{"id":6289,"date":"2025-12-23T08:00:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T14:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/?p=6289"},"modified":"2026-01-26T17:39:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T23:39:14","slug":"year-end-accolades-we-are-so-proud-of-our-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/2025\/12\/23\/year-end-accolades-we-are-so-proud-of-our-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Year-End Accolades! &#8211; We are so PROUD of our people!"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><strong>Congratulations to members of our division for their achievements and recognitions in the second half of this year! These are just a few of the outstanding accomplishments of our division.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The HIV SCC EMET team<\/strong> were recognized as most active\u00a0medical student clinic preceptorship in UNMC&#8217;s LCE (longitudinal clinic experience) program<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dr. Jasmine Marcelin<\/strong>&nbsp;was honored to receive the IDSA Foundation\u2019s 2025 Diversity Champion Award, at IDWeek 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nichole Regan, APRN&nbsp;<\/strong>and <strong>Dr. Emmanuel Nazaire Essam Nkodo<\/strong> were awarded second place for their project \u201cImplementation of Comprehensive Behavioral Health and Substance Use Screening and Referral Services at a Midwest HIV Clinic\u201d, by the Health Administration Research and Best Practices Symposium<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dr. Sias Scherger<\/strong>&nbsp;earned outstanding national recognition this week at the COLT Trial Investigator Meeting, where he was invited to present the UNMC experience<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dr. Kelly Cawcutt<\/strong> was selected by the Society of Critical Care Medicine as one of the recipients of the Presidential Citation Award<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dr. Shawna Sunagawa<\/strong>&nbsp;received the UNMC College of Pharmacy Teacher of the Year award<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dr. Salman Ashraf<\/strong>&nbsp;served as the Chair of the Infection Control Committee for the Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine and helped develop the society\u2019s newly released guidance on <a href=\"https:\/\/paltmed.org\/news-media\/recommendations-covid-19-vaccine-paltc-residents-and-staff\">COVID-19 vaccination for residents and staff in post-acute and long-term care settings<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Led by <strong>Dr. Jasmine Marcelin<\/strong>, the ID Division successfully competed for and was awarded the ID STEP grant through IDSA to develop the ID workforce. Faculty involved with developing the proposal included <strong>Drs. Mackenzie Keintz, Dan Brailita, Andrea Zimmer, Jenn Davis, Angela Hewlett, Andrea Green-Hines, David Warren, and Jonathan Ryder<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christine Tran, APRN<\/strong> received the Innovation Award at the UNMC APP Week Awards Ceremony<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dr. Kelly Cawcutt <\/strong>was selected as a distinguished speaker at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wintercourse.org\/page-18332\">Remington Winter Course<\/a> in Infectious Diseases in Copper Mountain, CO in February 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dr. Dan Brailita <\/strong>was appointed Co-Chair of the Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies COM Curriculum Integration Taskforce at UNMC<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Samantha Jones, MSW<\/strong>&nbsp;received the UNMC Department of Internal Medicine Staff&nbsp;Excellence in Advocacy Award<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dr. Nada Fadul<\/strong>&nbsp;received the UNMC Department of Internal Medicine&nbsp;Debra J Romberger Faculty Excellence in Advocacy Award<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dr. &nbsp;Jasmine Marcelin<\/strong>&nbsp;represented IDSA in Washington, DC at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Conference<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dr. Josh Havens<\/strong> received the Scholar of the Year award from the UNMC College of Pharmacy<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Drs. David Brett-Major<\/strong>, <strong>Angela Hewlett<\/strong>, and <strong>James Lawler<\/strong>\u00a0contributed chapters to the new textbook <strong><em>Viral Outbreaks, Biosecurity, and Preparing for Mass Casualty Infectious Diseases Events<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(Editors: Trish Perl and Daniel Maxwell)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Drs. Cal Albrecht, Emily Dyer, Nicole Kusnik, Shawna Sunagawa and Josh Havens<\/strong> received IDWeek Best Abstract Awards<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jen O&#8217;Neill RN<\/strong> received a nursing DAISY Award, nominated by a grateful patient<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dr. Kelly Cawcutt <\/strong>was appointed Vice Chair of the SHEA Spring