2008 HIVMA Leadership Award Winners

Emerging Leader in HIV Research Award

Rochelle Walensky, MD, a prolific researcher best known for her work on the impact and cost effectiveness of routine, voluntary testing for HIV infection, is the recipient of HIVMA’s 2008 Emerging Leader in HIV Research Award. The award recognizes an HIVMA member who has made outstanding contributions to HIV medicine in clinical or basic research. Recipients must be actively engaged in HIV research, must be junior to mid-career in ranking, and must not have achieved the rank of professor or equivalent at their institution. The award is based on innovation and originality and requires demonstration of significant independent research and productivity.

Dr. Walensky received her medical degree in 1995 from Johns Hopkins University. She completed her medical residency in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins and an infectious diseases fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, during which she completed a masters in public health from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Walensky joined the faculty at Harvard Medical School as instructor in medicine in 2001, then was promoted to assistant professor in 2004, and associate professor in March 2008.

Dr. Walensky’s work on the impact and cost effectiveness of routine, voluntary HIV testing have had a significant impact on HIV policy in the United States. One of her cost-effectiveness analysis of routine HIV testing demonstrated that, in high- and moderate-risk adult populations in the United States, routine voluntary HIV screening at least once every five years is justified clinically and is cost effective. This paper is often cited as one of the standards of evidence for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines on routine HIV testing.

Further demonstration of Dr. Walensky’s accomplishments is her record of independent, peer-reviewed funding from National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and other agencies. Colleagues have the highest regard for Dr. Waleknsky for her demonstrated track record of conducting independent, innovative, and original research that has had an enormous impact on the field. Her many accomplishments in such a short time make Dr. Walensky an ideal recipient of HIVMA’s Emerging Leader in HIV Research Award.

HIV Clinical Education Award

Jeffrey L. Lennox, MD, a widely admired physician educator from Atlanta, is this year’s HIVMA 2008 HIV Clinical Education Award recipient. This award recognizes an HIVMA member who has demonstrated significant achievement in the area of HIV clinical care and provider education. Significant achievement is based on contributions to the acquisition and dissemination of information about HIV disease that transcend a single institution.

After receiving his medical degree in 1983 from the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Dr. Lennox completed a residency in internal medicine at Walter Reed Army Medical Center followed by his fellowship in infectious diseases, also at Walter Reed. Dr. Lennox is professor of medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, medical director of the Grady Infectious Diseases Program, and the principal investigator of the Emory HIV/AIDS Clinical Trials Unit.

Dr. Lennox is a pre-eminent educator in the Southeastern United States, a region particularly impacted by HIV. In collaboration with the Southeast AIDS Training and Education Center, Dr. Lennox developed a course titled, Medical Management of HIV Infection in the Rural Southeast. This course gives participants an opportunity to learn from a diverse faculty of scientists and physicians practicing in the Southeast. It is very well attended and one of the most successful regional courses available, according to colleagues of Dr. Lennox.

As co-chair of the annual International AIDS Society-USA full day continuing medical education course in Atlanta, Dr. Lennox has delivered innovative, state-of-the-art content to more than 350 experienced HIV clinicians from the Southeast United States, many of whom consider this course to be their primary source of HIV medical education.

Dr. Lennox has also been the medical section editor for the 2003 and 1999 editions of the Clinical Manual for Management of HIV-Infected Adults. This manual is directed at nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other non-physician providers who are practicing full-time HIV medicine. It is widely used throughout the Southeast and was distributed in CD-ROM format at the last two rural Southeast conferences.

Colleagues describe Dr. Lennox as an extraordinarily gifted teacher and clinician who has made important efforts to improve the management of HIV infection. Dr. Lennox’s outstanding contributions to HIV education make him a laudable recipient of this year’s HIV Clinical Education Award.

Related Information

About the HIVMA Leadership Awards

2007 Award Recipients

2006 Award Recipients

2005 Award Recipients

2004 Award Recipients