The Wayne State University School of Medicine Alumni Association honored the contributions of four distinguished physicians during an awards banquet that capped the 2018 Medical Alumni Reunion weekend, which celebrated the schoolâs 150th anniversary.
The four were recognized May 19 at a reunion dinner at the MGM Grand in Detroit following a day of continuing medical education sessions at the School of Medicine. The annual event allowed members of graduating classes from across the country to meet and catch up with classmates, and to learn about the schoolâs progress from Dean Jack D. Sobel, M.D.
More than 340 alumni and guests attended Medical Alumni Reunion weekend, which began May 18 at the Detroit Institute of Arts with tours of the museum, and included a bus tour that featured the renaissance of the city of Detroit.
The Lawrence M. Weiner Award, established in 1979, honors the outstanding contributions made to the Wayne State University School of Medicine by individuals who are not M.D. alumni. Nominees may have earned a doctoral degree or completed their residency or fellowship training at Wayne State University, or may be a faculty member who completed their undergraduate medical education at an institution other than WSU. This award is based on exceptional performance in teaching, research and/or administrative duties. This year the award was presented to Anju Goyal, M.D., associate professor of Ophthalmology and director of Medical Student Education at Kresge Eye Institute, the Department of Ophthalmology of the Wayne State University School of Medicine.
Dr. Goyal completed her Ophthalmology residency, followed by a glaucoma fellowship, at Wayne State University. She quickly became a member of the faculty after graduation in 2005, serving as director of the Residents Clinic and as a physician leader in development of the Electronic Medical Record system for the Department of Ophthalmology.
In 2011, Dr. Goyal became director of the Ophthalmology Clinical Elective for Wayne State University School of Medicine students. She has developed multiple innovative programs for student education and mentorship that are locally and nationally recognized. She is the principal investigator for her grant, Vision Detroit, which brings ophthalmic care to Detroit's underserved community and immerses medical students in community-based medical education.
Dr. Goyal is a peer-elected member of the Association of University Professors in Ophthalmology Medical Student Educators Council, and is actively involved in joint task force and program planning with the American Academy of Ophthalmology. She is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society and the Wayne State University School of Medicine Alumni Board of Governors. She has received the Lawrence Stocker, M.D. Award for Compassionate Medicine, Hour Detroit magazine's Top Docs Awards and the Kresge Eye Institute Distinguished Alumni Award. Dr. Goyal is an active contributor to the health care community through her academic and patient-centered work, which serves to unite patient care with medical student education.
The Recent Alumni Award, established in 2003, is presented to an individual who received a medical degree from the School of Medicine within the last 15 years and has demonstrated outstanding professional achievement, community contributions or service to the School of Medicine. Erlene Seymour, M.D. â08, received this yearâs award.
As a WSU medical student, Dr. Seymour was a member of the Aesculapians Honor Society and co-director of her class Lampoon show every year. She completed her Internal Medicine residency at the University of Michigan and worked as a hospitalist for two years before her Hematology and Oncology fellowship at the University of Michigan.
She is joining the Malignant Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplant Multidisciplinary Team at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit. Her health services and epidemiology research focuses on the effects of financial burden due to cancer costs on malignant hematology patients, and on value-based initiatives aimed at decreasing out-of-pocket cost. Her clinical focus is on malignant hematology, specifically chronic lymphocytic leukemia and lymphomas.
The Wayne State University School of Medicine Alumni Association initiated the Distinguished Alumni Award to be presented annually to individuals who received a medical degree from the WSU School of Medicine who have made outstanding contributions to humanitarian causes, whose contributions to the health field in the broader sense is outstanding and for their service to the school. Two individuals received the award at this yearâs banquet, Lawrence Diebel, M.D. â80, and Anita Moncrease, M.D. â84, M.P.H.
Dr. Diebel, professor of Surgery, directs surgical residents in the technical skills of complex surgeries. He is known for his many contributions to the Michigan trauma and acute care community. He has been a prime mover in Michigan for promoting the Advanced Trauma Life Support Course, the Advanced Surgical Skills in Emergency Trauma Course, the widespread utilization of ultra-sonography in the care of injured patients and definitive open surgical fixation for unstable flail chest.
He has become the most productive surgical scientist within the WSU Department of Surgery. He has published more than 100 national peer-reviewed articles. His ongoing research activities can be described as both âbasic researchâ in the laboratory and âclinical researchâ regarding patient care, which has continued to keep him at the forefront on the national scene. His department chair, Donald Weaver, M.D., has identified him as the research leader within the Department of Surgery.
Dr. Diebel is director of the prestigious annual Detroit Trauma Symposium, the longest-running trauma conference in the United States.
Dr. Moncrease, president of Moncrease & Associates LLC, is an associate professor of Pediatrics at the Wayne State University School of Medicine and the historian of Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit.
She completed a residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics (Med/Peds) at Wayne State University Affiliated Hospitals, the first graduate of that program. She served as associate program director of the Med/Peds Program for 10 years. Dr. Moncrease attended Harvard University, where she earned a master's degree in Public Health, and was one of the first recipients of the Harvard/Commonwealth Fund Fellowship in Minority Health Policy, and one of the first people to complete a field internship in Health Policy with the Health Resources and Services Administration.
Her research interests are in the areas of minority health and health policy, but her passion is African-American history. She has performed clinical research in the areas of hypertension and hypercholesterol, and has published on topics that include breast and cervical cancer screening in African-American women. She is a former medical director of Adolescence Health at the Detroit Department of Health and Wellness Promotion. She held leadership positions in the design and implementation of projects such as the City of Detroit/Wayne County response to Hurricane Katrina, the Detroit-Wayne County Health Authority, Super Bowl XL (chaired Detroit's Response for the Homeless and Detroit's Warming Centers Initiative) and the City of Detroit Youth Violence Initiative. She was the health advisor for State Rep. Marsha Cheeks in Michigan, oral health advisor for State Rep. John McDonough in Massachusetts, and consultant for the Michigan Department of Community Health on Asthma and Reinstating Physical Education in Public Schools.
Dr. Moncrease has served the community in the capacity of president of the Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program Foundation of Detroit for more than 10 years, president of the Gift of Life Michigan Advisory Board, board member of the Albert G. Cleage Sr. Memorial Health Center Board, and the Wellness Plan Board, where she chaired the Quality and the Compliance committees. She serves on the National Kidney Foundation of Michigan. She also served as chair of the United States Department of Health and Human Services Secretary's Award for Innovative Research Committee. She has chaired, and been a member for more than 20 years, of the WSU School of Medicine Post Baccalaureate Program Admissions Committee. She has also been a member of and chaired the Black Medical Association Alumni Steering Committee. She was instrumental in Hartford Memorial Baptist Church obtaining its status as a Michigan Historical Site, registration in the Michigan State Stained Glass Window Census, and creating church exhibits and publications. She is the creator of "Celebrating Diversity: History of Black Physicians at WSUSOM" and the traveling exhibit "The Legacy of Black Medical Schools and Departments in the United States."
Dr. Moncreaseâs awards and recognitions include the Michigan Secretary of State Shining Star Award, the U.S. Surgeon General's Certificate of Appreciation for her action and response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the U.S., and the Health Resources and Services Administration Group Award for Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the U.S.
The banquet ended a day-long agenda of continuing medical education sessions of the Dr. Morris S. Brent Lectureship Series at the School of Medicine, and school tours.
Special recognition went to the classes of 1943, 1948, 1953, 1958, 1963, 1968, 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998, 2003, 2008 and 2013.
View more photos from the weekend here.
Next yearâs Medical Alumni Reunion is scheduled for May 17-19, 2019.