College of Medicine Alumni Society presents five annual awards recognizing excellence in both the teaching and practice of medicine
In recognition of significant contributions to the education mission of The Ohio State University College of Medicine, the practice of medicine and extraordinary levels of commitment to and service at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, the Ohio State College of Medicine Alumni Society presented five awards at a Sept. 19 celebration.
The prestigious annual awards for Alumni Achievement, Faculty Teaching, Early Career Achievement and Alumni Service and Community Practice were awarded to Jack Kopechek ’84 MD, ’87 Res, clinical professor of Pediatrics, Peggy Williams ’12 MD, clinical associate professor of Internal Medicine, and Nicholas Kman ’04 MD, clinical professor of Emergency Medicine, at the College of Medicine, for their outstanding achievements and honors their personal and professional accomplishments.
Gretchen Hollingsworth ’88 MD, president of the Medical Alumni Society, and Carol R. Bradford, MD, MS, FACS, dean of the Ohio State College of Medicine, welcomed everyone to the celebration before they shared a meal and presented the awards.
“These awardees demonstrate our collaborative spirit, our clear vision and our strong ability to continually evolve to meet ever-changing demands in medicine.” Dr. Bradford said. “Inclusive and innovative education, discovery and patient-centered care facilitate ownership so our teams can work together to transform the health of our communities.”
Honoring alumni making a difference
The Alumni Service Award is awarded to a physician or resident alum who’s displayed extraordinary levels of commitment and service to The Ohio State University, including the College of Medicine, Nationwide Children’s Hospital or the Ohio State Wexner University Medical Center.
The 2024 Alumni Service award was presented to Dr. Kopechek for his distinguished career providing innovative medical student education in his clinic and developing and providing ongoing coaching to learners at the college.
In 2012, Dr. Kopechek developed the college’s Personal and Professional Coaching Program that today, he continues to lead, innovate and improve.
“Dr. Kopechek recruits, educates and supports 100 faculty to provide ongoing coaching to approximately 800 medical students,” Dr. Bradford said. “In addition, he has proudly provided primary care for children and adolescents for 36 years.”
Created in 2009, the Early Career Achievement Award goes to a physician or resident alum who’s has made significant career contributions in the community or college service, scientific or academic achievement, within 10 years post medical education. The 2024 award was presented to Dr. Peggy Williams.
After her residency at the University of Michigan in 2015, Dr. Williams went on to complete a global health fellowship in Botswana and Boston through the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. In 2016, she joined the Ohio State Division of Hospital Medicine and was struck by the number of patients with acute illnesses related to substance use disorders.
Dr. Williams and a group of her colleagues started a voluntary team of providers that treats hospitalized patients suffering from opioid use disorder. Dr. Hollingsworth credits this effort leading to the group becoming a formal consult team in 2019.
“Today, social workers, advanced practice providers, peer recovery supporters and about 30 rotating hospitalists with additional addiction medicine training are part of the team,” Dr. Hollingsworth said. “For Dr. Williams, the reward for this hard work is meeting patients and collaborating with them, their families and the hospital staff.”
Created in 1959, the Faculty Teaching Award recognizes current College of Medicine faculty members who’s made a significant contribution to the educational mission of the university and the college. Recipients can be either alumni or non-alumni.
The 2024 award was presented to Nicholas E. Kman nationally recognized for his innovations in medical education. At the college, he served as the Med 4 academic program director from 2015 to 2024. Dr. Kman’s clinical interest is in disaster response and emergency preparedness. This led him to create and now instruct an elective course in disaster medicine for senior medical students, and he’ is also a frequent instructor of the American College of Surgeons’ Stop the Bleed program.
Dr. Kman serves as one of the medical managers for Ohio Task Force 1, Ohio’s FEMA Urban Search and Rescue team, and has deployed to numerous emergencies, including hurricanes Harvey (2017), Dorian (2019), Laura (2020), Ida (2021) and Ian (2022).
“Dr. Kman recently received a grant to teach mass casualty triage to first responders in virtual reality,” Dr. Bradford said. “And he is now working on a mass casualty triage project for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s in the Moment program.”
Year after year, the Alumni Awards Committee devotes their time and service to select the outstanding award recipients. At the college, these alumni are recognized for making a difference through their service, education and professional accomplishments in the community.
