EMERALD HONORS WINNERS Medical Leadership
Mercedes Benitez-McCrary Commander, U.S. Public Health Service Deputy Director, Office of Operations Management Emergency Preparedness and Response Operations Managment, Baltimore, Maryland Central Office
cedes Benitez-McCrary has worked as a clinician, college instructor, hospital admin- istrator, business partner, administrator, researcher, and a public health officer. She began her career providing speech-language pathology and audiology services to medically under-served popu- lations in Washington, D.C. Soon after, in 1983, she was
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appointed faculty/clinic director at the Howard University Medi- cal School and Hospital. There, she supervised clinical training of speech-language pathology and audiology graduate students from Howard, George Washington University, and the University of Maryland. These former students are now serving culturally diverse consumers across the country. Also during her time at Howard University (HU), 1983-1990, she often donated services to those in need of speech-language pathology and audiology but had trouble accessing services. After HU, she relocated to the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) and continued to emphasize improved healthcare services for the underserved. Through her top-level association with the New Jersey healthcare community, Benitez-McCrary was able to se- cure then-New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, along with one-time New York Mayor David Dinkins and an NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) director, Arati Prabhakar, as speakers for the 1994 conference of the National Organiza- tion of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBBChe). In 1997, she took up a three-year appointment as a clinic director at District of Columbia General Hospital. During this period at D.C. General, Benitez-McCrary earned peer recognition for her expertise in restoring speech capabilities to stroke victims. In 2003, while serving as special assistant to the Surgeon General of the United States, she played a big role in developing policy and organized a White House Conference on Health Literacy and Health Disparities on behalf of the surgeon general. She has served on committees of the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association, responsible for developing policies to im- prove speech and hearing services in medical settings. Her most recent emphasis has been in the area of healthcare literacy and communication in multicultural populations to improve delivery of services to these groups. Benitez-McCrary has also brought re- freshing points of view and energy to the African-American and
www.blackengineer.com
ver the past 30 years, Com- mander Mer-
Latino health communities and she provides strategic input for the implementation of the 2010 Affordable Healthcare Act. Since 2001, she has also made significant contributions at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Her accomplishments include independent research and drafting of quantitative analysis for regulatory paperwork reduction on facilities and portable X-ray services at more than 8,000 home health centers and 3,000 hospices. In addition, she has served with distinction as an officer of the U.S. Public Health Service. In 2005, she led her battalion to critical disaster areas in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and again to Galveston Island in Texas in 2008 after Hurricane Ike. The commander continues to make valuable contributions to speech-language pathology and audiology and to its diverse consumers. Her professional qualifications include earning a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Pathology and Audiology from New York University in 1976 and a master’s in the same field from George Washington University in 1978.
Medical Leadership
Dr. Wade Jeffrey Hutchinson Colonel, United States Army Chief, Adolescent Medicine, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center
role model his entire career. In his undergraduate years at the United States Mili- tary Academy at West Point (1985-1989), he earned the position of cadet company commander in the Corps of Cadets. While in medi- cal school (1989-1993) at University of California at San Francisco, he held leader-
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ship positions in groups that addressed diversity and inclusion issues. His professional career as a soldier and medical doc- tor have afforded him the opportunity to hold both clinical and teaching appointments in Hawaii; Texas; Landstuhl, Germany; and the Washington, D.C., area. As the only African-American officer in the Department of Pediatrics of the Uniformed Ser- vices University of the Health Sciences, Hutchinson draws from these experiences to offer insight on the unique challenges that different ethnic and racial groups pose for a practitioner. Hutchin- son is committed to the education and professional training of physicians and future physicians. Widely regarded as a “go-to,” Hutchinson has won recognition as well as resident and faculty teaching awards including the 2001 Outstanding Faculty Award
USBE&IT I WINTER 2012 57
r. Jeff Hutchin- son has been a leader and
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