Department of Medicine Chair honored with Charles R. Hatcher Jr. Award for Excellence in Public Health

David S. Stephens, MD, chair of the Department of Medicine and the Stephen W. Schwarzmann Distinguished Professor of Medicine, has been named the 2019 recipient of the Charles R. Hatcher Jr. Award for Excellence in Public Health.

“I want to heartily thank the many collaborators past and present in the Rollins School of Public Health. These collaborations have led to very successful projects impacting the Department of Medicine, units of the Woodruff Health Science Center, and Emory University,” says Stephens.

The award, which was established by the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in 1996, honors Woodruff Health Sciences Center faculty members who, through their lifetime of work, exemplify excellence in public health.

“Dr. Stephens is an ideal candidate for this award,” says James W. Curran, MD, MPH, dean of the Rollins School of Public Health. “Dr. Stephens was integral to the development of the NIH-funded Emory Vaccine Center, the Emory Center for AIDS Research, and the Serious Communicable Diseases Unit at Emory, and is recognized on an international scale for his leadership, public scholarship, and contributions to public health research, particularly in relation to his work surrounding bacterial meningitis.”

Stephens joined the Emory Department of Medicine faculty in 1982 and was named director of the Division of Infectious Diseases in 1992. He served in that role until 2013 and led the development of very successful programs in infectious diseases and microbial pathogenesis. Stephens is a professor of microbiology and immunology in the School of Medicine and professor of epidemiology in the Rollins School of Public Health. His laboratory is an international leader in efforts to define the molecular basis for the virulence of and vaccines to prevent bacterial meningitis, especially disease caused by Neisseria meningitidis and Streptococcus pneumoniae. He has contributed to more than 300 publications in infectious diseases, molecular pathogenesis, epidemiology, vaccinology, and immunology.

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