Dr. J. Carey Jackson, medical director of Harborview Medical Center’s International Medicine Clinic and assistant professor of medicine, is one of 10 recipients of a 1999 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Community Health Leadership Program award. The award is the nation’s most distinguished citation for community health leadership. Jackson is being honored for his role in bridging the gap between local health-care providers and Seattle’s large non-English-speaking population. The International Medicine Clinic receives 10,000 patient visits annually, and the Community House Calls program, which Jackson co-directs, serves more than 600 families. Jackson credits the team effort of his colleagues with the success of the International Medicine Clinic and Community House Calls program. Community Health Leadership awards recognize “people who overcome daunting odds to expand access to health care and social services to underserved and isolated populations in their communities.” Jackson and the other winners will be honored June 21 in a ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Fred Rieke, assistant professor of physiology and biophysics, and Dr. Henk Roelink, assistant professor of biological structure, are among seven neuroscientists in the nation this year to receive McKnight Scholar Awards. Rieke investigates visual signal processing, particularly in cases where the visual system performs at or near the limits imposed by physics. Roelink’s research focuses on the role of signaling molecules in brain malformations induced by the steroidal alkaloid cyclopamine. The McKnight Scholar Awards are granted to neuroscientists who have demonstrated meritorious research and who are in the early stages of establishing their own independent laboratories. Recipients receive $50,000 per year for three years.

Dr. Margaret D. Allen, professor of surgery, will be awarded an honorary doctor of science degree by Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania next week at the school’s commencement ceremonies. A 1970 Swarthmore graduate, Allen received her M.D. from the University of California-San Diego School of Medicine in 1974. She joined the UW faculty in 1985 and performed the Northwest’s first heart transplant that same year. She has worked to increase donations for transplantation and has served as president of the Pacific Northwest Transplant Society and the national United Network for Organ Sharing. She also maintains a research program focusing on cardiac gene therapy and transplant tolerance mechanisms.

Dr. R. Brian Stevens, assistant professor of surgery, has received the 1999 Fujisawa Faculty Development Award from the American Society of Transplant Surgeons. The two-year award includes $50,000 to help junior transplant faculty develop their research careers. Stevens is medical director of the Islet Processing Program at the Puget Sound Blood Center’s Northwest Tissue Center and director of the Islet Core Faciltiy at the UW Diabetes and Endocrinology Research Center.

Healthy volunteers needed: The Diabetes and Endocrinology Research Center at the UW Medical Center is looking for men and women without diabetes to participate in a two-week study. A four-day hospital stay is required. Individuals completing the study will be reimbursed $500. For more information, call Barbara at 543-4543. ¶