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Barbara K. Rimer, DrPH, Dean and Alumni Distinguished Professor of the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, has been awarded the American Cancer Society (ACS) Medal of Honor for her “seminal cancer research efforts.”

Dr. Rimer, a member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, was one of three awarded the medal at the ACS’s Volunteer and Staff Summit on May 22.

The Society announced that Dr. Rimer was chosen for “her work in breast cancer screening, which has guided national research, practice and policy for more than 20 years. Her work has evolved with the field from raising awareness of screening and increasing screening initiation, to promoting screening maintenance.”

Dr. Rimer serves as chair of the President’s Cancer Panel, vice-chair of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Task Force on Community Preventive Services and is a member of the Institute of Medicine. She served as the founding director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences and chair of the NCI’s National Cancer Advisory Board.

The Medal of Honor is the ACS’s highest honor. Along with Dr. Rimer, the medal was awarded to Dr. Isaiah J. Fidler of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Dr. Kathleen M. Foley of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, NY.

Date: May 23, 2013