Dear Colleagues,

I write to solicit nominations for the Suskind-Lewinter Global Health Faculty Prize.  The prize was created in 2021 by Penn alumnus Bob Suskind (WH ’59, M ’63) and his wife Leslie Lewinter-Suskind (see below for Bob and Leslie’s bios).  The Prize honors a PSOM faculty member who exemplifies a deep commitment to improving health equity worldwide.  Since the award’s inception, we have celebrated the Prize in Global Health by honoring Kassa Darge, MD, PhD (’21), the William Van Alen Chair in Pediatric Radiology and Chair of Radiology at CHOP, and Nahreen Ahmed, MD, MPH (’22), Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at HUP.

Award criteria: Candidates should display evidence of:  

• A long-term and profound commitment to global health through exceptional interdisciplinary activities including research, education and/or service;
• Outstanding leadership skills in their field resulting in significant, lasting benefits for global health outcomes particularly for lower-resourced populations;
• Advocating for and/or implementing global health policies or programs that improve the health of people

Submission Process: Please submit nominations by no later than March 31, 2023 to Megan Doherty at megand@pennmedicine.upenn.edu . Nominations should include a brief statement (under 250 words) of the candidate’s global health efforts and impact, and a brief bio (NIH or other formats are acceptable).

About Robert Suskind and Leslie Lewinter-Suskind 

Robert Suskind, MD graduated from the University of Pennsylvania College/Wharton ('59) and Medical School ('63). After pediatric residency at Johns Hopkins, he became Field Director of MALAN, an NIH-funded project in Chiang Mai, Thailand, initiating his research on malnutrition's effect on the immune system and the optimal treatment of the malnourished child. His MIT-Boston Children's PhD program in clinical nutrition for pediatricians was pivotal in raising awareness of nutrition’s importance in clinical medicine. Dr. Suskind’s international experiences include Director of the ICDDRB in Bangladesh and advisor to the Patan Academy of Health Sciences in Kathmandu, Nepal. He has been a Chairman of Pediatrics for twenty years and Dean of three medical schools.

Leslie Lewinter-Suskind received her BS from Penn State, an MSS from Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research and an MFA from UNO. After Senegal, she directed an inner-city program under the OEO ("War on Poverty"), followed by a study determining the need for infant care centers in the barriadas of Lima, Peru for Johns Hopkins. As Director of Applied Nutrition at MALAN, she set up follow-up, etiology and intervention studies in childhood malnutrition in the villages surrounding Chiang Mai. At LSU, she directed the International Program for the Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics.