A pair of UVA Health doctors on Friday received Thomas Jefferson Awards, the highest honor bestowed upon members of the University of Virginia community.
UVA President Jim Ryan presented Dr. Mohan M. Nadkarni with the Thomas Jefferson Award for Service and Interim Executive Vice President and Provost Brie Gertler presented Dr. Coleen A. McNamara with the Thomas Jefferson Award for Scholarship during a Board of Visitors meeting.
“These awards are the most prestigious honors that the University presents,” Ryan told board members and guests gathered in the Rotunda’s Dome Room. “They’re given to members of the University community who have exemplified the principles, ideals and mission of the University in their character, work and influence. Past recipients include some of the most extraordinary teachers, scholars and citizens to ever walk our Grounds.”
Dr. Mohan M. Nadkarni, left, and Dr. Coleen McNamara show their Thomas Jefferson Awards. Nadkarni received his for service and McNamara received hers for scholarship. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)
Ryan said the scholarship award is to honor “excellence in scholarship, research or creative works” and contributing “substantially to our students’ education and development.” The service award recognizes those who provide “long-term, significant service to the University, the community and their chosen profession.”
The Thomas Jefferson Awards have been presented annually to members of the University community since 1955.
In presenting the service award, Ryan noted Nadkarni’s efforts to provide medical services to all who need them, including co-founding the Charlottesville Free Clinic during his residency in 1992. He still volunteers at the clinic, which has become a cornerstone of care for the area’s uninsured.
Nadkarni also teaches Social Issues in Medicine, a course which has become a national model for integrating service learning and social determinants of health into medical school curriculum. He has served as a board member for the Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the Homeless, volunteered as a supervising physician at UVA’s Haven Homeless Clinic on the Downtown Mall, and helped plan and develop a new mobile community outreach project.
“Dr. Nadkarni’s advocacy has led to real, systemic change,” Ryan said. “Whether championing equitable transplant access for patients or helping to reform UVA Health’s billing practices to protect vulnerable families, he has consistently used his voice and position to stand up for those who might otherwise go unheard.”
Nadkarni said he learned firsthand the impacts of poverty on medical care while working as a resident at UVA Health University Medical Center and at a health care center in rural Buchanan County.
“I was struck by how much social determinants of health, like poverty, food deserts and homelessness, directly affect health outcomes and still do every single day,” he said. “The fact of the matter is that individual and population health outcomes are indeed disparate and unequal.”
Nadkarni said he could not be prouder of his 35-year career at the University, nor more humbled to receive the award.
“My most fervent wish is that future winners of the Thomas Jefferson Award can be just as proud, because UVA takes a stand and does whatever is necessary to continue the great and good in both these times and in generations to come,” he said.
