By Jenna Silversmith
Federation of Pediatric Organizations

Executive Office: 6728 Old McLean Village Drive, McLean, VA 22101

Call for Nominations for the 2025 Joseph W. St. Geme, Jr. Leadership Award

The death of Joseph W. St. Geme, Jr., MD, in 1986, removed from American pediatrics a leader with vision and selfless dedication to the ideal of excellence. His concern for the patient and the future of health care was well known. Certainly, he was a leader in the forums addressing issues concerning the future of pediatric education and research. It seemed appropriate, therefore, to honor his memory in a manner that would remind present and future generations of pediatricians that one individual can make a difference, and all should try, when the health care of children is at stake.

The member societies of the Federation of Pediatric Organizations established an endowment fund for what is now the Joseph W. St. Geme, Jr. Leadership Award. Dr. St.
Geme’s stature in pediatrics was reflected by his meaningful participation in all facets of pediatrics as demonstrated by the sponsorship of this award by these societies:

Academic Pediatric Association
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Board of Pediatrics
American Pediatric Society
Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairs
Association of Pediatric Program Directors
Society for Pediatric Research

This award was established as an effort on the part of these organizations to honor the life, work, and memory of Joe St. Geme and to memorialize his many contributions to and his aspirations for pediatrics. Many of Dr. St. Geme’s friends and colleagues have contributed to this award as well as major contributions from Ross Laboratories, Hoechst Roussel Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Connaught Laboratories, Inc., Merck & Company, Inc., and Mead Johnson Nutrition.

Criteria for Selection

  1. The individual must be a pediatrician who is perceived as a role model for others to emulate, as a clinician, an educator, and/or an investigator.
  2. The individual must be a leader who has “created a future” for pediatrics and for children and has played an active role in one or more organizations sponsoring this award.
  3. The individual should preferably have a record of broad sustained contributions to pediatrics that have had or will have a major impact on child health.
  4. The individual must be currently active in pediatrics. *what defines “active” is at the discretion of each of the 7 organizations.
  5. The individual can be a retired member of any of the pediatric organizations sponsoring this award.
  6. The individual must not be an active FOPO Board member. Full list of current FOPO Board members may be found at www.fopo.org/leadership.

Dr. St. Geme was to have been President of the American Pediatric Society in its 100th year and was to preside at the APS spring meetings. For this reason, the spring meetings of the APS have been the venue for the award presentation each year. The first award was presented on May 3, 1988.

Past Recipients

1989 Robert Haggerty 2007 Richard Behrman
1990 Frank Oski 2008 Douglas Jones
1991 Lewis Barness 2009 Kenneth Roberts
1992 Morris Green 2010 Stephen Ludwig
1993 Abraham Rudolph 2011 George Lister
1994 Vincent Fulginiti 2012 Gail McGuinness
1995 Ralph Feigin 2013 Renee Jenkins
1996 Jimmy Simon 2014 Lewis First
1997 Errol Alden 2015 Barry Zuckerman
1998 Catherine DeAngelis 2016 David Stevenson
1999 James Stockman 2017 Carol Carraccio
2000 Evan Charney 2018 Mark A. Schuster
2001 Russell Chesney 2019 F. Bruder Stapleton
2002 Walter Tunnessen 2020 Joseph St. Geme, III
2003 Thomas Boat 2021 Frederick P. Rivara
2004 Myron Genel 2022 Fernando Mendoza
2005 Robert Kelch 2023 Elena Fuentes-Afflick
2006 Carol Berkowitz 2024 Benard Dreyer

 

Nominations

Self-nominations and individual nominations from the larger community must go through at least 1 of the 7-member organizations (contact information listed below under submission instructions). Each member organization is responsible for reviewing all individual nominations submitted to them and selecting no more than 2 nominations to submit to the St. Geme Selection Committee. This means, each organization can submit up to 2 nominations, one on behalf of their organization, and the second on behalf of an individual.

Deadline to submit to an organization: COB, December 12th

Nomination Materials

  • 1 primary nomination letter from primary nominator from the pediatric
    community describing why their candidate meets the St. Geme criteria.
  • Up to 2 additional letters of support (these can include any extenuating
    circumstances as to why the candidate should be selected or a summary of
    multiple support letters).
  • Curriculum Vitae (CV)

Submission Instructions
Email your nomination materials to at least 1 of the following organizations no later than COB, Thursday, December 12th. Subject line should read:
NOMINATION St. Geme Award – FOPO

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