Perelman School of Medicine Dean Jonathan Epstein announced the 17 recipients of the 2025 Penn Medicine Awards of Excellence on Nov. 4.
The awards — established in 1996 — are divided into four categories: clinical, mentoring and professionalism, research, and teaching. According to the Medical School, they are “a series of highly competitive awards celebrating [their] commitment to excellence in scholarship, teaching, innovation, service, leadership, professionalism and patient care.”
“I am honored to present this year’s recipients of the Penn Medicine Awards of Excellence—individuals selected by a committee of esteemed faculty from the Perelman School of Medicine,” Epstein said in the announcement. “These honorees embody the finest ideals of our profession and stand as exemplars of the excellence to which we collectively aspire.”
Four physicians received clinical awards: Chief of Interventional Psychiatry Mario A. Cristancho, family physician Kristine Pamela Garcia, interventional radiologist Scott O. Trerotola, and family physician Jeffrey T. Tokazewski.
Cristancho, who is also the founding director of Penn’s interventional psychiatry program, earned the Louis Duhring Outstanding Clinical Specialist Award for his innovative approaches to treating complex mood disorders. He led a clinical team in electroconvulsive therapy that assisted in a study determining the procedure’s applications as a psychiatric treatment.
The two Mentoring and Professionalism awards were given to pediatrics professor Kristy B. Arbogast and clinical pediatrics professor George Dalembert. In addition to her work at Penn Med, Arbogast is the Director of Engineering at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Center for Injury Research and Prevention and co-director of the National Science Foundation Center for Child Injury Prevention Studies. Dalembert is also the co-founder and director of the Leadership in Equity, Advocacy, and Policy residency track at CHOP.
The four teaching awards were presented to surgery professor Robert E. Roses, cell and developmental biology professor Kurt A. Engleka, research professor of anesthesiology and critical care Akiva S. Cohen, and psychiatry professor Erica B. Baller. In addition to her professorial role, Baller is also the psychiatry residency director and has designed educational materials that have been disseminated in 178 countries.
The remaining awards went to a variety of researchers and physicians, including Elinore K. Kaufman, Yi-Wei Chang, Guo-li Ming, Hongjun Song, Carmen E. Guerra, Nandita Mitra, and Kurt T. Barnhart.
RELATED:
Jonathan Epstein named Perelman School of Medicine dean
Penn Med, CHOP cardiovascular director named 2025 American Heart Association Distinguished Scientist
