(Republished from the UNC Health Care and UNC School of Medicine Newsroom.) The Edward Kidder Graham Faculty Service Award recognizes distinguished service to the state, the nation, and the university by a faculty member. This year, the award was presented to Giselle Corbie-Smith, MD, MSc, as part of the University Day ceremony on October 12 in Memorial Hall. Corbie-Smith is the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Social Medicine and professor of medicine in the department of medicine’s division of general medicine.
A nationally recognized expert on the inclusion of disparity populations in research, Corbie-Smith is the founder and director of the UNC Center for Health Equity Research, which works to improve health in North Carolina through a shared commitment to innovation, collaboration and equity. She is an extraordinary scholar with an impressive record of publications, grants, and invited talks. She recently served as president of the Society of General Internal Medicine and was honored with its Herbert W. Nickens Award for her outstanding contributions to health-care equity. In 2018 she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.
Corbie-Smith has shown a deep commitment to working in North Carolina by bringing research to communities, involving community members as partners in research, and improving health of minority populations and underserved areas. As a nominator remarked, her work “represents what is best about community-engaged scholarship and service at UNC.” It epitomizes President Edward Kidder Graham’s call to make the campus coextensive with the boundaries.