9/1/2009

Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s Foundation Announces Doctors’ Ball Honorees

14th Annual Event Planned for October 17

Louisville, KY—The Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s Foundation is pleased to announce the 2009 Doctors’ Ball honorees.  For 14 years, the Doctors’ Ball has recognized the accomplishments of physicians, nurses and community leaders who have made a difference through excellence in leadership, innovation and service.  The Doctors’ Ball is one of the largest black-tie events in the city. 

This year’s categories and recipients are:

Ephraim McDowell Physician of the Year: Charles C. Smith, Jr., M.D.
Dr. Smith, age 79, is an internist who retired in 2001 after 40 years in practice.  His encyclopedic knowledge, diagnostic skills and compassion made him “doctor to the doctors” for many years.  A 40-year clinical professor of medicine at the University of Louisville, Dr. Smith helped train two generations of physicians. Eight years after retiring, Smith continues to serve the community by making laundry runs for Hospital Hospitality House, editing the Greater Louisville Medical Society’s “Vital Signs” publication, serving on the Board of the Family Health Centers, developing a St. Catharine College health sciences satellite at the U.S. Marine Hospital in Portland and supporting Red Bird Mission’s health and wellness outreach in eastern Kentucky.

Community Leader of the Year: Owsley Brown Frazier
The 74-year-old philanthropist and founder of the Frazier International History Museum has gifted some $500 million to charity over his lifetime – the result, he says, of the example set by his mother, Amelia Brown Frazier.  After her spine was broken in a car accident and she had to travel to New York for therapy, she founded the Amelia Brown Frazier Rehabilitation Center – now the Frazier Rehab Institute – in 1951. Mr. Frazier has helped raise funds for Bellarmine College; Cardinal Park at the University of Louisville, where he received both his undergraduate and law degrees and currently serves on the Board of Trustees; and Frazier Rehab Institute to expand their medical center facility.

Compassionate Physician Award: Neurosurgeon Timir Banerjee, M.D. 
Since retiring from surgical practice in 1997, Dr. Banerjee, an India native, has been on a mission to make the world a better place. For the past 11 years, he’s spent six to eight weeks working as a volunteer with the Medical Benevolence Foundation and Congress of Neurosurgeons in locales such as Miraj, India; Nepal; Brazil; Peru; Honduras and Zimbabwe, Ethiopia. Locally, he’s worked to stop schoolyard bullying – a factor in the 1997 Heath High School shootings – by founding the Society for the Prevention of Aggressiveness and Violence Among Adolescents (SPAVA). The program teaches school-aged children to control anger, manage conflict, diffuse stressful situations and channel their aggressiveness into positive outlets.

Excellence in Education Award: Mary G. Barry, M.D.
Dr. Barry has been editor of Louisville Medicine since February 2001.  In 2007, she was named a “Top Doc” by Louisville Magazine. Barry has maintained a busy practice and served as an associate clinical professor of general internal medicine for the University of Louisville School of Medicine for 22 years. She is a six-time winner of the Stuart Graves, Jr., M.D. Clinical Faculty Teaching Award.

Excellence in Community Service Award: David R. Watkins, M.D.
Dr. Watkins, a psychiatrist, is a former pro baseball player who earned his undergraduate degree during the off-season.  He was a faculty member of the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation residency program at Frazier for 27 years and served as the facility’s medical director from 1985 until his retirement in 2007.   For 20 years, Watkins co-chaired the March of Dimes Snowball Softball Tournament and also taught area baseball coaches about fitness and first aid by request. In 2007, the self-proclaimed “inveterate educator” started “Vital Signs,” the Greater Louisville Medical society’s patient newsletter.

Excellence in Nursing award: Joanne Berryman, RN, MSN, FACHE
Ms. Berryman, a senior vice president for Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s HealthCare, has a myriad of accomplishments during her 40 years at the organization, including: opening the area’s first hospital-owned freestanding outpatient surgery center; the Frazier Rehab Institute’s financial turnaround; and successfully lobbying for $10 million for hand transplants. Berryman’s newest challenge: serving as Dean of Spalding University’s School of Nursing, Health and Natural Sciences, a position she will fill full-time in August 2010.

The 2009 Doctors’ Ball will take place on October 17 at the Louisville Marriott Downtown.  Individual tickets are $250.  Tables of eight are $2,000.  A dance only ticket is available for $50.  Dance only ticket holders arrive at 9 p.m. and can enjoy cocktails, appetizers and live musical entertainment.  For tickets or more information, call (502) 587-4596, or click here.

About the Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s Foundation:
Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s HealthCare is vital to the health of Kentuckiana. The organization’s 8,100 health care “heroes” touch the lives of more than one million patients and provide charity care and community benefits in excess of $52 million each year. The organization funds lifesaving research and high-tech medical care, often pioneering services that are state and national firsts. JHSMH cares for people in their own neighborhoods through its community hospitals, outpatient centers, mobile occupational health clinics, and physician offices. In turn, individuals, corporations and charitable foundations have stepped forward to sustain this medical mission through gifts to the Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s Foundation.  This support bridges the gap between the available resources and what is needed to achieve excellence in meeting patients’ needs. The Foundation focuses on these core areas: enhancing patient care, educating health caregivers, funding leading edge medical research, and improving access to quality health care.

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