SOB Awards

Past Award Recipients

2023 - Mark Mercurio, MD, MA, FAAP
Dr Mercurio is Professor of Pediatrics and the Director of the Program for Biomedical Ethics at Yale School of Medicine. Until recently he also served as Chief of the Division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine. He is actively involved in the ethics education of Yale medical students, attending physicians, fellows, residents, nurses, and physician associate students. He has more than 35 years of experience as a clinical neonatologist, including the training of fellows and residents in the Newborn ICU, and over 35 years of experience in clinical ethics consultation in adult and pediatric medicine. Dr Mercurio has been an invited lecturer nationally and internationally, focusing on analyses of ethical issues in adult and pediatric medicine, primarily pediatrics. He has for many years served as medical faculty for the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE). Published work has appeared in Pediatrics, The Hastings Center Report, Seminars in Perinatology, the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, The Journal of Perinatology, American Journal of Bioethics, and others. He is a former Chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Bioethics Executive Committee, has served on the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Bioethics, is co-editor of the six-volume textbook Bioethics, and is co-editor of the textbook Clinical Ethics in Pediatrics.
Dr Mercurio received his undergraduate degree in Biochemical Sciences from Princeton University, and his MD from Columbia University. He completed Pediatrics Residency and Neonatology Fellowship at Yale University, and received a Master’s Degree in Philosophy from Brown University.
2022 - Mary Fallat, MD, FAAP
Dr Fallat joined the University of Louisville in 1987. She became the Chief of Pediatric Surgery in 2002 and the first Hirikati S. Nagaraj endowed Professor in Pediatric Surgery at the University of Louisville.
Dr Fallat has a long history of service and leadership in Pediatric Surgery and is a past President of the American Pediatric Surgical Association, past Chair of the American College of Surgeons Pediatric Surgery Advisory Council, and the current Secretary of the Section on Surgery of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Her interest areas include ethics, trauma, and emergency medical services (EMS). She served on the Committee on Bioethics for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and was the first surgeon to Chair this national committee. She has written AAP position statements on pediatric professionalism, fertility preservation for children and adolescents who have cancer, and resuscitation strategies for terminally ill children who need surgery and anesthesia.
Dr Fallat started the first pediatric trauma service in Louisville, while simultaneously developing a leadership role in the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma. She led the initiative in Kentucky that culminated in Trauma System Legislation in 2008. She has been continuously funded as program director for the KY EMS for Children program since 1993. She participated in the Institute of Medicine project “The Future of Emergency Care in the U.S. Health System” as a member of the Subcommittee on Pediatric Emergency Care. She has twice led the initiative to revise the national Equipment for Ambulances list. She has recently completed a grant to develop an educational program and app to train EMS providers to cope with pediatric cardiopulmonary arrest and death in the field.
2021 - Tomas Silber, MD, FAAP
Dr Silber is a graduate from the Facultad de Medicina de la Universidad de Buenos Aires. He did his first pediatric residency at El Hospital de Niños en Buenos Aires, his second pediatric residency at Thomas Jefferson University, in the community pediatrics track, his fellowship in adolescent medicine at Children’s National Hospital and his Masters in Special Studies (bioethics) at George Washington University. He has been a consultant to the World Health Organization and the Pan-American Health Organization and has been awarded the Adele Hoffman Award by the Section on Adolescence of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Outstanding Achievement in Adolescent Medicine by the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine, the lifetime achievement award by the Cuban Ministry of Health and the Children’s National Mentorship Award. For several decades, Dr Silber was the director of the Adolescent Medicine Fellowship Program and director of the Ethics Program at Children’s National and medical director of the Donald Delaney Eating Disorders Program, Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine. He serves on the executive committee of the Ethics Program and is the editor emeritus of Pediatric Ethicscope.
2020 - Christine Mitchell, RN, MS, MTS
Ms Mitchell is the Executive Director of the Center for Bioethics and a lecturer in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She founded the ethics program at Boston Children’s Hospital, directing the ethics consultation service and leading the ethics advisory committee for over 30 years. Ms Mitchell has made many contributions to our field, with numerous scholarly publications and documentary films, one of which was nominated for an Academy Award. She has served in many leadership roles and on national committees and commissions, and as the president of The Association of Bioethics Program Directors.
2019 - Aviva L. Katz, MD, FAAP
Dr Katz was a pediatric surgeon and bioethicist at the University of Pittsburgh. She was passionate about the care of children in her capacity as pediatric surgeon and fierce in her passion in the analysis and management of the ethical dilemmas encountered in children. As the chair of the AAP Committee on Bioethics she was a graceful and masterful leader ensuring inclusivity-making sure that all participant voices were heard. She had a quick wit and wonderful sense of humor. Dr Katz passed away January 2018 and the Section Executive Committee recognized her contributions to the field of bioethics posthumously.
2018 - John D. Lantos, MD, FAAP
Dr Lantos is a leader in the field of Bioethics. He has served on both the AAP Section and Committee of Bioethics to develop educational programs and AAP Policy. Additionally, he has served as an editor to the Pediatric Bioethics cases. Dr Lantos has also served as a mentor to child health care providers interested in learning more about Bioethics. Dr Lantos is a nationally-known ethicist and the Director of the Children’s Mercy Bioethics Center (CMBC). At Children’s Mercy, he serves as the Director of Pediatrics, and professor of Pediatrics. Dr Lantos received his medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine in 1981. He then went on to complete his residency in pediatrics at Children’s Hospital National Medical Center in Washington, DC. After his residency, Dr Lantos went on to complete a fellowship in clinical medical ethics at the University of Chicago. He completed the fellowship in 1987, and remained at the Pritzker School of Medicine as faculty for over 20 years. He later moved to Kansas City where he was the John B. Chair in Bioethics at the Center for Practical Bioethics.
2017 - Chris Feudtner, MD, PhD, MPH
​​Dr. Feudtner​ is a pediatrician, epidemiologist, historian, and ethicist at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and Professor of Pediatrics, Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, and who focuses on improving the lives of children with complex chronic conditions and their families.
Chris is the Director of the Department of Medical Ethics at CHOP, and holds the Steven D. Handler Endowed Chair of Medical Ethics at CHOP, where he is also an attending physician and director of research for the Pediatric Advance Care Team (which provides palliative, end-of-life, and bereavement services) and the Integrated Care Service (which cares for hospitalized children with chronic conditions and technology-dependent health care needs). He has published over 200 articles and chapters regarding pediatric palliative care, epidemiology, health service use and quality, child outcomes, and medical ethics, with funding from the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research, the National Institutes of Health, the National Library of Medicine, and private foundations.
As a historian of medicine, Chris authored a book on the history of diabetes in America, entitled Bittersweet: Diabetes, Insulin, and the Transformation of Illness (University of North Carolina Press, 2003). Chris’s clinical, teaching, mentoring, and research accomplishments have been recognized by the Stanley Stamm Role Model in Medicine Award (2000), The Class of 1990 David Cornfeld Bedside Teaching Award (2005), The Leonard Tow Humanism Award (2011), the Samuel Martin Health Evaluation Sciences Research Award (2011), the CHOP Mentor Award (2012), and a Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Award (2014).
2016 - Bill Meadow, MD, PhD
An expert in neonatology, William Meadow, MD, PhD, is dedicated to providing the highest quality care to critically ill infants. He specializes in treating complications related to premature birth. He is consistently named one of the "Top Doctors in Chicago" by Chicago magazine and one of the "Best Doctors in America" by Marquis Who's Who. 

