Six individuals were honored for their contributions to their respective professions during this year’s University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Alumni Reunion in Omaha.
The honorees and their awards included:
· Kathleen Chavanu Gorman — College of Nursing Alumni Association Distinguished Alumnus Award;
· Charles Wilson, M.D. – College of Nursing Alumni Association Honorary Alumnus Award;
· Lee Handke, Pharm.D. — College of Pharmacy Alumni Association Early Career Achievement Award;
· Scott Hofmann, M.D. — College of Medicine Alumni Association Early Career Achievement Award;
· Michael Sorrell, M.D. – College of Medicine Alumni Association Distinguished Alumnus Award; and
· Jesse Edwards — Physician Assistant Founder’s Award from the School of Allied Health Professions.
Kathleen Chavanu Gorman, R.N., M.S.N.
A Pleasanton, Neb. native, Chavanu Gorman earned her bachelor’s degree in 1989 and her master’s degree in 1995.
With 20 years of pediatric nursing experience, she began her career as a pediatric intensive care nurse at St. Joseph Hospital at Creighton University and later worked at The Hospital for Sick Children and Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC.
Last month, she started work as senior vice president and chief nursing officer for The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. During her career, Chavanu Gorman has held adjunct faculty positions at Georgetown University and Howard University; published manuscripts in leading clinical journals; served in leadership positions within Child Health Corporation of America, The National Association of Children’s Hospitals, The National Quality Forum and The Leapfrog Group.
She has extensive expertise in quality measure setting and improvement, patient safety, executive nursing leadership, evidence-based practice, workforce and nursing outcomes, revenue cycle management, case management, care coordination and utilization management.
She is the daughter of Donald and Shirley Chavanu.
Charles Wilson, M.D.
A York, Neb. native, Dr. Wilson earned his bachelor’s degree with distinction in 1960 from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and his medical degree from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in 1964. His postdoctoral training included fellowships in internal medicine and cardiology from the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine in Rochester, Minn.
Dr. Wilson has served on the University of Nebraska Board of Regents since 1991 and has been a great advocate for UNMC and the College of Nursing. He currently serves as medical director of the Ultrafast CT Scanner as well as the School of Allied Health for BryanLGH Medical Center in Lincoln.
Academically, Dr. Wilson has been a clinical professor of medicine for more than three decades at UNMC. A cardiologist, Dr. Wilson was a partner at Internal Medicine Specialties in Lincoln for 15 years and also spent 15 years as a partner at Nebraska Heart Institute in Lincoln.
He served on the clinical faculty for the Lincoln Family Practice Residency Program at the Lincoln Medical Education Foundation; has been a frequent lecturer on heart disease; taught a graduate course on rehabilitation for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; and was a the Medical Aspects of Rehabilitation graduate level course at UNL from 1976-1988 and was a certified instructor for the American Heart Association.
Lee Handke, Pharm.D.
Dr. Handke graduated from the UNMC College of Pharmacy in 1999 with distinction. He completed a residency in managed care pharmacy at Walgreens Health Initiatives in Deerfield, Ill., and in 2005, earned his Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
He currently serves as vice president of health network services for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska. His work responsibilities include pharmacy trend and resource management, development and implementation of employer-based wellness initiatives, oversight of provider and facility reimbursement and service, and the development of initiatives to promote quality and efficient care for all Nebraskans.
Dr. Handke also has made significant contributions to academia. He developed the Medical Center Managed Care Pharmacy Residency Program, which is jointly sponsored by Blue Cross and Blue Shield and UNMC. Since 2000, he has been an adjunct faculty and preceptor at UNMC, where he has been a lecturer in the College of Pharmacy in pharmacy management and drug information courses and has been the site preceptor for the managed care clinical clerkship. He currently serves on the admissions committee at UNMC’s College of Pharmacy.
He serves on the board of the Wellness Councils of the Midlands (WELCOM) and the Nothing But Net Foundation. In 2006, he was named on the Ten Outstanding Young Omahans by the Omaha Jaycees and was a member of Leadership Omaha Class 30.
Scott Hofmann, M.D
A Tilden, Neb. native, Dr. Hofmann graduated with distinction from UNMC’s College of Medicine in 1990. Following medical school, he stayed at UNMC to complete his internship in surgery and his residency in anesthesiology. During his residency, he was elected chief resident and selected as the outstanding resident in 1994.
Dr. Hofmann currently serves as chief of anesthesiology at the Veterans Administration Medical Center and director of Quality Assurance/Performance Improvement for anesthesiology. He also is director of the VAMC Pain Clinic and supervisor of conscious sedation training and airway management outside of the operating room. In addition, he is associate professor of anesthesiology at UNMC.
Dr. Hofmann served as acting chief at the VAMC from 1995-1997. He was recognized as the Outstanding Physician of the Year in 2005 by the Omaha chapter of the Association of Operating Room Nurses, and he received the Internal Medicine Extra Mile Teaching Award in 2004. He also is a past president of the UNMC chapter of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society.
The son of Arlene Hofmann, Dr. Hofmann has been published in a number of medical journals and frequently is asked to deliver educational presentations.
Michael Sorrell, M.D.
A Syracuse, Neb. native, Dr. Sorrell earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1957 and his medical degree from UNMC in 1959.
From 1960-1966, he worked as a general practitioner in Tecumseh, Neb. Though he enjoyed private practice, he had aspirations of becoming an academic physician, so in 1966 he returned to UNMC to begin a residency in internal medicine and followed that with a fellowship in gastroenterology under Fred Paustian, M.D., a legendary UNMC physician and the state’s first specialty-trained gastroenterologist.
In 1971, he joined UNMC’s internal medicine department. From 1981-91, he served as professor and chairman of the internal medicine department. From 1991 to 2005, he assumed the role of medical director for the liver transplant program and chief of the section of gastroenterology/hepatology. He currently serves as the Robert L. Grissom, M.D., Professor of Medicine at UNMC and continues to teach and see patients on a full-time basis.
In addition to his work at UNMC, Dr. Sorrell also worked at the VA Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System’s Omaha Medical Center from 1974-1982. He is the first UNMC alumni to receive the College of Medicine Alumni Association Distinguished Alumnus Award two times.
Jesse Edwards, P.A.
Edwards is cofounder of the physician assistant program in UNMC’s School of Allied Health Professions. The program was mandated by the Nebraska State Legislature in 1971.
In 1992, Edwards helped design and implement a distance learning program to assist students seeking their master’s degree in physician assistant studies and to allow practicing physician assistants to further their education.
Edwards has won numerous awards and honors recognizing his contribution to the physician assistant profession and the UNMC program.
For more information on the UNMC Alumni Reunion and the award winners, visit http://www.unmc.edu/alumni/.
As the state’s only academic health science center, UNMC is on the leading edge of health care. Breakthroughs are possible because hard-working researchers, educators and clinicians are resolved to work together to fuel discovery. In 2009, UNMC’s extramural research support topped $100 million for the first time, resulting in the creation of 3,600 jobs in Nebraska. UNMC’s academic excellence is shown through its award-winning programs, and its educational programs are responsible for training more health professionals practicing in Nebraska than any other institution. Through its commitment to education, research, patient care and outreach, UNMC and its hospital partner, The Nebraska Medical Center, have established themselves as one of the country’s leading health care centers. UNMC’s physician practice group, UNMC Physicians, includes 550 physicians in 50 specialties and subspecialties who practice primarily in The Nebraska Medical Center. For more information, go to UNMC’s Web site at www.unmc.edu.