Robert Suskind, MD (C'59, M'63) and Leslie Lewinter-Suskind Global Health Prizes
Background
In 2013, Penn alum Robert Suskind, MD (C’59, M’63) and his wife, Leslie Lewinter-Suskind, MSS, MFA, generously endowed an annual award recognizing the graduating medical student who demonstrates a commitment to addressing critical global health challenges in their medical career. To complement this prize, in 2021, Bob and Leslie endowed another prize for a PSOM faculty member who exemplifies their lifelong commitment to improving global health and access to care through training partnerships, research, or clinical work. (see below for Bob and Leslie’s bios)
2026 Faculty Prize
Nominations are now open for the Suskind-Lewinter Global Health Faculty Prize. The prize was created in 2021 by Penn alumnus Bob Suskind (C’59, M’63) and his wife Leslie Lewinter-Suskind . The Faculty Prize honors a PSOM faculty member who exemplifies a deep commitment to improving health equity worldwide.
Award criteria
Candidates should display evidence of:
- A long-term and profound commitment to global health through exceptional interdisciplinary activities including research, education and/or service
- Outstanding leadership skills in their field resulting in significant, lasting benefits for global health outcomes particularly for lower-resourced populations
- Advocating for and/or implementing global health policies or programs that improve the health of people
- This year, special priority will be given to nominees who have exhibited exceptional leadership in building global research partnerships, developing skills-based programs and mentoring of both Penn and partner trainees in their pursuit of global health careers. The ideal candidate should also demonstrate a high-level of diplomacy as well as the ability to navigate complex challenges while working in different cultural, historical and political contexts.
Submission Process:
Please submit nominations by no later than Dec 19, 2025 to Megan Doherty at megand@pennmedicine.upenn.edu.
Nominations should include:
- a brief endorsement (under 250 words) of the candidate’s global health efforts and impact;
- a brief bio of the nominee (NIH or other formats are acceptable); and
- a Personal Statement from the nominee.
A celebration for this year’s recipients will be held in May with a virtual option.
About robert Suskind and Leslie Lewinter-suskind
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Robert Suskind, MD graduated from the University of Pennsylvania College/Wharton ('59) and Medical School ('63). After pediatric residency at Johns Hopkins, he became Field Director of MALAN, an NIH-funded project in Chiang Mai, Thailand, initiating his research on malnutrition's effect on the immune system and the optimal treatment of the malnourished child. His MIT-Boston Children's PhD program in clinical nutrition for pediatricians was pivotal in raising awareness of nutrition’s importance in clinical medicine. Dr. Suskind’s international experiences include Director of the ICDDRB in Bangladesh and advisor to the Patan Academy of Health Sciences in Kathmandu, Nepal. He has been a Chairman of Pediatrics for twenty years and Dean of three medical schools.
Leslie Lewinter-Suskind received her BS from Penn State, an MSS from Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research and an MFA from UNO. After Senegal, she directed an inner-city program under the OEO ("War on Poverty"), followed by a study determining the need for infant care centers in the barriadas of Lima, Peru for Johns Hopkins. As Director of Applied Nutrition at MALAN, she set up follow-up, etiology and intervention studies in childhood malnutrition in the villages surrounding Chiang Mai. At LSU, she directed the International Program for the Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics.
Past Faculty Prize Winners
Dr. Robert Gross is a global health leader whose research centers on improving HIV and hepatitis care and prevention across both high-resource and low-resource settings. His work focuses on understanding and strengthening adherence and retention in treatment, including developing the CDC-endorsed Managed Problem Solving intervention for HIV medication adherence. He has longstanding collaborations in Botswana, where he conducts HIV research and trains emerging investigators through an NIH Fogarty–funded program. As a key figure in the Penn CFAR community, he helped build foundational HIV research infrastructure and continues to support international clinical research capacity. His global health impact is reflected in his extensive publications, NIH-supported work, and leadership roles in international pharmacoepidemiology.
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Harsha Thirumurthy is an economist and Professor in the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy. His research interests are at the intersection of economics and public health. Dr. Thirumurthy has led numerous studies in Africa and South Asia. At Penn, Dr. Thirumurthy co-directs the Behavioral Economics and Global Health Insights Lab and holds several leadership roles. In 2020, he co-founded the Indlela nudge unit in South Africa. He earned a Ph.D. in economics from Yale University and previously served on the faculty at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.
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Dr. Keri Cohn is a global health physician whose career spans extensive work across West, East, and South Africa, Central America, the Caribbean, Europe, and Southeast Asia. After her pediatrics training, she served with Médecins Sans Frontières in northern Côte d’Ivoire and later deepened her expertise through advanced training in tropical medicine, global health, and public health. Her research includes award-winning work on tuberculosis among Haitian migrant children, and she has led major initiatives such as the Initiative to End Childhood Malnutrition in Rukungiri, Uganda. She also develops emergency care training programs in East Africa through the Global Emergency Care Collaborative. In addition to her international fieldwork, Dr. Cohn is dedicated to strengthening global health education for the next generation of medical professionals.
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Dr. Nahreen Ahmed is a global health–focused pulmonary and critical care physician whose work centers on building sustainable training programs for clinicians in low-resource and crisis settings. She launched her global health career by founding the Bangladesh Ultrasound Initiative, which has trained more than 150 critical care physicians in Dhaka and become a self-sustaining program. She has since expanded similar point-of-care ultrasound and critical care training initiatives across East Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Latin America, including work in conflict zones and refugee settings such as Yemen, Gaza, Syria, Sierra Leone, and the Rohingya and Venezuelan migrant crises. At Penn, Dr. Ahmed co-founded the Philadelphia Area Critical Care Ultrasound Program, uniting all seven major hospitals to train incoming fellows and strengthen regional capacity. Her leadership extends to board roles with global nonprofits and ongoing deployments—most recently supporting Ukrainian refugee care in Poland—reflecting her commitment to sustainable, needs-driven medical education worldwide.
Dr. Kassa Darge is a global health–driven pediatric radiologist whose career spans more than 25 years of work in infectious diseases, tropical medicine, and international medical education. His early global health contributions began as a WHO research fellow studying filarial diseases in West Africa, followed by work in tropical pediatrics addressing malnutrition and tuberculosis. After specializing in radiology, he turned his focus to expanding pediatric imaging expertise in low-resource settings. In 2008, he founded a pioneering partnership between CHOP and Addis Ababa University that strengthened Ethiopia’s radiology residency program and created the country’s first Pediatric Radiology Fellowship, a landmark achievement for a nation with a predominantly young population. Today, Dr. Darge continues to advance sustainable pediatric radiology training and global capacity building through his leadership in clinical care, research, and international education.
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