Three Women Academic Physicians Are Honored

Ruth-Marie Fincher, the inaugural dean for academic affairs at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, retired this past May. Now, she has been selected to receive Abraham Flexner Award for Distinguished Service to Medical Education from the Association of American Medical Colleges. She is the first woman to win the award which will be presented at the AAMC annual convention in San Francisco.

Fincher is a graduate of Colby College in Maine and the Emory University School of Medicine.

Catherine R. deVries, founder and director of the Center for Global Surgery and professor of surgery at the University of Utah, has been named a recipient of the 2012 Surgical Humanitarian Award presented by the American College of Surgeons. Dr. deVries was honored for her work over the past 20 years in improving pediatric urologic care around the world.

Dr. deVries is a graduate of Harvard University and the Stanford University School of Medicine. She also holds a master’s degree in pathology from Duke University.

Penny K. Tippy, chair of family and community medicine at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Carbondale, has been selected to receive the 2012 Rural Physician of Excellence Award from the Illinois Rural Health Association. She is scheduled to receive the award at the university on November 15.

Dr. Tippy joined the medical school’s faculty in 1982. She is a graduate of Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, and the University of Illinois School of Medicine.