At its commencement ceremonies at 10 a.m., Saturday, at the Omaha Civic Auditorium, UNMC will honor six people who have displayed tremendous dedication and excellence in their fields.
UNMC will award Distinguished Service Awards to two Omaha couples who have assisted the Medical Center in trying to achieve its goal of becoming a world-class academic health sciences center. Suzanne and Walter Scott and Gail and Mike Yanney are this year’s recipients of the UNMC Distinguished Service Awards.
UNMC also will award an Honorary Doctor of Science degree to Guinter Kahn, M.D., a UNMC alumnus who discovered that the drug Minoxidil is an effective hair-growth stimulant. The drug is the active ingredient in the commercial product, Rogaine.
Rosalee Yeaworth, Ph.D., will receive the fourth special award from UNMC. Dr. Yeaworth is this year’s recipient of the J.G. (Jack) Elliott Award, given annually to a Nebraska resident who has made significant contributions to medicine and health programs for the State of Nebraska and for UNMC.
Distinguished Service Awards
Two prominent Omaha couples will be awarded the Chancellor’s Distinguished Service Award at the UNMC commencement in Omaha on Saturday.
Suzanne and Walter Scott and Gail and Mike Yanney, all of Omaha, are being presented the award for their advocacy of the Medical Center and its mission to become a world-class academic health sciences center.
“Early in my chancellorship, I realized that to reach our goal to become world-class, we needed to tap the resources of specific individuals in Nebraska who had done just that — become world-class,” UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D., said. “Among the first couples I contacted were the Scotts and the Yanneys.”
Along with other members of the informal advisory group, the Scotts and Yanneys have evaluated new proposals and initiatives being considered by the Medical Center, then have provided appropriate feedback and advice.
“They have an encompassing, big-picture view of the world. Yet, they combine that view with real-world common sense and business savvy that is unmatched,” Dr. Maurer said. “They offer perspectives that are unlike those that we would normally find at the Medical Center, connecting practical community and business ideas to the proverbial Ivory Tower. They always are available when I call for advice or suggestions. For their vision, initiative and hard work, the Medical Center owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to these very special couples.”
Walter Scott is the chairman and CEO of Level 3 Communications Inc. A business and community visionary, Walter Scott served as chairman of the strategic planning committee that developed UNMC’s Research Center of Excellence, serving as a driving force behind the 10-level structure that is being built on the
western edge of the UNMC Omaha campus. This state-of-the-art facility will have 116 new research labs and a 300-seat auditorium.
Suzanne Scott was a member of UNMC’s committee for Campaign Nebraska and raised money to support many research, educational and patient-care initiatives on the UNMC campus.
The Yanneys have hosted the Carol Bell Lectureship since its inception five years ago, bringing nationally respected cancer researchers to UNMC for the annual event. They are supportive of the UNMC HIV Clinic and have helped spread the word about UNMC through their community leadership.
Mike Yanney is an internationally accomplished, visionary businessman who served tirelessly as vice chairman of the strategic planning committee for the Research Center of Excellence. Gail and Mike Yanney also are benefactors to the construction of the new research building.
Dr. Gail Walling Yanney first walked across this stage in 1961 as a graduate of the UNMC College of Medicine. A retired anesthesiologist, she has never forgotten her alma mater, serving as president of the College of Medicine Alumni Board from 1997 to 1999. In 1997, she co-chaired UNMC’s committee for Campaign Nebraska, which raised more than $170 million to support scholarships, endowed professorships and chairmanships, research funds, and other significant initiatives. She continues to serve on several UNMC boards.
Honorary Doctor of Science
Guinter Kahn, M.D., who revolutionized the hair-growth industry with his discovery that the drug Minoxidil is an effective hair-growth stimulant, will be conferred an Honorary Doctor of Science degree on Saturday UNMC.
An Omaha native and 1958 UNMC graduate, Dr. Kahn made his noted discovery while working in a teaching position at the University of Colorado in Denver in the early 1970s.