Dr. Meadow's research focuses on medical ethics in the field of neonatal epidemiology. He has examined resource allocation, as well as issues of informed consent, in neonatal intensive care units. He also set the standard of medical care for the use of corticosteroids in obstetrics/gynecology. Dr. Meadow has received grants for his research from notable organizations, including the American Lung Association and the Gastrointestinal Research Foundation.
In addition to his clinical and research work, Dr. Meadow is committed to medical education. Under his leadership, fellows gain experience in clinical service, as well as in research design and implementation. Dr. Meadow has authored more than 75 articles in scientific and medical journals, 40 book chapters and a book on neonatal bioethics. He is frequently invited to speak at conferences on medical ethics and neocritical care. ​​
2015 - Lanie Friedman Ross, MD, PhD, FAAP
Dr. Lainie Ross is a frequent lecturer at national and international conferences, where she addresses ethical controversies in medical practice and research. She has written more than 100 research articles on ethical and policy issues in organ transplantation, genetic testing, pediatrics, and human subjects protections.
Currently, Dr. Ross serves on the Secretary's Advisory Committee on Human Research Protections (SACHRP) and as the chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Bioethics Executive Committee.​​
2014 - Douglas Diekema, MD, MPH, FAAP
Douglas S. Diekema, MD, MPH, FAAP is attending physician and director of education for the Treuman Katz Center for Pediatric Bioethics at Seattle Children’s Hospital and professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He received his MD from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and his MPH from the University of Washington School of Public Health. He completed his pediatric residency and chief residency at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and then completed a pediatric emergency medicine fellowship at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He is board certified in general pediatrics and pediatric emergency medicine.

Dr Diekema has been very active locally and nationally in pediatric bioethics. He is past-chair of the Committee on Bioethics of the American Academy of Pediatrics and currently serves on the Ethics Committee of the American Board of Pediatrics. He has served as an ethics consultant to the American Heart Association (AHA) for which he has also helped write the ethical issues component of the AHA guidelines. He has also served as an ethics consultant to the FDA and NIH. His research interests include pediatric bioethics and pediatric wilderness medicine. He has authored or co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications, and has co-edited two books. He lectures extensively both throughout the United States and internationally.​
​