Awards & Accolades

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Congratulations to these recent honorees.

Attakai Receives National Rural Health Award

Agnes Attakai, director of health disparities outreach and prevention education for the Arizona Center for Rural Health in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, has received the National Rural Health Association's Rosemary McKenzie Legacy Award. The association will present the award to Attakai at its annual conference in New Orleans on Friday.

The award recognizes those who have worked to improve rural health access for underserved populations like multiracial and multicultural groups, veterans, the LGBTQ community and those who are homeless. Attakai was honored for her 17 years of work "to reduce health disparities among Arizona's Native Americans, most notably by developing the Native American health care and public health workforce," according to the association.

Attakai, a member of the Navajo Nation, is also the program coordinator for the UA's Arizona Indians into Medicine Program.

Perry Named 2019 Medical Library Association Fellow

Jerry Perry, the associate dean of University Libraries who oversees the University of Arizona Health Sciences Library, has been named a fellow of the Medical Library Association. Perry will be honored at the association's May 2019 annual meeting in Chicago, where he will deliver the Janet Doe lecture.

The association's fellows, which are selected by the association's board of directors, are members who have shown "sustained and outstanding contributions to health sciences librarianship and to the advancement of the purposes of MLA."

Perry has more than 30 years of experience as a health sciences librarian and served as MLA president from 2011 to 2012.

Sethuraman, Venkataramani Named Simons Foundation Fellows

Sunder Sethuraman, professor of mathematics and of statistics, and Shankar Venkataramani, professor of mathematics and of applied mathematics, have been named 2018 Simons Fellows in Mathematics by the Simons Foundation.

The foundation aims to support and advance research in mathematics and the basic sciences. Fellowships are based on the awardees' scientific accomplishments completed over the last five years. The fellowships provide a full academic year sabbatical, which is intended to make fellows' leaves more productive than a sabbatical of a single term, according to the foundation.

Denno Receives AZTransfer Advocate Award

Linda Denno, assistant professor at UA South and director of its Bachelor of Applied Science program in administration of justice, was given the 2018 AZTransfer Advocate Award during the organization's summit in Scottsdale on April 12.

AZTransfer provides programs and resources to connect students at the state's public and tribal community colleges to Arizona's three state universities. The AZTransfer Advocate Award recognizes an individual or program that "demonstrated advocacy to transfer students and initiatives in Arizona's public, community and tribal colleges and universities."

Denno is being recognized for redesigning UA South's Bachelor of Applied Science degrees to give more opportunities to students transferring from community colleges with Associate of Applied Science degrees, which are often nontransferrable to a university's bachelor's degree programs, according to AZTransfer. Denno's work has led to the number of students in BAS programs increasing by 200 percent, said Sarah Wieland, assistant dean of academic advising and student services at UA South and Denno's nominator.

Arizona Public Media Wins Seven Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards

Arizona Public Media has received seven Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association, the association announced on April 25.

AZPM and KUAT, Tucson's Public Broadcasting Service affiliate, were recognized for stories in the categories of small market radio and small market television. The awards came from the association's Region 3, which includes TV and radio stations in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

The award-winning stories were:

• DACA – Breaking news coverage
• Trump's Wall and Immigration Policies – Continuing coverage
• "Interment" – Excellence in sound
• "'Motorcycle Great-Great-Grandmama': Tucson's Motorcycle Maven Turns 100" – Feature reporting
• "Danzacultura" – Excellence in video
• A Tucson Family Observes Ramadan – Feature reporting
• Mega Region of the Southwest Border – News series

AZPM advances to the national Edward R. Murrow Awards competition, whose winners will be announced in June.

Solomon, NARTC Recognized by Arizona House of Representatives

Teshia Solomon and the UA Native American Research and Training Center, which she directs, were recognized for their work in a legislative proclamation from the Arizona House of Representatives. Rep. Sally Ann Gonzales, whose district covers most of Tucson's west side, presented the proclamation to Solomon at the Capitol in Phoenix on April 10.

The proclamation, signed by Gonzales, Rep. Macario Saldate IV, and Rep. J.D. Mesnard, House speaker, honors and recognizes Solomon and the center "for their continued work in the tradition of respectful research and training for Indigenous Peoples, and promoting healthy Native Communities through sciences and service." The statement points to Solomon's efforts to educate UA students and faculty, as well as tribal communities, about health and research relevant to Native American populations, and the center's research into cancer and diabetes.

The center was established in 1983 as a resource for health-related research and training for Native American communities across the U.S. Solomon, who is an associate professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, where the center is housed, became its director in 2010.

We want to know about your good news. If you, your team or a colleague has won any major awards, been honored nationally or internationally, or accomplished some other major feat that deserves recognition, let us know about it.

To submit your news, please send us an email with the following information:

•   Name of the person, team or unit receiving the honor with full UA titles.
•   Information about the award/honor and the organization that granted it. Please include a link to the official announcement of the award/honor, when the honor was announced and when it will be presented (or was presented).
•   A photo of the honoree. If others appear in the photo, please provide their names and identifying information, such as their UA title or other affiliation.

Questions? Contact Lo Que Pasa at uaatwork@email.arizona.edu.