While researching the use of Minoxidil as an antihypertensive, Dr. Kahn and a resident physician noticed that the drug was causing some people to grow hair on their skin. The researchers then filed an application for a patent, which they exchanged in 1984 with Upjohn, Inc., for royalties.
Despite the fact that Dr. Kahn’s discovery occurred nearly 30 years ago, Minoxidil today remains the only substance that is approved by the FDA for growing hair.
Born in Trier, Germany, in 1934, Dr. Kahn and his parents immigrated to the United States in 1938, settling in Omaha. During the years that followed, he not only studied hard, but he also worked hard — shining shoes and delivering newspapers — to finance his education. He graduated from Central High School in 1951, from Omaha University, cum laude, in 1954.
After completing an internship in Philadelphia, Dr. Kahn was a ship’s physician before he enlisted in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. In 1965, he served a medical residency in dermatology at the University of Miami.
In 1973, Dr. Kahn returned to Miami, where he practices dermatology.
In addition to his scientific advances, Dr. Kahn also has been a valued philanthropist for UNMC. A floor at the Leon S. McGoogan Library of Medicine was named for Dr. Kahn whose endowed fund supplies much of the library’s computer hardware. His latest investment in the education of health-care providers has significantly assisted the library in increasing acquisitions, hardware and resources pertaining to medical ethics, a subject of particular interest to Dr. Kahn.
Among his distinctions, Dr. Kahn was recognized as the Distinguished Inventor of the Year in 1988 for his Minoxidil discovery, and in 1996 the UNMC College of Medicine honored Dr. Kahn with the Alumnus of the Year award.
The department of dermatology at the Rambam Hospital in Israel is named after him. Dr. Kahn returned in April from Israel, where he lectured at the Technion, Israel’s institute of technology, about the role of German doctors during the Holocaust. He has been invited to speak at German medical centers on this subject during the past five years.
Dr. Kahn’s mother, Sophie, and his brother, Marcel, still reside in Omaha.
J.G. (Jack) Elliott Award
In her 20 years of service to UNMC, Rosalee Yeaworth, R.N., Ph.D., increased the opportunities for nursing education in greater Nebraska. A doctoral program was started and the door was opened for nurses to earn their master’s and doctoral degrees through distance learning methods.
As the fourth dean of the College of Nursing, Dr. Yeaworth arrived at her post in 1979 ready to fulfill UNMC’s mission of improving the health of Nebraska. During her tenure, UNMC nursing campuses were established in Scottsbluff in 1987 and in Kearney in 1991, to allow the university to better serve the entire state with nursing education.
Under Dr. Yeaworth’s leadership, a nurse practitioner program was launched in Kearney to prepare master’s level family nurse practitioners to help serve the primary care needs of rural Nebraska. A special program was approved to assist a cadre of existing faculty to gain certification as nurse practitioners in order to meet the growing need to prepare more nurse practitioners.
After moving to Omaha in 1979 from her home state of Ohio, Dr. Yeaworth discovered that one-third of the nursing faculty at UNMC did not hold master’s degrees. Immediately, she initiated programs to encourage faculty members to pursue master’s degrees, then later their doctoral degrees.
Although she stepped down as dean of the College of Nursing in 1994 after 15 years, Dr. Yeaworth continued to teach.
Even in her retirement, she continues to make contributions to the health of Nebraskans and beyond. Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns appointed Dr. Yeaworth to the Nebraska Center for Nursing Board, where issues of the Nebraska nursing workforce are addressed. She also was appointed state coordinator of health advocacy services of American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). Recently, she was appointed to the AARP National Legislative Council to serve as an advocate before legislators on health care and issues of aging Americans.
Dr. Yeaworth has been committed to working with Alzheimer’s patients as an advocate for them and their families. She has testified many times to the legislature to assist in appropriate legislation being passed to aid Alzheimer’s patients. Dr. Yeaworth continues in her prestigious record of scholarly activity by publishing articles that are relevant to dementia.
The J.G. Elliott Award is given annually in memory of Elliott, a former Scottsbluff resident who served on the University of Nebraska Board of Regents for 20 years until his death in 1974.