Christina Bach, MBE, MSW, LCSW, OSW-C, FAOSW received the Association of Oncology Social Work’s Quality of Life in Cancer Care Award, sponsored by the American Cancer Society. The prestigious award was established to highlight oncology social work’s commitment to improving the lives of people with cancer and those who care for them. The award is designed to honor individuals whose contributions through education, direct service, publications, and presentations, reflect a commitment to quality of life for cancer survivors. Bach is a clinical oncology social worker, bioethicist, and social work educator. She is the psychosocial oncology content editor at Oncolink.org. She also serves as an instructor and field liaison at the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice and as a Financial and Insurance Specialist for the Cancer Support Community Helpline. In addition, she works regularly with her two certified therapy dogs, Linus and Huck, in the department of Radiation Oncology as well as in literacy programs at local libraries. She serves on the Board of Directors and as a therapy dog evaluator for Comfort Caring Canines, Inc. Christina also has experience in Veterinary Social Work and does consulting and teaching on the human-animal bond, pet loss and animal assisted interventions, and therapy and animal ethics/welfare. As a recipient of this award, Christina presented a lecture at the 2020 AOSW Annual Meeting (held virtually) on August 8. She will receive her award at next year’s AOSW conference, held in Raleigh, North Carolina, from June 9-11, 2021.
Rebecca Hubbard, PhD, a professor of Biostatistics,has been appointed to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) Committee on Applied and Theoretical Statistics (CATS), which advises stakeholders in government, academia, industry, and nonprofit organizations about statistics and data science, and their many applications.
Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.
The Perelman School of Medicine is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $550 million awarded in the 2022 fiscal year. Home to a proud history of “firsts” in medicine, Penn Medicine teams have pioneered discoveries and innovations that have shaped modern medicine, including recent breakthroughs such as CAR T cell therapy for cancer and the mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System’s patient care facilities stretch from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to the New Jersey shore. These include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Chester County Hospital, Lancaster General Health, Penn Medicine Princeton Health, and Pennsylvania Hospital—the nation’s first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, Penn Medicine at Home, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.
Penn Medicine is an $11.1 billion enterprise powered by more than 49,000 talented faculty and staff.