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Arnold Awards recognize two alumni who are making a difference in lives throughout the United States
May 14, 2012
Dr. Corinne Graffunder of the CDC is the recipient of the Norman J. Arnold Medal.
The Gerry Sue Arnold Award was presented to Dr. Jonathan Donley of Palmetto Health and the USC School of Medicine.
Two Arnold School of Public Health alumni – one who is a national leader in health promotion and disease prevention, and the other who is working on mobility issues among the state's elderly – are recipients of the 2012 Norman J. and Gerry Sue Arnold alumni awards.
The awards were presented Thursday, May 3, at the school's 25th annual Hooding Ceremony at the Koger Center for the Arts.
- The Norman J. Arnold Medal was awarded to Dr. Corinne Graffunder, a senior health scientist at the Office of the Associate Director for Policy at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
- The Gerry Sue Arnold Award went to Dr. Jonathan Donley, director of Geriatric Specialty Clinics at Palmetto Health in Columbia and an assistant professor at the USC School of Medicine.
The awards, established by the school's leading patron and his wife, are an annual feature of the Hooding Ceremony.
Prior to her long career at the Centers for Disease Control, Graffunder worked with the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control and the Pee Dee II Health District.
On March 23, 2010, the U.S. Congress passed the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This landmark legislation provides significant reforms related to health care coverage and quality. The ACA also includes critical prevention provisions focused on community and population health. Title IV – Prevention of Chronic Disease and Improving Public Health, Section 4001 – National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council is one of these key provisions.
In May 2010, the CDC's Office of the Director appointed Graffunder as the director of the National Prevention and Health Promotion Strategy.
In this position, Graffunder led the development of the nation's first comprehensive cross-sector prevention strategy. Providing technical and scientific support to the U.S. Surgeon General, who chairs the National Prevention Council, Graffunder led teams within CDC, Health and Human Services and across the 17 departments of the council in conceptualizing, drafting and releasing on the National Prevention Strategy: America's Plan for Better Health and Wellness (The Prevention Strategy).
The Prevention Strategy's four Strategic Directions – Healthy and Safe Community Environments, Clinical and Community Preventive Services, Empowered People and Elimination of Health Disparities – and seven priorities - Tobacco Free Living, Preventing Drug Abuse and Excessive Alcohol Use, Healthy Eating, Active Living, Injury and Violence Free Living, Reproductive and Sexual Health and Mental and Emotional Well-being – provide a foundation for federal, state and local, governmental and non-governmental prevention efforts.
Building on the best available evidence, the prevention recommendations provide a starting point for efforts critical to community and individual well-being.
During her near decade of work to prevent violence, Graffunder became recognized as one of the nation's experts applying prevention science to the prevention of violence against women. Since the 2011 release of the Prevention Strategy, Graffunder continues to work with national, state and local leaders.
Graffunder earned two degrees from the Arnold School, a bachelor's degree in community health education in 1985 and a master's in public health education in 1987. In 2008, she earned her doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Brigette Ulin, Deputy Director of National Prevention Strategy, Office of the Associate Director for Policy at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said, "The significance of Dr. Graffunder's work, promoting health and wellbeing for individuals and communities, is substantial. Within the larger platform of health reform, she is consistently championing the integration of health and health criteria into diverse sectors, such as transportation, housing, and labor."
The Norman J. Arnold Medal honors an alumnus who has demonstrated work that has had both a positive impact on the profession and on the health of an identified community or population and has brought recognition to the Arnold School. It carries a cash award of $2,500 and a bronze medal.
A guest lecturer in the doctor of physical therapy program at the Arnold School, Donley also is an anatomy and orthopedic assessment course instructor. He is manager of the Geriatric Specialty Clinics at Palmetto Health Hospital and director of the Palmetto Health-University of South Carolina Mobility and Research Clinic.
Donley earned his bachelor's degree in kinesiology from Shenandoah University in 1997, a master's degree in health education from Pennsylvania State University in 1999 and his doctorate in physical therapy from the Arnold School in 2005.
Donley recently passed his geriatric clinical specialist degree – an academic award that few people in the state hold. He is starting a geriatric physical therapy residency, in coordination with the Arnold School, to train more physical therapists in the state. The residency will take place at the geriatric mobility clinic that he started two years ago after receiving funding from The Duke Endowment.
Dr. Stacy Fritz, an assistant professor in the Physical Therapy Program of the Department of Exercise Science, praised Donley for his clinical skills and contributions to the physical therapy profession. In his work at Palmetto Health, Donley "has established himself as a leader among the staff, but continues to work as a team-player, and display excellent rapport and professionalism with his patients, the families, and healthcare colleagues," she said.
The Gerry Sue Arnold Medal honors an alumnus whose work has both made a difference to the profession and in the health of an identified community or population. It carries a cash award of $2,500 and a commemorative plaque.
Graffunder and Donley were selected by a committee of the Arnold School's Alumni Council, who considered nominees submitted by faculty, staff, alumni and friends of the school.
The alumni awards are just one example of the Arnold family's philanthropy. Norman Arnold made a major gift in 2000 to endow the University of South Carolina's School of Public Health that now bears his name.
