FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE HONORS MEMBERS FOR OUTSTANDING SERVICE

WASHINGTON -- Today at its 36th annual meeting, the Institute of Medicine honored members Lawrence Gostin, Fitzhugh Mullan, and Elena Nightingale for their outstanding service to the institution. 

Gostin was presented the Adam Yarmolinsky Medal, awarded to an IOM member from a discipline outside the health and medical sciences.  He has been an esteemed and longtime member (1998-2005) of the IOM’s Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice (formerly the Board on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention), and has helped shape the board’s response to a number of emerging public health issues such as the threat of bioterrorism.  He has also served on seven IOM studies, two of which he chaired. Gostin is associate dean for research and academic programs and professor of law at Georgetown University; professor of public health at Johns Hopkins University; and director of the Center on Law and the Public's Health at Georgetown University Law Center. 

Mullan received the David Rall Medal, awarded to an IOM member who has demonstrated particularly distinguished leadership as chair of a study committee or other such activity, showing commitment above and beyond the usual responsibilities of the position.  He is honored for his outstanding and effective leadership in building consensus as chair of the Committee on the Options for Overseas Placement of Health Professions.  The committee’s report, HEALERS ABROAD: AMERICANS RESPONDING TO THE HUMAN RESOURCE CRISIS IN HIV/AIDS captures key scientific, clinical, social, and policy issues.  He also organized a coalition of professional support for a U.S. Global Health Service -- a key recommendation of the report.  Mullan is the Murdock Head Professor of Medicine and Health Policy at George Washington University’s School of Public Health and Health Services. 

Nightingale was awarded the Walsh McDermott Medal, which is given to an IOM member for distinguished service over an extended period.  A scholar-in-residence at the Institute of Medicine since 1994, she is a member emerita of the Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice, having served as a member for over 15 years.  She also has been a member of the National Academies’ Report Review Committee since 2004.  She was instrumental in organizing IOM’s Committee on Health and Human Rights, which later merged with the Academies' Committee on Human Rights.  Nightingale also helped to establish two joint activities of the IOM and the National Research Council -- the Board on Children, Youth, and Families and the Committee on Adolescent Health and Development.

Nominations for the three membership awards were solicited from IOM members and staff.  Established in 1970 under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine provides independent, objective, evidence-based advice to policymakers, health professionals, the private sector, and the public. The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council make up the National Academies.