San Francisco, CA, November 9, 2002 - The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) has awarded national honors to three distinguished leaders in academic medicine. Drs. Kelley Skeff, David Kessler, and Stanley Korsmeyer will be recognized at the AAMC's 113th Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California, for their contributions to the fields of medical education, public health, and biomedical research.

Abraham Flexner Award for Distinguished Service to Medical Education

Kelley Skeff, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, will receive the Abraham Flexner Award for Distinguished Service to Medical Education. Established by the AAMC in 1958, the award recognizes extraordinary individual contributions to medical schools and to the medical education community as a whole.

Dr. Skeff's career accomplishments in the field of faculty development have concentrated on teaching improvement, the marriage of education and medicine. After realizing in the early 1970s that existing medical school teaching formats were out of date, Dr. Skeff set out to develop a seven-component model of teaching excellence. He used his theoretical teaching model to create the internationally-known Stanford Faculty Development Program. His "train-the-teacher" model is now shown to other medical school professors throughout the United States and internationally.

A Colorado native, Dr. Skeff received his medical degree from the University of Colorado Medical School in 1970. Several years later he was awarded one of the first Kaiser Family Foundation Fellowships for general internal medicine. In 1980 Dr. Skeff earned a doctoral degree from the Stanford University School of Education and began his faculty career there. He currently works in Stanford University's Department of Medicine, as associate chair for educational programs.

David E. Rogers Award

David A. Kessler, M.D., dean of the Yale University School of Medicine, is the recipient of the David E. Rogers Award, jointly sponsored by the AAMC and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The award is named for the foundation's former president, and recognizes a medical school faculty member who has made major contributions to improving the health and health care of the American people.

Part of Dr. Kessler's career was dedicated to one of the most significant public health issues facing the nation - the destructive and addictive effects of smoking. Beginning with his initial appointment as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1990, Dr. Kessler conceived a new strategy for tobacco control, based on an evolving understanding of the scientific and societal underpinnings of tobacco use and its effects. Under his leadership, the FDA publicly announced the addictive properties of nicotine in cigarettes and the idea that most smokers are trying to satisfy an addiction. Dr. Kessler and his colleagues uncovered documents to verify that tobacco manufacturers knew of the pharmacological effects of nicotine.

As FDA commissioner, Dr. Kessler also accelerated the approval time for new drugs, introduced a nutrition labeling program for food products, improved preventive controls to assure food safety, and enacted measures to strengthen the nation's blood supply.

Dr. Kessler earned a law degree in 1978 from the University of Chicago Law School and a medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1979. He completed a pediatrics internship and residency at Johns Hopkins University Hospital. After leaving the FDA in 1997, Dr. Kessler was appointed dean of Yale University School of Medicine.

Award for Distinguished Research in the Biomedical Sciences

Stanley Korsmeyer, M.D., professor of pathology and medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, will receive the Award for Distinguished Research in the Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Korsmeyer is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Harvard Medical School. This distinguished research award, established by the AAMC in 1981, is awarded to medical school faculty members who conduct outstanding clinical or laboratory research.

Dr. Korsmeyer has pioneered research on the mechanisms involved in the regulation of apoptosis, also known as programmed cell death. He has identified the key genetic mechanisms that govern cell death and survival and defined the role of cell death in the pathogenesis of human diseases, including lymphomas and other cancers.

His seminal observations have identified that susceptibility to apoptosis is determined by competition between pro-apoptotic and anti-apoptotic BCL-2 members. Since apoptosis is critical for normal cell development, Dr. Korsmeyer's research has generated a better understanding of organ development, cellular homeostasis, and the genetics and treatment of human disease.

Dr. Korsmeyer received his medical degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine. He completed his residency training at University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Korsmeyer's career includes three years as a clinical associate at the National Institutes of Health. He has been a faculty member of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute since 1998.

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The Association of American Medical Colleges represents the 125 accredited U.S. medical schools; the 16 accredited Canadian medical schools; some 400 major teaching hospitals, including Veterans Administration medical centers; more than 105,000 faculty in 98 academic and scientific societies; and the nation's 66,000 medical students and 97,000 residents. Additional information about the AAMC and U.S. medical schools and teaching hospitals is available at www.aamc.org/newsroom.

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The Association of American Medical Colleges is a not-for-profit association representing all 129 accredited U.S. and 17 accredited Canadian medical schools; nearly 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems, including 68 Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and 94 academic and scientific societies. Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC represents 109,000 faculty members, 67,000 medical students, and 104,000 resident physicians. Additional information about the AAMC and U.S. medical schools and teaching hospitals is available at www.aamc.org/newsroom.

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