Mentorship Program Committee<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dr. Josh Havens<\/strong> was honored as a new invention contributor at UNMC<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dr. Jenn Davis <\/strong>was named as one of the top performing reviewers for the journal <em>Clinical Infectious Diseases<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Drs. Nico Cortes-Penfield and Angela Hewlett<\/strong> were delegates to the International Consensus Meeting (ICM) in Istanbul with other experts on bone and joint infections from around the world<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dr. Jenn Davis <\/strong>was named as faculty lead on an e-module selected as part of the UNMC E-Learning Awards Program 2025-2026 cohort. <strong>Drs. Shawna Sunagawa, Jonathan Ryder, and Nicole Kusnik <\/strong>are also participating<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dr. Angela Hewlett<\/strong> was selected as the Chair\u00a0of the IDSA\u00a0Outbreak and Pandemic Preparedness Education Panel<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Led by Dr. Anum Abbas\u00a0and Dr. Carlos A. Gomez, the Transplant Infectious Diseases Research Group<\/strong>\u00a0had an exceptionally productive year, bringing TEN industry-sponsored, NIH-funded, and investigator-initiated studies to UNMC<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Specialty Care Center<\/strong> Ryan White Part D program was one of 8 programs selected nationally to participate in the HRSA, HAB, &amp; DCHAP \u201c<em>Enhancing HIV Care of Women, Infants, Children and Youth (WICY) Building Capacity through Communities of Practice (CoP)\u201d<\/em> program focused on Trauma Informed Care and Behavioral Health, utilizing quality improvement interventions (March 2024-March 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Deanna Hansen <\/strong>received recognition for celebrating her 35<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary\u00a0as a UNMC employee<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Valentina Orduna<\/strong> was the recipient of the Nebraska Medicine and UNMC Unsung Hero Award<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dr. Mark Rupp<\/strong> served as Interim Chair of the UNMC Department of Internal Medicine<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Specialty Care Center team<\/strong> was 1 of 2 programs selected to present their Community of Practice activities and findings at the DCHAP Stakeholders Webinar in April 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dr. Mark Rupp<\/strong> served on the IDSA taskforce evaluating compensation at academic medical centers<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nikki Regan, APRN<\/strong> was appointed to serve on the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (ANAC) Rural Care Committee for 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dr. Nada Fadul<\/strong> was appointed HIV Subspeciality Section Co-Chair of the National Medical Association (NMA)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This does not even include the countless publications and presentations by members of this division!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Well done folks, looking forward to the excellence you will bring to 2026!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<form name=\"s2form\" method=\"post\" action=\"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/subscribe2\/\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"ip\" value=\"216.73.216.113\" \/><span style=\"display:none !important\"><label for=\"firstname\">Leave This Blank:<\/label><input type=\"text\" id=\"firstname\" name=\"firstname\" \/><label for=\"lastname\">Leave This Blank Too:<\/label><input type=\"text\" id=\"lastname\" name=\"lastname\" \/><label for=\"uri\">Do Not Change This:<\/label><input type=\"text\" id=\"uri\" name=\"uri\" value=\"http:\/\/\" \/><\/span><p><label for=\"s2email\">Your email:<\/label><br><input type=\"email\" name=\"email\" id=\"s2email\" value=\"Enter email address...\" size=\"20\" onfocus=\"if (this.value === 'Enter email address...') {this.value = '';}\" onblur=\"if (this.value === '') {this.value = 'Enter email address...';}\" \/><\/p><p><input type=\"submit\" name=\"subscribe\" value=\"Subscribe\" \/>&nbsp;<input type=\"submit\" name=\"unsubscribe\" value=\"Unsubscribe\" \/><\/p><\/form>\r\n\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Congratulations to members of our division for their achievements and recognitions in the second half of this year! These are just a few of the outstanding accomplishments of our division.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":562,"featured_media":6327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,45,66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-and-staff","category-unmc-id-achievements","category-why-i-love-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/562"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6289"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6354,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6289\/revisions\/6354"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}