2021 AJC Atlanta National Human Relations Award

Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice
Valerie Montgomery Rice, MD, FACOG, as president and CEO of Morehouse School of Medicine, is the sixth president of Morehouse School of Medicine, and the first woman to lead the freestanding medical institution. A renowned infertility specialist and researcher, she provides a valuable combination of experience at the highest levels of patient care and medical research, as well as organizational management and public health policy. Marrying her transformational leadership acumen and strategic thinking to tackle challenging management issues, she has a track record of redesigning complex organizations’ infrastructures to reflect the needs of evolving strategic environments and position the organization for success through sustainability tactics.  

Prior to joining Morehouse School of Medicine, Montgomery Rice held faculty positions and leadership roles at various health centers, including academic health centers.  Most notably, she was the founding director of the Center for Women’s Health Research at Meharry Medical College, one of the nation’s first research centers devoted to studying diseases that disproportionately impact women of color.   

Dr. Jonathan S. Lewin 

Jonathan Lewin, MD, is currently the Executive Vice President for Health Affairs, Emory University; Executive Director, Woodruff Health Sciences Center; and CEO and Chairman of the Board, Emory Healthcare. He also serves as Professor of Radiology and Imaging Sciences and Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the Emory School of Medicine and Professor of Health Policy and Management in the Rollins School of Public Health. Lewin is a national leader in academic medicine strategy and integrated health care delivery and an international scientific leader in interventional and intraoperative MRI.

Prior to his Emory appointment, Dr. Lewin served as the Martin Donner Professor and Chairman of the Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science at Johns Hopkins University and the Radiologist-in-Chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital from 2004 until 2016, with secondary appointments as Professor of Oncology, Neurosurgery, and Biomedical Engineering. From 2012-2016 he also served as Co-Chair for Strategic Planning and from 2013-2016 as Senior Vice President for Integrated Healthcare Delivery for Johns Hopkins Medicine. Before joining the faculty of Johns Hopkins, Dr. Lewin was the Director of the Division of Magnetic Resonance Imaging at University Hospitals of Cleveland and Professor and Vice Chairman for Research and Academic Affairs in the Department of Radiology at Case Western Reserve University.