Ann Anderson Berry, M.D., Ph.D., who received the Innovation, Development and Engagement Award (IDEA) Award, one of the university’s most prestigious awards for teaching, research and engagement, also will be recognized at today’s UNMC Faculty Senate Awards Ceremony.
Faculty awards
The Faculty Senate recognizes faculty for meritorious teaching, service or mentoring at its annual meeting, which this year will be at 4 p.m. on Thursday in the Durham Research Center Auditorium.
Awardees are:
Outstanding Teacher Award
- Justin Mott, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor & medical assistant director, biochemistry and molecular biology, College of Medicine;
- Diego Torres-Russotto, M.D., associate professor, neurological sciences, College of Medicine;
- Catherine Binstock, instructor, College of Nursing-Omaha Division; and
- Dawn Venema, Ph.D., assistant professor, physical therapy education, College of Allied Health Professions.
Outstanding Faculty Mentor of Graduate Students Award
- Corri Hanson, Ph.D., associate professor, medical nutrition education, College of Allied Health Professions
Outstanding Faculty Mentor of Junior Faculty Award
- Iraklis Pipinos, M.D., professor, surgery-general surgery, College of Medicine
- Bernice Yates, Ph.D., professor, College of Nursing-Omaha Division
The ceremony will present awards to outstanding faculty and honor faculty who have served at UNMC 10 through 30 years. Dr. Anderson Berry also will be honored at a ceremony in Lincoln in May.
Dr. Anderson Berry is associate professor in the division of newborn medicine and medical director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Nebraska Medicine. She has been dedicated to serving families in communities across Nebraska for nearly 15 years.
Over the past two years, Dr. Anderson Berry has been instrumental in the creation of the Nebraska Perinatal Quality Improvement Collaborative (NPQIC). This initiative established a network of health care professionals, hospitals and care centers that work together to determine how to serve the needs of communities throughout the entire state. As of last year, 99 percent of deliveries in Nebraska occur in NPQIC hospitals. Through this work, she has established a national reputation for her research on nutrition and care of premature infants.
“I am motivated to do clinical research by my clinical practice,” Dr. Anderson Berry said. “In neonatology I care for some of the most vulnerable patients and families in medicine. While we have had many advances in the last 50 years, prematurity levels are still too high and outcomes have significant room for improvement.”
Addressing these issues from a research, quality improvement and population standpoint will provide the greatest impact over the next 50 years, she said.
Her life goal is to, with the help of her husband, raise their daughters to be global citizens who are confident and skilled in ways that can impact others in a positive way.
“Also, I hope my life’s work will have benefit for neonates and children across the world through my one-on-one work with patients, through the wonderful students and residents that I am privileged to teach, and through my research, which may add to a larger understanding of the practice of neonatology and implementation of public policy.”