Annual Meeting Awards
Each year at our Annual Meeting, the Board of Trustees presents awards to three physicians in honor of their outstanding achievements. The Board also presents the Thomas F. Carter Leadership Award, which recognizes and honors an exceptional volunteer leader for our Hospital.
Honored Physicians
The 2013 award winners are:
Dr. John Bastian: Excellence in Clinical Care
Dr. John Bastian began his career at Rady Children’s as a resident in 1982. He completed a fellowship in allergy and immunology at UC San Diego before joining our medical staff in 1986.
Dr. Bastian has been honored as a "Top Doctor" by San Diego Magazine and the San Diego Medical Society and has been recognized as one of the "Best Doctors in America." He has been described by our own medical team as a brilliant diagnostician and the smartest physician on our medical team.
Through more than 50 publications and membership professional societies, Dr. Bastian has been a leader in his field and a true asset to Rady Children’s.
But perhaps the most important reason for this honor is his amazing relationship with his patients. He has cared for some of the sickest patients we’ve ever had here at Rady Children’s and his care and compassion for those children and their families is truly remarkable.
In every way, his clinical expertise and compassion for children has been excellent, so it’s my pleasure to present this award to Dr. John Bastian.
Dr. Sherry Huang: Excellence in Teaching
Dr. Huang completed her residency and a fellowship at Rady Children’s. She is a superb clinician in gastroenterology. Sherry received her undergraduate degree at MIT and her medical degree at Albert Einstein.
When she took over our residency program here, she showed a true talent for matching residents with physicians. That’s because she takes a personal interest in her students and cares about their total experience here.
Dr. Huang is liked and respected as a teacher and a clinician, earning the regard of her students and her peers.
Here is how Dr. Huang describes her role as a teacher. She says: “It is a privilege to teach our trainees, to have authentic moments of shared knowledge that allows us to enter into a community with each other as a teacher and a student.”
Dr. Victor Nizet: Excellence in Research
Dr. Nizet studies such important areas as common bacterial infections of children and newborns, such as staph and strep and the function of white blood cells in our immune system.
His innovative approaches to infectious disease therapy, especially for antibiotic-resistant bacteria like MRSA, are important to helping children here in San Diego and around the world. His lab has published 230 papers – half of these within the last four years.
Prior honors for this research include election to American Society for Clinical Investigation, Association of American Physicians, American Pediatric Society, and the American Academy of Microbiology. In 2008, he was the recipient of the E. Mead Johnson Award for Research in Pediatrics from the Society for Pediatric Research.
Honored Volunteer Leaders
The Thomas F. Carter Leadership Award was originally given to Tom Carter himself in 2000. We were deeply saddened when he passed away in July 2006. Tom had been a beloved trustee since 1971.
The 2013 recipients are:
John Gilchrist, Jr. and Scott Wolfe
John Gilchrist, Jr. joined our Board on January 26, 1988, and he has served in numerous board committees during this tenure. He was Chairman from January 1997 to December 1999.
John is a selfless man whose calm demeanor and keen insight has seen Rady Children's through many a challenging time.
His experience in the real estate world has been invaluable to us as we’ve grown, and he’s overseen many of our most ambitious projects, such as the award-winning Rose Pavilion and our new Acute Care Pavilion.
As chair, he set the stage for our amalgamation with UCSD and has been there to see it through.
John has also been a generous donor to the Hospital, as well helping bring others into the Rady Children’s family. He was instrumental in encouraging support from the Hahns, whose generosity we now celebrate with the Hahn Pavilion and the Ernest Hahn Critical Care Center – and it was when he was Chairman that we received the Nelson gift.
Scott Wolfe joined the Hospital Board in April 1993. He, too, has served in various board committees throughout his years of service. He was Chairman from January 2000 to December 2003. He also chaired the Foundation Board and several of its sub-committees.
While John helped us set the stage for amalgamation, Scott was at the helm to make it happen. He was integral in the success of the formation of our Medical Practice Foundation.
He was our Chair through some pretty tough times, including 911 and 2002, one of the most challenging years in our history, and his wise council and exceptional leadership helped carry us through.
His dedication inspired dedication from others – when Scott was working in New York, he would take the red-eye to get back in time for meetings.
And, like John, his personal generosity inspired generosity. He was an active fundraiser for the Rose Pavilion and the ACP and was pivotal in the process as we began to talk to Ernest Rady about his historic gift.
He has provided leadership is virtually all areas of governance; he is always willing to serve.
