New York, December 2, 2019 | The Vilcek Foundation and the Arnold P. Gold Foundation are pleased to announce an open call for nominations for the 2020 Vilcek-Gold Award for Humanism in Healthcare.
The Vilcek-Gold Award recognizes an outstanding foreign-born healthcare professional for contributions to humanistic and community-centered healthcare in the United States. The award includes an unrestricted $10,000 cash prize and is presented at the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Learn Serve Lead annual meeting.
“With the Vilcek-Gold Award, we are proud to honor immigrants in healthcare who serve the American public with both their hearts and their minds,” said Jan Vilcek, chairman and CEO of the Vilcek Foundation. “One does not have to look far to find evidence of immigrant contributions to American society, and medicine is no exception.”
The award highlights the extraordinary outcomes that can be achieved when healthcare is enlightened by humanism, and combines the respective missions of the Vilcek Foundation and the Arnold P. Gold Foundation: honoring the contributions of immigrants in the arts and sciences, and supporting the importance of humanism and human connection in healthcare.
“This is the first humanism-in-healthcare-focused award for the Vilcek Foundation, and the first immigrant-focused award for the Gold Foundation,” said Richard I. Levin, president and CEO of the Arnold P. Gold Foundation.
Nominators may propose any foreign-born person based in the United States whose work in healthcare, medicine, or public health advocacy demonstrates a commitment to humanistic values. Nominators will be asked to describe the accomplishments of their nominee and submit their candidate’s curriculum vitae. To be eligible for the award, nominees must have been born outside of the United States and have proof of immigration or naturalized citizenship status (DACA recipients are eligible). Nominations for the 2020 award may be made from December 2, 2019, through 5pm EST on January 22, 2020. The nomination form and a description of full requirements are available at gold-foundation.org.
The recipient of the 2020 award will be selected by a panel of distinguished experts and announced in May 2020. The inaugural Vilcek-Gold Award was bestowed upon pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha in 2019 for alerting the authorities and the public to the water crisis in Flint, Michigan in 2015, and for her work on behalf of the children exposed to toxic levels of lead.
The Vilcek Foundation
The Vilcek Foundation was established in 2000 by Jan and Marica Vilcek, immigrants from the former Czechoslovakia. The mission of the foundation — to honor the contributions of immigrants to the United States and to foster appreciation of the arts and sciences — was inspired by the couple’s respective careers in biomedical science and art history, as well as their profound appreciation for the opportunities they received as newcomers to this country.
The Arnold P. Gold Foundation infuses the human connection into healthcare. The nonprofit organization engages schools, health systems, companies, and individual clinicians in the joy and meaning of humanistic healthcare, so that they have the strength and knowledge to ensure patients and families are partners in collaborative, compassionate, and scientifically excellent care.