C. Everett Koop, MD, ScD, former U.S. Surgeon General, will receive Research!America’s 2009 Raymond and Beverly Sackler Award for Sustained National Leadership. The award recognizes Koop’s decades-long commitment to advocacy for public health. He will be honored March 24, 2009, at the 13th Annual Research!America Advocacy Awards event at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, DC.
Koop is the Elizabeth DeCamp McInerny Professor of Surgery at Dartmouth Medical School. He served two terms as Surgeon General from 1981 to 1989, becoming the government’s chief spokesperson on AIDS at the outset of the AIDS crisis. He is widely credited for tackling some of the nation’s most daunting public health challenges, most notably tobacco addiction and HIV/AIDS. He is a steadfast advocate for public health education and has written extensively on public health issues.
He was awarded an Emmy in 1991 for “C. Everett Koop, MD,” a television series on health care reform. Koop is the recipient of 41 honorary doctorates and many honors and awards, including the 1995 Presidential Medal of Freedom. He serves on several boards and committees, including the Institute of Medicine, the American Surgical Association and the American Pediatric Surgical Association.
Award benefactors Beverly and Raymond R. Sackler, MD, are long-standing Research!America supporters. Raymond Sackler is a Research!America emeritus director.
Research!America is the nation’s largest not-for-profit public education and advocacy alliance working to make research to improve health a higher national priority. The 2009 Advocacy Awards represent Research!America’s 13th year of recognizing the accomplishments of leading advocates for medical and health research. For more information, visit www.researchamerica.org/advocacy_awards.
