Kahn Named Schmidlapp Scholar
Jessica Kahn, MD, MPH, has been selected to receive the Fifth Third Bank/Charlotte R. Schmidlapp Women Scholars award. The goal of the award is to support the academic career development of junior women faculty who have demonstrated academic potential and leadership skills.
With the award, Dr. Kahn plans to expand her research into the impact of the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine on adolescent girls and young adult women. "This funding will help me focus on improving the health of adolescents through prevention of HPV infection and HPV-related disease," says Dr. Kahn. HPV is a sexually transmitted virus and the major cause of cervical cancer in women.
Another of Dr. Kahn's goals is to play a larger role in promoting fellow and faculty career development. As director of research training in adolescent medicine, she has mentored medical students, fellows and young faculty and recently conducted a study of educators in U.S. and Canadian medical schools to assess their success in establishing women's health electives.
Jessica Kahn, MD, MPH
Dr. Kahn earned her MD at Harvard Medical School in 1992 and her master's of public health at the Harvard School of Public Health in 1999. She was a pediatric resident and chief resident at Children's Hospital, Boston, where she also completed fellowship training in adolescent medicine. She joined the Cincinnati Children's faculty in 1999. In 2005 she was nominated for the Dorine Seaquist Award recognizing outstanding women of Cincinnati Children's.
Dr. Kahn has an excellent track record as a clinician, mentor, educator and clinical investigator, according to Lorah Dorn, PhD, chair of the Schmidlapp Scholars Award committee and director of research in the division of adolescent medicine. "She is conducting innovative research that is timely in that the HPV vaccine has just been approved and recommended for youth," says Dr. Dorn. "Studying the impact of this vaccine on virology has significant importance for public health."
