The AAMC Champion of Academic Medicine Award recognizes members of Congress and their staff for extraordinary leadership in strengthening the health workforce, advancing life-saving medical research, promoting the nation’s public health, and supporting federal programs – particularly those critical to the nation’s academic health systems and teaching hospitals, medical schools, learners, physician faculty, researchers, and the patients and communities they serve.
Awardees
2026
- Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.)
- Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine)
- Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.)
- Congresswoman Terri Sewell (D-Ala.)
(L-R): Medical College of Wisconsin President and CEO, Shekar Kurpad, MD, PhD; University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health Dean Nita Ahuja, MD; Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.); AAMC President and CEO, David Skorton, MD; AAMC Chief Health Care Officer, Jonathan Jaffery, MD, MS, MMM, FACP
2025
- Senator John Boozman (R-Ark.)
- Congresswoman Kathy Castor (D-Fla.)
(L-R): AAMC Chief Public Policy Officer Danielle Turnipseed, JD, MHSA, MPP; AAMC President and CEO, David Skorton, MD; Senator John Boozman (R-Ark); UAMS Chancellor Cam Patterson, MD, MBA; Alice L. Walton School of Medicine Dean and CEO Sharmila Makhija, MD, MBA.
2024
- Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)
- Congressman Tom Cole (R-Okla.)
(L-R): Richard P. Lofgren, MD, MPH, FACP, OU Health President and CEO, Erica Froyd, AAMC, Gary E. Raskob, PhD, Senior Vice President and Provost at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Congressman Tom Cole (R-Okla.), AAMC President, CEO David J. Skorton, MD, AAMC Chief Public Policy Officer Danielle Turnipseed, JD, MHSA, MPP, Tannaz Rasouli, AAMC
2022
- Laura Friedel, Senate Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, HHS & Education
- Alex Keenan, Senate Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, HHS & Education
2021
- Rachel Dolin, House Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health
- Dr. Melanie Egorin, House Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health
- Amy Hall, House Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health
- Sarah Levin, House Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health
- Orriel Richardson, House Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health
2020
- Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.)
- Congressman Richard Neal (D-Mass.)