Mayo Clinic Alumni Association Announces Award Recipients

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

ROCHESTER, Minn. — The Mayo Clinic Alumni Association has selected the new recipients of the Mayo Clinic Humanitarian and Professional Achievement awards. The recipients of the Mayo Clinic Alumni Association Humanitarian Award are C. Robert Stanhope, M.D., and Larry Vukov, M.D. The recipient of the Mayo Clinic Alumni Association Professional Achievement Award is John Wheat, M.D.

Dr. Stanhope, a consultant in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, says his most satisfying efforts have been serving with short-term mission groups in Haiti, Mongolia, Honduras, Kenya and in West Africa, Guinea, where he is part of a team building obstetrical and surgical services. "It has been a blessing to have opportunities to serve men and women with dire medical needs in low-income and low-resource countries around the world as well as being a part of a compassionate, caring medical community — Mayo Clinic," Dr. Stanhope says.

Dr. Vukov, a consultant in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, has taken two weeks each year for the past two decades to lead teams of medical and nonmedical individuals from First Baptist Church and other churches on trips to Kenya to build and develop Hope Centers in rural areas. The centers consist of a church, primary school, medical clinic and feeding center in areas where no education or health care exist.

Dr. Wheat is a professor of community and rural medicine at the University of Alabama. His focus has been on "growing our own" doctors by recruiting and training Alabama's citizens to become primary care physicians and return to work in their hometowns or in similar underserved rural communities of Alabama. Dr. Wheat created a "pipeline" of programs from middle school through medical school to help rural students prepare for and sustain their commitment to careers in rural health and medicine.

Background on the Mayo Clinic Alumni Association awards:

Humanitarian Award

The Mayo Clinic Alumni Association Humanitarian Award acknowledges significant contributions by graduates of Mayo's education programs to the welfare of a community, country or humanity, beyond any volunteer service to Mayo. Recipients demonstrate the commitment of the Mayo brothers to service of humanity.

Professional Achievement Award

The Mayo Clinic Alumni Association Professional Achievement Award acknowledges significant contributions by a graduate of Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education, Mayo Graduate School or Mayo Medical School. Accomplishments may be in a clinical, research, educational or administrative field. Recipients exemplify the Mayo brothers' commitment to practice, education and research.

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