Black and gold balloons unmistakably marked the location for what department leaders call their favorite event of the year: the Emory Radiology Faculty and Staff Awards. This year's festivities featured black and gold banners and colorful balloons reminiscent of Hollywood覡s top awards show.

"For a second I thought I was at a Steelers game," quipped department Chair Carolyn Meltzer, MD, as she welcomed faculty and staff from across the department for the fourth annual event. "But it's really my favorite day: the day we celebrate the incredible talent and dedication of our team members."

This year's event broke all records, starting with an unprecedented 120 nominees. A record crowd gathered to cheer the nominees and winners: more than 150 faculty and staff snagged nearly every seat in the hospital auditorium, while a few dozen faculty and staff lined the back and side aisles and even congregated in the hallways just outside the auditorium doors, eager to hear who won. Two dozen more individuals and teams attended by remote videoconference. Dozens of tweets before, during and after the event spread the excitement into the Twittersphere using #EUHRadAwards17.

Christopher Ho, MD, began the celebration by recognizing the 2017 Teacher of the Year awardees, who were chosen by the Class of 2017 radiology residents and celebrated during the class graduation party in June:

Patricia Hudgins                                      Aarti Sekhar

Next, Harold Glenn, Jr., MBA, shone the spotlight on the faculty and staff Caught in the Act of Service Excellence in 2017. These awardees committed notable acts of service excellence and their work exceeded the expectations of the internal and external customers who nominated them:

Lauren Becker                                        Inez Dupree

Irwin Best                                              Eric Husband

James Galt, PhD, then recalled the many contributions of Emory Radiology's Tracy Lynn Faber, PhD, for whom Emory Radiology posthumously established the Tracy Lynn Faber Award in 2012 to celebrate the contributions and advancement of women in imaging sciences and which now is managed at a national level by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI). See SNMMI story here.

To kick off the much-anticipated awards presentations, co-chairs Willie Arnold, MBA, and Courtney Moreno, MD, thanked the faculty and staff who served on the selection committees:

Staff Awards Committee:                                        Faculty Awards Committee:
Willie Arnold (co-chair)                                              Courtney Moreno (Co-Chair)

Dexter Bostic                                                            James Galt                                          

Jamie Denis                                                              Ray Higginbotham

Bertu Kedir                                                               Kelly Marshall

Brian Malcolm                                                           Sarah Milla

Robin Pierce                                                              Deqiang Qiu

Deb Smith                                                                              

Kathy Werts

For each of the following awards, each member of the appropriate committee scored the nominations in each award category against specific criteria. The scores were averaged to create a composite score for each nominee; the highest score secured the award. In cases of a tie, both top-scoring nominees received the award.

The following are the nominees and awardees (in bold) for the faculty and staff awards:

Outstanding Care Provider (Staff):

Lauren Becker                                                 Kenny Doan                                                   

Hilary Karp                                                      Jackie Knight

Henry Smith                                                   Larissa Woodard

Outstanding Patient Care Junior (Faculty):

Anne Gill

Outstanding Patient Care Senior (Faculty):

Jean Kunjummen                                            Stamatios Lerakis

Janice Newsome                                             William Small

Matthew Zygmont, MD

Outstanding Mentor (Staff)

Michael Bowen                                                 Leslie House

Nykeshia McCoy                                              Anthony Ray

Deb Smith                                                    Pamela Stanley

Outstanding Mentor (Faculty) - TIE

Pardeep Mittal                                              Mark Mullins

Mary (Mimi) Newell                                        Janice Newsome

Arthur Stillman

Outstanding Leader (Staff)

Ruby Alexander                                              Robin Sark

Jim Streeter

Rising Star (Faculty)

Kristen Baugnon                                           Zachary Bercu

Peter Harri                                                 Ephraim Parent

Ryan Peterson

Face of Excellence (Staff)

Ruby Alexander                                              Susan Herbert Black

Sharon Cain                                                   Lynn Cooper

Alice P. Deaton                                               Maria F. Durden

Adena Falkenhagen                                         Valerie Fowler-Robinson

Angela Houston                                            Ashley Koester

Beverly Maiolo                                                Jackie McCarty

Candice McLean                                              Rebecca Neill

Susan Reich                                                    Jane Vitali

Stacey Walker                                                 Angie Williams

Outstanding Service in Support of Mission (Staff)

Camille Dingle                                                Carol Dowdle

Brenda Hall                                                     Jack Knight-Scott

Pratik Rachh                                                  Kathy Vaughn

Outstanding Service Junior (Faculty)

Michael Hoch                                                Gayatri Joshi

Outstanding Service Senior (Faculty)

Jason Allen                                                   Deb Baumgarten         

Raghuveer Halkar                                          Brent Little

Rebecca Seidel

Outstanding Researcher Junior (Faculty)

Kelly Cox                                                     Tarek Hanna

Outstanding Researcher Senior (Faculty)

Jason Allen                                                  John Oshinski, PhD

J. David Prologo                                           David Schuster

Outstanding Team - TIE

Breast Imaging Center Team at Emory Johns Creek Hospital

Breast Imaging Center Team at Emory Saint Joseph's Hospital

Breast Imaging Center Team at Emory University Hospital Midtown

Communications and Creative Services Team

CT Team at Winship Cancer Institute

Imaging Workflow Specialists

Interventional Radiology Scheduling Team

Medical Imaging Program Team

MRI Team at Emory University Hospital

MRI Team at Winship Cancer Institute

Nuclear Medicine Team at Emory University Hospital

Nursing Outpatient Imaging Center Team at Emory Saint Joseph's Hospital

Ultrasound Team at Emory Johns Creek Hospital

Ultrasound Team at Emory University Hospital

X-Ray Team at Winship Cancer Institute

New for 2017 was the Lifetime Achievement Award, with nominees and winners for both faculty and staff. 

Lifetime Achievement (Staff): Honoring non-faculty staff with more than 15 years at Emory who have demonstrated outstanding service, leadership, innovation, and/or teaching to the Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Emory Hospital and Clinic systems, and/or the patient and community we serve.

Russell Folks

Lifetime Achievement (Faculty): Honoring faculty with more than 15 years at Emory who have demonstrated outstanding administration, citizenship, clinical practice, leadership, research, service, and/or teaching.

            W. Thomas Dixon                                    Louis Martin

            Dawn Moore                                           William Torres

Congratulations to all nominees and winners!