Alumni Gazette
Richard Kovar ’76 is National Family Physician of the Year
The American Academy of Family Physicians has named Richard Kovar ’76 the Family Physician of the Year. The award, national in scope, is given out annually to just one physician. Kovar, a practicing family physician and medical director of the nonprofit Country Doctor Community Health Centers in Seattle, serves predominantly urban, low-income, uninsured patients. His medical interests range from pediatrics and adolescent medicine to geriatrics, treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS, and mental health and crosscultural health care.
Sports Journalist Ron Thomas ’71 Earns Lifetime Achievement Award
Ron Thomas ’71 has received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Sports Journalism. The award, given out by the Northeastern University School of Journalism and its educational and consulting center, Sport in Society, recognizes journalists who examine sports in social and cultural context. In addition to reporting for the San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, Chicago Daily News, BlackAmericaWeb.com, and other outlets, Thomas is the author of They Cleared the Lane: The NBA’s Black Pioneers (University of Nebraska, 2002) and was a researcher for the HBO documentary Fields of Fire: Sports in the ’60s (1995).
Civil Engineer Priscilla Nelson ’70 Honored for Research
Priscilla Nelson ’70, a professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, has received the 2011 Henry L. Michel Award for Industry Advancement of Research from the American Society of Civil Engineers. Nelson, a leader in the design and construction industry, specializes in geological engineering and its application to underground construction. She served as provost at the institute from 2005 to 2008, and previously spent 11 years at the National Science Foundation where she served as senior adviser to the director, and in various other leadership roles.
