11/20/2025
PITTSBURGH — The University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health is proud to announce the recipients of its 2025 Alumni Awards, honoring graduates whose achievements exemplify the school’s mission to advance health and well-being locally and globally.
“Our alumni are the embodiment of Pitt Public Health’s mission and values,” said Maureen Lichtveld, M.D., MPH, dean and Jonas Salk Professor of Population Health at Pitt Public Health. “They serve as shining examples for our current students—the emerging leaders of tomorrow—and demonstrate the profound impact public health leaders can have on the world.”
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Rachel Slayton, Ph.D., MPH, class of 2008, and Laura B. Vater, M.D., MPH, class of 2013, will each receive the Alumni Award for Practice. Slayton is recognized for her leadership as a commander in the U.S. Public Health Service and an epidemiologist and infectious diseases modeler at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, whose work has guided crucial efforts addressing health care–associated infections, multidrug-resistant organisms and infectious-disease outbreaks. Vater, an assistant professor of medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine and the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, is recognized for her contributions as a medical oncologist and co-director of the Young Onset Colorectal and Gastrointestinal Cancer Program, as well as her widely published writing and tireless advocacy for humanism in medicine and wellness for patients and clinicians.
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Akira Sekikawa, M.D., Ph.D., MPH, class of 1996, will receive the Alumni Award for Research for his studies illuminating cross-national differences in cardiovascular disease, particularly the paradoxically low rates of coronary disease in Japan despite comparable or higher risk factor exposure. Sekikawa, professor of epidemiology at Pitt Public Health, has mentored a generation of public health leaders.
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Ada Youk, Ph.D., class of 1996, will be recognized with the Alumni Award for Teaching and Dissemination. As an associate professor of biostatistics and health data science, associate dean of undergraduate academic affairs and director of the Bachelor of Science in Public Health program at Pitt Public Health, Youk is celebrated for her expertise in regression modeling, collaborative research on health disparities and dedication to teaching and mentoring students.
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Raj Kumar, Ph.D., class of 2018, and Tianzhou (Charles) Ma, Ph.D., class of 2018, will each receive the Early Career Excellence Award. Kumar, an assistant professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and researcher at the nexus of aging epidemiology and neuroepidemiology, studies factors that influence long-term outcomes after traumatic brain injury. Ma, an associate professor of biostatistics at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, is working to develop statistical and machine learning methods and software tools with applications in aging, neuroscience and cancer, and his work has contributed to understanding public health strategies for promoting brain health.
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Hui (Debra) Cen, ScD, class of 1991, will be presented with the Margaret F. Gloninger Service Award. A scientist, community leader and social entrepreneur, Cen is co-founder of SABiosciences, a pioneering biotech corporation, as well as WizChinese, a nonprofit supporting the Chinese immigrant community in Palo Alto, California. Cen currently serves as a Pitt trustee and member of the Pitt Public Health Board of Visitors.
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Diane Holder will receive the Impact Award. Her nearly 30-year career at the forefront of health care innovation has spanned such pivotal leadership roles as president and CEO of UPMC Health Plan, executive vice president of UPMC, president of UPMC Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, founding CEO of Community Care Behavioral Health and numerous policy-related committees. Holder now serves as chair of the Board of Visitors at Pitt Public Health.
