Prestigious organizations recognize Brown scholars for their research, humanitarian efforts, and leadership.
Brown University faculty members received numerous accolades over the past several months for outstanding research, service, and leadership with many awards, fellowships, and other honors. The scholars earned both national and international recognition and support for their work.
Among such distinctions are the following honors:
Seth F. Berkley ’78 MD’81, P’27MD’31, an adjunct professor of the practice of epidemiology and a senior adviser at the Pandemic Center at Brown’s School of Public Health, received the 2024 Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Humanitarian Award, which honors individuals whose outstanding humanitarian efforts and achievements have contributed significantly to improving global public health. Berkley was recognized for his work as an entrepreneur as well as for being a pioneer in global health and a champion of equitable access to vaccines.
Linda L. Carpenter, MD, a professor of psychiatry and human behavior, was awarded the Clinical Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Society Gold Medal of Honor, which recognizes foundational contributions to research and clinical care related to a non-surgical procedure that uses magnetic fields to stimulate key regions of the brain to treat mental health disorders such as depression and obsessive compulsive disorder. The society has awarded the medal only three other times in the past decade.
Mary A. Carskadon, PhD, a professor of psychiatry and human behavior, received the Leadership in Sleep Medicine Award from the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin – Sleep in recognition of her outstanding contributions to sleep medicine over the course of her career.
Thamara Davis RES’00 F’02, MD, a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior, received a DEI champion award from the Lifespan Physician Group for her contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Davis is lead psychiatrist at the Children’s Partial Hospital Program at Bradley Hospital, where she has led initiatives to address cultural dimensions of treatment and has worked to incorporate culturally responsive therapeutic and supervision skills into curricula for trainees and faculty.
Alethea Desrosiers, PhD, an assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior who serves on the advisory committee of Brown’s Global Health Initiative, a multidisciplinary effort to reduce health inequalities among underserved populations worldwide, received an award from the Fulbright Specialist Program to spend two weeks in Bogotá, Colombia, where she collaborated with colleagues at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana on implementation science and global mental health.
Wafik El-Deiry, MD, PhD, a professor of medical science and of pathology and laboratory medicine who leads the Legorreta Cancer Center at Brown, was named to the National Academy of Inventors Class of 2024 Senior Members. The members are faculty, scientists, and administrators who have demonstrated remarkable innovation producing technologies that have brought, or aspire to bring, real impact on the welfare of society, and also for success in patents, licensing, and commercialization while educating and mentoring the next generation of inventors.
Alaa Elnajjar, MD, MSc, a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior, was selected for a DEI champion award from the Lifespan Physician Group for her contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion. An attending psychiatrist at Bradley Hospital, Elnajjar teaches cultural humility, culturally competent interview methods, and therapy techniques for youth from diverse backgrounds to Brown’s child and adolescent psychiatry trainees.
A. Rani Elwy, PhD, a professor of psychiatry and human behavior and of behavioral and social sciences, was selected as one of seven professionals nationwide to join the 50th class of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellows, a program that hones fellows’ skills in health policy development and places them in advisory positions in congressional and executive offices in Washington.
Tanuja Gandhi, MD, an assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior, clinician educator, was appointed chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s National Membership Committee, which guides the organization’s recruitment and retention activities. Gandhi was also awarded the Assembly Resident Fellow Member Mentor Award by the American Psychiatric Association Assembly, for which she has served as an elected member for the past two years.
Daphne Koinis-Mitchell, PhD, a professor of psychiatry and human behavior and of pediatrics (research), received the CTR Excellence in Service and Mentoring Award at the 2024 National IDeA Symposium of Biomedical Research Excellence. The award recognizes a mentor who exemplifies research excellence and who has generously given their time to support junior investigators in a clinical and translational research program.
Michael E. Migliori ’79 MD’82, a professor of surgery, clinician educator, and chief of the Division of Ophthalmology at Rhode Island Hospital, accepted the 2023 Commitment to Advocacy Award on behalf of the division from the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
Sanjay Mishra, PhD, a research associate in medicine, and Jeremy Warner, MD, MS, a professor of biostatistics and of medicine, received the 2023 DataWorks! $100,000 Grand Prize from the Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology and the National Institutes of Health. DataWorks! showcases the benefits of research data management while recognizing and rewarding teams whose research demonstrates the power of data sharing or reuse practices to advance scientific discovery and human health. Mishra and Warner’s team won for their project, “COVID-19 and Cancer: Catalyzing Collaboration.”
Audrey R. Tyrka, MD, PhD, the Mary E. Zucker Professor and chair of psychiatry and human behavior, was honored with the 2024 Community Champion Award from Sojourner House, a Providence nonprofit that serves survivors of domestic violence, sexual abuse, and human trafficking. Tyrka, who researches childhood trauma and adversity, is the co-founder and co-director of STAR COBRE, The Miriam Hospital’s Center of Biomedical Research Excellence for Stress, Trauma, and Resilience, and is a member of the Community Advisory Board of Sojourner House.
