Dr. Schenken Honored with Chancellor’s Distinguished
Service Award
The University of Nebraska Medical Center recently honored Jerald Schenken,
M.D., a longtime volunteer faculty member, for 35 years of helping students
and professionals in the medical field.
Dr. Schenken, a volunteer clinical professor in the department of pathology
and microbiology and The School of Allied Health Programs, received the
Chancellor’s Distinguished Service Award June 15.
“It’s quite an honor to be recognized by the university,” Dr. Schenken
said. “I learned a lot from my volunteer faculty members. It is important
to give back to the physicians of the future what you have received from
those of the past. Plus, I love to teach. It keeps you on your toes.”
UNMC also has created the Jerald R. Schenken, M.D., Award to honor a
graduating student who best exemplifies professionalism and scholarship
in pathology and microbiology.
“He has a passion for teaching and sharing information,” said Michael
Sitorius, M.D., chairman of the department of family medicine. “Jerry cares
about students and is an outstanding educator, role model and mentor for
health professionals.”
Dr. Schenken joined UNMC in 1965 as a pathology instructor and later,
an associate professor. Since the mid-1970s, he has been a volunteer clinical
professor in the UNMC College of Medicine and School of Allied Health Professions.
He also volunteers at the Creighton University College of Medicine. For
the past 30 years, Dr. Schenken has taught a UNMC family review course
each spring to help physicians prepare for their national certification
exams. He is one of only two original members still on the review course
faculty.
Dr. Schenken received his medical education from Tulane University in
1958. He later returned to Omaha and joined his late father, John Schenken,
M.D., at the Pathology Center, based at Methodist Hospital. Dr. Schenken
was president of the center from 1981 until 1996, when it was sold to Methodist
Hospital. He continued as a pathologist at the hospital and at Children’s
Hospital.
Dr. Schenken, 66, was president of the American Board of Pathology in
1983-84, and has served as president of the board’s Research and Education
Foundation. In 1983, the College of American Pathologists named him the
national Pathologist of the Year. Six years later, the college gave him
the first Frank C. Coleman Award for Public Service. That same year, the
American Pathology Foundation awarded him with the first Russell J. Eilers
Distinguished Service Award.
Dr. Schenken, who has served on numerous editorial boards and state
and national organizations, is a past secretary-treasurer of the American
Medical Association, past president of the Nebraska Association of Pathologists
and past chairman of the Council of Legislation, College of American Pathologists.
The Detroit native, who grew up in New Orleans and Omaha, also has been
active in the Republican Party, running for Congress in 1988 and serving
as chairman of the Nebraska Republican Party from 1991 to 1995.
UNMC is the only public academic health science center in the state.
Through its commitment to research, education, outreach
and patient care, UNMC has established itself as one of the country’s
leading centers for cancer research and treatment, solid organ transplantation
and arthritis. During the past year, nearly $31 million in research grants
and contracts were awarded to UNMC scientists, and UNMCs funding from
the National Institutes of Health increased by 28 percent, going from $16.2
million to $20.7 million. UNMCs educational programs are responsible for
training more health professionals practicing in Nebraska than any other
institution.