peab '94, '95
Lawrence Manchester (BM '94, Percussion; BM '95, Recording A&S) is an award-winning sound engineer working internationally with world-renowned musicians. Manchester was a 2010 Grammy nominee and has engineered the scores for three Academy Award-winning films – The Departed, Frida, and The Red Violin – with film score composers Howard Shore, Elliot Goldenthal, and John Corigliano respectively. He has worked with such artists as Bono, Regina Spektor, and Art Garfunkel and engineered for Grammy-winning producers including Phil Ramone and Neil Dorfsman. He has a gold record to his credit, John Fogerty's The Long Road Home, and a platinum-selling soundtrack, the album for Julie Taymor's movie musical Across The Universe. As the Music Mixer for NBC's Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, he has mixed live performances by The Roots, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Green Day, Vampire Weekend, Keith Urban, Public Enemy, Bon Jovi, Arctic Monkeys, Ben Harper, Dave Matthews Band, The Dead Weather, Paul Simon, Martha Wainwright, The Muppets, and Hank Williams, Jr. He has also engineered and recorded many live performances such as Austin City Limits and Jazz at Lincoln Center. His work has taken him around the world from Los Angeles to Kiev, Paris to Bangkok, and Amsterdam to Quito. He has recorded the Melbourne Symphony and London Symphony Orchestras in their respective cities and records regularly in Prague. Lawrence has said of his time at Peabody, “The knowledge and training that I acquired as a student at Peabody form the foundation of my diverse professional work today.” Lawrence was originally nominated by Peabody faculty member Scott Metcalfe and recommended by the Steering Committee of the Society of Peabody Alumni. Top

Wiley Henry Mosley, SPH '65
W. Henry Mosley was the founding Director of the International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh, which is now one of the leading research institutions in the world. Scientists at the Center discovered a way to replace the gallons of fluids cholera sufferers lose during the course of the disease. At the time, death rates could reach 50 percent and vaccines were only effective half the time. Devising a new treatment method was paramount. Because of the successful results of his trial, oral rehydration therapy became the new standard for treatment. During the war between East and West Pakistan in 1971, oral rehydration therapy saved thousands of lives in the refugee camps in neighboring India and soon-to-be Bangladesh. Nowadays, it is largely credited with reducing the disease’s death rate to around one percent. Dr. Mosley and colleagues also set up the Matlab Demographic Surveillance System in Bangladesh, the longest continuously running demographic surveillance system in developing countries. It has been continuously functioning for over 40 years and has been the source of hundreds of scientific studies. At Johns Hopkins, Dr. Mosley set up the Population Center in 1971, set up the Institute for International Programs in 1985, initiated the Distance Education Program from 1993 to 1998, and, with Laurie Zabin, established the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health in 1998. Dr. Mosley has twice served as Chairman of the Department of Population Dynamics, as well as Director of the Institute for International Programs at Johns Hopkins. Top

Andre Ndikuyeze, SPH '84, '86 (PhD)
André Ndikuyeze is a Rwandan epidemiologist and academic with experience in disease surveillance and response to epidemics and other natural disasters in Sub-Saharan Africa. His work with the World Health Organization has taken him to Kenya, Madagascar, Liberia, the Congo, Zimbabwe, and Chad. While working in Madagascar, Dr. Ndikuyeze organized and implemented the nation’s largest-ever vaccination campaign against measles, aiming for 95% coverage – the amount needed to prevent a potential measles epidemic in the country. Measles is the primary cause of vaccine-preventable death in the country. The campaign vaccinated 7.6 million children between the ages of nine months and fourteen years in just over three weeks. The 50% mark was reached just one week after vaccination activities began in all of the nation’s public and private schools. When working as the Resident Representative and Head of Diplomatic Mission to Gabon, Dr. Ndikuyeze managed a five-day inoculation campaign aimed at providing 300,000 children under five with measles vaccinations, vitamin A and de-worming tablets, and mosquito nets to prevent malaria. Despite a slow start, officials said the campaign reached the vast majority of Gabonese children, particularly in rural areas. He has been awarded the Order of National Merit from Chad, has been given a Special Citation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Liberia, and has received the Medal of Honor as an Officer of the National Order from Madagascar. Top

Mark Schiffman, SPH '84
Mark Schiffman is a world-class epidemiologist who has led the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Research Unit and its predecessor, the Interdisciplinary Studies Section, at the National Cancer Institute since 1996. His work is focused on molecular epidemiology relating to HPV. His studies seek to improve understanding of how cervical cancer arises in populations, as well as insights regarding preventive strategies, and change cervical cancer screening and prevention in the United States and internationally. Within the constraints of an etiology-oriented epidemiology program, Dr. Schiffman consults freely with officials and colleagues, particularly in Nigeria and Senegal. He has also assisted colleagues from Ghana, Upper Volta, Botswana, Colombia, and several other countries, and he promotes cervical cancer prevention worldwide. Dr. Schiffman’s primary interests are in Africa and Latin America. He has helped to show that HPV testing is useful along the entire course of cervical cancer prevention and must be integrated now with HPV vaccination. In the developing world, HPV screen-and-treat interventions based on careHPV or other similar HPV tests under development are promising, but formidable barriers exist for broad screening programs in places where the medical infrastructure is less developed and where cancer screening is a foreign concept for both the local women and the healthcare providers. Dr. Schiffman has received numerous awards for his work in molecular epidemiology, including the American Cancer Society Medal of Honor and the American Association of Cancer Research Prevent Cancer Foundation Award. He is also a member of Delta Omega Alpha Chapter, the public health honorary society. Top

Theodore Sterm, A&S '34
Throughout his life, Ted Stern has brought people together to overcome challenges. Known today as “Dr. Stern” in recognition of his many honorary degrees, Ted has a reputation of tireless and effective leadership. He continues to be active, even as he approaches his 99th birthday, in fostering civic and philanthropic organizations in the low-country of South Carolina. When he stepped down from his decade-long service as President of the College of Charleston in 1978, he poured his energy into making the Spoleto Festival USA successful. Mr. Stern’s role was critical in the early days, as a few of the local leaders removed themselves from the project when they could not settle their differences. At that point, Mayor Joseph P. Riley asked Mr. Stern to take the lead. He unified the leadership, the fundraising, and the planning to bring the event to life and remained at the helm for the first nine years, until the festival was on a solid footing. Through the early advocacy of Mr. Stern, the diversity and range of performers at the festival has included acts from Africa, Asia, Australia, as well as performers from throughout the US and all parts of Europe. Last year, the festival attracted attendees from 47 of the 50 states and from 12 other countries. The result is cross-cultural awareness created through the arts, both within the local community and among the thousands of attendees. This is a true testament to the power of the arts in transforming the world. Top

*As of November 2013, this award is now known as the Global Achievement Award.