For immediate release: July 31, 2008
Contact: Anne McMillin, APR
Office 775-682-9254
Mobile 702-292-4247
amcmillin@medicine.nevada.edu
Two from School of Medicine in Las Vegas honored
as
Healthcare Heroes by Nevada Business Journal
Ceremony honors those making significant contributions to healthcare
in southern Nevada
LAS VEGAS, Nev.— Two healthcare professionals from the University of Nevada School of Medicine were among 10 honored at the Nevada Business Journal’s third annual Southern Nevada Healthcare Heroes awards and banquet last night at Paris Las Vegas. Echezona Ezeanolue, M.D. and Karla Jay, MBA, were nominated by a committee of healthcare experts for their efforts in helping evolve southern Nevada into a major medical region.
The awards are also being presented to 10 northern healthcare professionals in a separate banquet in Reno tonight. Proceeds from both banquets benefit students pursuing careers in healthcare education at the University of Nevada School of Medicine.
Ezeanolue was honored for his healthcare innovation. He directs the comprehensive maternal/child HIV program and pediatric research program at the University of Nevada School of Medicine in Las Vegas and serves as the immunization committee chair for the Nevada chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. His major areas of interest are preventable perinatal infections and vaccine preventable diseases. He currently holds various research grants on immunization and immunodeficiency.
Jay, an administrator in the School’s Department of Internal Medicine, was honored for her work with the non-profit Nevada Neuroscience Foundation. She was instrumental in the creation and development of the foundation in 2002 and currently serves as its executive director. Under her leadership, the foundation has received grant funding from private foundations and pharmaceutical companies and been designated the Parkinson Outreach Center for the National Parkinson Foundation. The foundation, an accredited United Way partner, provides the services of a licensed social worker free of charge to its clients.
Other recipients were honored for their work in administration, care providing, community work, education, humanitarianism, lifetime achievement and technology at the awards dinner.
As the state’s only public medical school, the University of Nevada School of Medicine has been a leader in healthcare, medical education and research in Nevada since 1969. The School of Medicine includes 16 clinical departments including family medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, internal medicine, surgery, and psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and five nationally recognized departments in basic science including microbiology and biomedical engineering. The more than 185 doctors of University Health System, the school’s clinical practice, offer care in more than 40 medical specialties and subspecialties with eight physician offices in the Reno/Sparks area and seven in Las Vegas. The school is committed to a best practices approach to medicine and is dedicated to exceptional healthcare for Nevada now and in the future. For more information visit www.medicine.nevada.edu.