The University of Nebraska Medical Center will honor three individuals with special awards at its May 4 Omaha commencement at 9 a.m. at Baxter Arena.
Barry Gold, PhD, emeritus professor and former chair of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, will receive an Honorary Doctorate of Science for achievement in the advancement of science and service in the health sciences fields.
Nebraskans Kent Lacey, MD, and Michael Sitorius, MD, will be honored with the J.G. Elliott Award for their significant contributions to medicine and health programs for the state of Nebraska. The honor is named for Jack Elliott, a longtime University of Nebraska regent who died in 1974.
The honorary doctorate is a homecoming for Dr. Gold, an esteemed scientist. Prior to his career at Pittsburgh, he spent more than 30 years at UNMC’s Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases and Eppley Cancer Center. At UNMC, Dr. Gold’s leadership was indispensable, both as a mentor to his fellow faculty members, and as acting, then interim director of the Eppley Institute at a crucial time.
Dr. Gold’s leadership of the Eppley Institute included establishing the foundation for building a strong program in DNA repair and the discussions which led to the founding of the Cattlemen’s Ball of Nebraska. In the decades since, the Cattlemen’s Ball has raised millions for cancer research, and deepened UNMC’s outreach efforts to the state’s rural communities.
Dr. Lacey practiced family medicine in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, Jack Elliott’s hometown, for 37 years. Throughout his career, Dr. Lacey has been lauded for his mentorship of nursing and medical students and family medicine residents. And, for his caring manner.
In one especially memorable moment, Dr. Lacey made a reverse house call – while he had to stay home to watch his own kids, he invited a mother to bring her sick child to see him at his house. He recommended an ER visit for a spinal tap, which showed the young girl had meningitis.
Dr. Sitorius, a Cozad, Nebraska, native, meant to stay at UNMC for one year before going on to rural practice. Instead, over a 42-year career at UNMC, he’s arguably had as big an impact on rural health in the state of Nebraska as anyone in the past 40 years. The UNMC Department of Family Medicine under Dr. Sitorius’ leadership has had a role in training about 70% of Nebraska’s practicing family physicians. He has developed and overseen numerous initiatives to find potential medical students within Nebraska’s rural communities and see them return to the state’s rural areas as practicing physicians.
