Eight Graduates, Supporters of MU School of Medicine Receive Alumni Awards

The University of Missouri School of Medicine and Medical Alumni Organization presented its most prestigious awards to graduates and supporters on April 26 in Columbia. The award recipients were honored during a reception and dinner at the Country Club of Missouri.

The School of Medicine’s highest honor — the Citation of Merit — was awarded to Mark Stacy, MD, graduate of the MU School of Medicine class of 1986. Stacy is the dean of the Brody School of Medicine and vice chancellor for health sciences at East Carolina University. With clinical and research interests in motor and non-motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease, he has published more than 250 manuscripts and one book, “The Handbook of Dystonia.” Stacy serves on the steering committee of the World Parkinson Congress, and has been a member of the Parkinson Disease and Movement Disorders Society since 1990.

The Outstanding Young Physician Award is presented to distinguished alumni age 45 or younger at the time of nomination. This year’s recipients are:

• Camila Manrique Acevedo, MD, 2008 residency graduate and an associate professor of medicine at the MU School of Medicine
• Gema Simmons, MD, graduate of the class of 1998 and a physician with Associates in Women’s Health
• Dustin Smith, MD, graduate of the class of 2009, founder and medical director of the St. Kolbe-Puckett Center for Healing, and an emergency medicine physician with SSM Health

Alumni who have distinguished themselves through service to community, medicine or education are recognized with the Distinguished Service Award. This year, the School of Medicine honored three alumni:

• Rebecca Dillingham, MD, graduate of the class of 1999 and the Harrison Distinguished Teaching Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine
• Irl Hirsch, MD, graduate of the class of 1984, the Diabetes and Treatment Teaching Chair and Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington, and the medical director of the Diabetes Care Center at the University of Washington Medical Center
• John Alexander Smith, MD, PhD, MMM, graduate of the class of 1974, a professor of pathology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the medical director of the Department of Pathology at UAB Highlands Hospital

In addition, the Honorary Alumni Award is given to supporters who have made special contributions to the MU School of Medicine. This year, the School of Medicine recognized:

• Robert Gaines Jr., MD, retired surgeon with Columbia Orthopaedic Group and director of the spinal reconstruction fellowship at the University of Missouri