2022-24 Edward A. Dickson Emeritus/a Professorship Award Four Recipients Announced

Claire D. Brindis, DrPH	Donna Ferriero, MD, MS	Mel Heyman, MD, MPH	Kimberly S. Topp, PT, PhD, FAAA

Vice Provost Alldredge awarded the 2022-24 UCSF Edward A. Dickson Emeritus/a Professorship to four UCSF Emeriti/ae professors: Claire D. Brindis, DrPH; Donna Ferriero, MD, MS; Mel Heyman, MD, MPH; and Kimberly S. Topp, PT, PhD, FAAA. Their two-year terms begin July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2024.

Claire D. Brindis, DrPH
Distinguished Professor and Emerita Director, Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine

• Project: UCSF Action on Climate and Health with High-Impact Policy Priorities
• Summary: Launched in 2021, the UC Center for Climate, Health and Equity (UC CCHE) is a UC-wide Center based at UCSF. The goal of this project is to accelerate the development and deployment of the UC CCHE’s policy pillar to facilitate an impactful trajectory for the Center’s work. The award will support the following activities: 1) guidance and mentorship on UC CCHE strategy and policy goals, and 2) two pilot community-partnered action research projects on climate and health equity.

Donna Ferriero, MD, MS
Distinguished Professor Emerita of Neurology and Pediatrics, Departments of Neurology and Pediatrics, School of Medicine

• Project: Tapping a Resource: Emeriti Faculty as Mentors.
• Summary: Clinical faculty are significantly less likely to be mentored than research faculty. Successful mentorship is critical to career success. One reason for failed mentoring relationships is the mentor’s lack of experience. Tapping into the richness of the experience of emeriti faculty would address this issue. This will be the first program engaging emeriti faculty on recall to mentor junior faculty, especially clinicians and clinician educators. This program should provide enormous impact in retaining our valuable clinician faculty.

Mel Heyman, MD, MPH
Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Emeritus; Vice Chair for Faculty Development, Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine

• Project: Faculty Development Program for Mid-Level and Senior Faculty Members
• Summary: Faculty mentoring programs typically aim at junior faculty members (i.e., those who are in the Assistant Professor or equivalent rank), largely ignoring mid-level and senior faculty members. This project aims to develop a program to fill that gap by organizing a formalized mentoring and sponsorship system that will be available to all faculty members in the Department of Pediatrics. Midcareer is a critical time to support women and URM career development as this is when increased disparity in attainment and leadership positions becomes most notable. A successful program will provide a model that can be applied to faculty members in other departments throughout the university and beyond.

Kimberly S. Topp, PT, PhD, FAAA
Professor and Chair Emeritus, Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, School of Medicine

• Project: American Council of Academic Physical Therapy (ACAPT) Center for Excellence.
• Summary: With the vision to create a shared culture of excellence to improve societal health, ACAPT has committed to building a Center for Excellence in Academic Physical Therapy to collect and share program data, similar to the research and data centers of our peers in dentistry (ADEA), medicine (AAMC), nursing (AACN), and pharmacy (AACP). We are building a centralized system within which program data are collected, analyzed, and shared, through trustworthy, transparent, and timely means, to support organizational planning and performance improvement. Our tasks include raising awareness, educating, and promoting the use of data to foster excellence in all academic programs, and this proposal will enable UCSF Physical Therapy to help lead the way in academic physical therapy.

About the Award
The UCSF Edward A. Dickson Emeritus Professorship Award honors UCSF emeritus/a professors whose outstanding research, scholarly work, teaching, or public service activities have continued since retirement. The highest priority will be to support activities that benefit the campus and for which funding is not available from other sources. Each award is for a maximum of $10,000 and is made to the Emeritus/a Professor for the upcoming two (2) fiscal years.

For more information, visit the award website or contact Abby Draper.