Allied Health Sciences
The School of Allied Health Sciences Alumni Association will present its Distinguished Alumnus Award to Claudia Morin. In addition to her private practice in Augusta, CTM Occupational Therapy, she is founder and director of Blue Ribbon Riders, a therapeutic horseback-riding program for children with special needs. Ms. Morin, who earned her bachelor’s degree in occupational therapy from MCG in 1981, is part-time faculty at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Mich., and has served as manager of occupational therapy of MCG Hospital and Clinics.
Ms. Morin received the 1998 Georgia Volunteer of the Year Award from the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association and the 1995 Past President Service Award from the American Hippotherapy Association. She is member of the American Occupational Therapy Association, North American Riding for the Handicapped Association and American Hippotherapy Certification Board.
Dentistry
The School of Dentistry Alumni Association will present its Distinguished Alumnus Award to Dr. Matthew McRae Jr., an Athens, Ga., dentist. Dr. McRae has been in private practice since earning his dental degree from MCG in 1973. He devotes many hours providing dentistry to the indigent in northeast Georgia and co-founded MCG’s McRae-Orrington Dental Scholarship.
Dr. McRae has served as MCG clinical faculty since 1988. He is a board member and membership chair of the Academy of General Dentistry and past president and membership chair of the Georgia Dental Society. He is a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and has been appointed to various state health boards by Georgia Govs. Zell Miller and Roy Barnes.
Graduate Studies
Dr. Richard Sowell, professor of nursing and dean of WellStar College of Health and Human Services at Kennesaw State University, will receive the School of Graduate Studies Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumnus Award. Dr. Sowell, who earned master’s and doctoral degrees from MCG in 1983 and 1990 respectively, previously served on the faculties of the University of South Carolina, Clayton State College and MCG.
Dr. Sowell received the 2002 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, a certificate of merit from the Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research in 2000, the 2000 USC Educational Foundation Research Award for Health Sciences and MCG’s 1995 Phoebe Kandel Rohrer Founders Award for Outstanding Research and Education.
Medicine
The Alumni Association of the School of Medicine will present its Distinguished Alumnus Award for Loyalty to Dr. William Collins and its Distinguished Alumnus Award for Professional Achievement to Dr. Jerome Siegel.
Dr. Collins graduated from MCG in 1962 and worked at Northside Hospital in Atlanta as an orthopedic surgeon. He is a past president of the Alumni Association of the School of Medicine, MCG Foundation Board of Directors, Medical Association of Georgia and Medical Association of Atlanta. He is a Founder’s Level member of the MCG President’s Club and served on the American Academy of Orthopedics Research Committee.
Dr. Siegel earned his medical degree from MCG in 1960 and completed a research fellowship in gastroenterology and liver diseases at the Royal Free Hospital in London. He has served as clinical professor of medicine at New York’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine since 2001 and has practiced gastroenterology-hepatology-gastrointestinal endoscopy in New York City since 1975.
He is a master of the American College of Gastroenterology and governor of the college representing Manhattan. He was recently elected a board member of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Foundation. He was included in Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.’s America’s Top Doctors publication and Woodward-White’s Best Doctors in America.
Nursing
The School of Nursing Alumni Association will present its E. Louise Grant Award to Anita Lee Black and its Phoebe Kandel Rohrer Award to Dr. Patricia Christian.
Ms. Black, who earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from MCG in 1971, is a nurse consultant for Tucker, Everitt, Long, Brewton and Lanier Law Firm. She was previously nursing coordinator for emergency services at MCG Hospital and Clinics.
She is member of the American Nurses Association, American Heart Association, Emergency Nurses Association and American Cancer Society. She helps provide medical and nursing services for special events in Augusta.
Dr. Christian earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from MCG in 1970 and 1972, respectively. She has served as the chief executive officer of John Umstead Hospital in Butner, N.C., since 1993 and a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Nurse Surveyor in Baltimore since 1991. She is an adjunct assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing and worked as assistant professor at MCG from 1973-78.
She is a member of the American Nurses Association, Sigma Theta Tau, North Carolina Alliance for the Mentally Ill and Harvard Nurses Study. In 1990, she was listed among the “Great 100 Nurses” in North Carolina by the American Nurses Association Certification in Nursing Administration-Advanced. She is a frequent volunteer for special events such as Special Olympics and “Coats for Kids”.
Kim Miller