College of Medicine Graduates Class of 2016 Saturday, May 28

The University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine will award medical degrees to 169 graduates at the 2016 Honors Day ceremony, starting at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 28, at the Aronoff Center for the Arts in downtown Cincinnati.

Robert E. Richardson, Jr., chair of Board of Trustees at the University of Cincinnati, will offer opening remarks along with UC College of Medicine Dean William Ball, MD.  Richardson, 37, a UC alumnus, has been a trustee since 2008 and was elected chair of the board in February.  He is the youngest person to hold the trustee chair title for the university.

The ceremony's keynote speaker is Alvin Crawford, MD, professor emeritus in pediatrics and orthopaedic surgery at the UC College of Medicine. Crawford served as director of orthopaedic surgery at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center for 29 years. Upon stepping down, he was awarded endowed chairs in pediatric orthopaedics and spinal surgery, and the Spine Center at Cincinnati Children's was dedicated in his name. Crawford has lectured or performed surgery in 41 countries and has trained 54 international fellows in pediatric orthopaedics and spine surgery. 

Specializing in treating scoliosis, or curvature of the spine, Crawford is one of the nation's foremost authorities on video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery, which allows surgeons to insert rods through small incisions to straighten the spine. He is an expert on neurofibromatosis in children, a genetic disorder often associated with scoliosis. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles, 63 book chapters and six books. A cum laude graduate of Tennessee State University in 1964 with degrees in chemistry and music, Crawford was the first African American to graduate from the University of Tennessee College of Medicine. He is a member of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America, the American College of Surgeons and Scoliosis Research Society. 

Crawford has many honors including the 2006 Daniel Drake Medal winner from the UC College of Medicine, the 2007 Diversity Award from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, the 2009 Candle in the Dark Award from Morehouse College for his contributions to the field of medicine and the 2013 Laurel Wreath from Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. In 2014, he was honored with a Great Living Cincinnatian Award for his medical and civic contributions, the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Scoliosis Research Society.

Members of the Class of 2016 will be entering residency programs in 29 states and the District of Columbia, with 39 percent of the class staying in Ohio for their primary hospital residencies. Of those, 20 students will complete all or a portion of their residency at University of Cincinnati Medical Center and eight will complete pediatric residency at Cincinnati Children's. At the start of the ceremony, graduates will recite the class oath they wrote upon entering medical school. Once their hooding is complete, graduating students will recite the Hippocratic Oath. 

The Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award will be presented to George Smulian, MD, Ward E. Bullock Professor of Infectious Diseases and Director of the Division of Infectious Disease at the UC College of Medicine, and fourth-year medical student Craig Hansen. The Tow award recognizes individuals who emphasize humanism in the delivery of care to patients and their families.

Three College of Medicine faculty members will also receive awards for outstanding teaching and mentorship. David Fischer, MD, Department of Surgery, will receive the Golden Apple Award, while Robert Neel, MD, and John Quinlan, MD, both of the Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine, will receive Silver Apple Awards.

For more than four decades, medical students have upheld the tradition of giving "apples" to their favorite teachers at their commencement ceremony. The Gold and Silver Apple Awards Program was established in 1968 by the Pi Kappa Epsilon fraternity. The idea was to give the students the chance to recognize professors who had the most impact on their medical career—and life path—by serving as excellent instructors and mentors.