Newswise — Susan Scrimshaw, dean of the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, will receive the Visionary Award from CommunityHealth, a volunteer-based health care clinic located on Chicago's Near West Side.
The award will be presented during a ceremony Sept. 24 at Navy Pier in Chicago.
The Visionary Award recognizes Scrimshaw as "an individual who exemplifies through her compassion and service the importance of making quality health care available to those most in need throughout Chicago and its communities."
An anthropologist and expert in health disparities and maternal and child health, Scrimshaw works tirelessly to raise awareness of public health issues in Chicago and throughout the world.
She recently contributed her public health expertise to assist CommunityHealth in completing a strategic plan to set the organization's direction for the next three years.
Among other honors, Scrimshaw is the recipient of the 2001 Award of Merit in Public Health from President Vicente Fox of Mexico and the 1985 Margaret Mead Award. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin will also attend the event, where he will receive the CommunityHealth Public Service Award.
CommunityHealth estimates there are 1.8 million uninsured people in Illinois, including 1.3 million uninsured in the metropolitan Chicago area.
CommunityHealth's mission is to enhance the health and wellness of the community by providing free medical services, education and outreach to the uninsured and underserved. It is the largest volunteer-staffed free medical facility in Illinois, with 400 active volunteers including 120 physicians from major Chicago-area hospitals providing care to 6,500 patients annually.
Medical students from the UIC College of Medicine provide care to patients at CommunityHealth through a student-run free clinic.
UIC ranks among the nation's top 50 universities in federal research funding and is Chicago's largest university with 25,000 students, 12,000 faculty and staff, 15 colleges and the state's major public medical center. A hallmark of the campus is the Great Cities Commitment, through which UIC faculty, students and staff engage with community, corporate, foundation and government partners in hundreds of programs to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas around the world. For more information about UIC, visit www.uic.edu
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