JHSPH Faculty Receives 2 of 4 ASPH/Pfizer Awards (web article)

Marie Diener-West, PhD, chair of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Master of Public Health Program and the Helen Abbey and Margaret Merrell Professor of Biostatistics Education, and JHSPH colleague, John McGready, PhD, assistant scientist in the Department of Biostatistics have been named recipients of the 2010 ASPH/Pfizer Awards. The annual award is given by the Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) and Pfizer, Inc. to public health educators for teaching, practice and research excellence in a variety of categories. To be considered, nominees must be affiliated with ASPH, Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH)–accredited schools of public health.

Marie Diener-West, PhD

Diener-West received the Award for Teaching Excellence.  She has taught more than 8,000 public health students worldwide. Her international leadership in advancing biostatistical education through the mentorship of teaching faculty; pioneering of new initiatives in distance education, short courses, teaching training for faculty and graduate assistants, and international education; and service are cited as reasons for her nomination. Previous awards include six Golden Apple teaching awards, the Ernest Lyman Stebbins Medal for Teaching Excellence from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Statistics Section Award for Academic Statistics from the American Public Health Association, and she is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.  Diener-West, a faculty member at Johns Hopkins since 1986 has served on more than 300 doctoral committees and co-created the first distance education online course at the Bloomberg School.

John McGready, PhD

McGready was the recipient of the Early Career in Public Health Teaching Award. He has been credited with advancing the careers of nearly 1,800 Bloomberg School students and has already received three Golden Apple teaching awards from the School. McGready has received highest ratings as instructor from 90 percent of his students— topping the ratings across  more than 600 courses offered at the school. In addition, he co-developed an online introductory sequence in biostatistics that was adapted for schools in Finland, , Iraq and Taiwan and is being piloted in India. This year, he received the inaugural American Statistical Association Section on Teaching Statistics in the Health Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award.

“ASPH has recognized what we have known for some time—that Marie and John are true superstars of teaching,” said Michael J. Klag, MD, MPH, dean of the Bloomberg School. “We are incredibly fortunate to have a School of wonderful teachers, but especially so to have these two. Marie and John have truly made the School proud. Please join me in congratulating them on this tremendous honor.”

The awards will be presented at a ceremony during the ASPH annual meeting reception on Saturday, November 6 at the Grand Hyatt in Denver.