Nancy Walton Pugh Child Advocacy Award
This award is named in honor of Dr. Nancy Walton Pugh, who was a member of our general pediatric faculty from 1998-2003. With every patient encounter, Dr. Walton demonstrated her extraordinary commitment to the care of her patients, her compassion, and her willingness to advocate in whatever way necessary for the well-being of each patient. This award is established to recognize outstanding efforts by a pediatric resident(s) whose efforts have led to the improved health and well-being of children and is awarded in recognition of an outstanding advocacy project initiated and implemented during residency.
2007 Dr. Denise Aronzon, Dr. Amber Pendleton
Dr. Denise Aronzon is a patient advocate with every patient she sees and has received funding from UVA and from a CATCH Grant to start a monthly prenatal group meeting with high-risk mothers from the OB Clinic at the Primary Care Center. The meetings will start summer, 2007.
Dr. Amber Pendleton has been working with the Childhood Obesity Task Force and has received a CATCH grant to assist with the first Family Fitness Weekend for overweight and at-risk children in our community. Dr. Pendleton has been a leader in this effort and has involved other residents in this important work.
2006 Dr. Heidi Martinson
Dr. Heidi Martinson is a true child advocate who is very conscientious of her patients' needs and care. Regardless of whether a family needs more support and instruction, whether a patient needs social work management, whether a patient needs redirection of care, Dr. Martinson is there. Her work with the Healer's Art program demonstrates her passion for meaning and truth in medicine. Dr. Martinson was the only resident to participate in this program, and then led her own group of medical students thereafter. Dr. Martinson also worked tirelessly as a Home Visit Leader, always caring for her patients as real, whole people who need all of their medical, emotional, and economic concerns addressed.
2005 Dr. Jessica Simmons
Dr. Jessica Simmons undertook a study of the effects of the Reach Out and Read Program on patients cared for via our home visit program, and she applied for a CATCH grant to further this work. She was also selected as one of twenty residents in the U.S. chosen to participate in the year-long AMSA Leadership Series Seminar, 2004-05, which entailed a series of seminars focused on the development of physician leadership and issues of rural health in the United States. As part of this program, she developed a study of the effects of the Reach Out and Read Program on the rural patients cared for in our Orange County pediatric clinic.
2004 Dr. Gretchen Huot, Dr. Elizabeth McGowan
Dr. Gretchen Huot identified a lack of unified care for the large and ever-growing refugee population served at the University of Virginia. She obtained a CATCH planning grant in 2002 to fund work designed to identify barriers to accessing medical care for refugee families and their children; she worked closely with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and others in the community to identify the present level of resources available and to define unmet needs. She presented her work at the Region IV Ambulatory Pediatrics Regional Meeting in January 2003. She was also awarded the Annie Dyson Award for Advocacy, 2003, and was recognized at the national AAP meeting for her efforts. She also undertook the development of a child advocacy elective as part of our residency curriculum, designed to allow residents to focus on an issue of child advocacy in depth.
Dr. Elizabeth McGowan identified a lack of available dental resources for patients seen at the University of Virginia. She obtained toothbrushes and toothpaste for these patients and worked with dentists to raise awareness about this issue. She also worked towards developing a fluoride varnish program for children seen in our pediatric clinics with limited resources and limited access to dental care, as well as worked to expand topics of dental health in the resident curriculum. She presented her work wt the Region IV Ambulatory Pediatrics Meeting in January, 2004.