The University of Chicago Medical & Biological Sciences Alumni Association (UChicago MBSAA) honors the contributions of alumni of the Biological Sciences Division and the Pritzker School of Medicine with its Alumni Awards.
The Distinguished Alumni Award recognizes the contributions alumni make to the fields of medicine and science. The Alumni Service Award recognizes contributions alumni make through philanthropy and volunteer service to the University of Chicago. Both awards include a category to recognize early achievements in career and service by alumni who have graduated within the past 15 years.
The 2025 recipients of the Distinguished Alumni Award and Alumni Service Award will receive their awards at the UChicago MBSAA Awards Luncheon on May 3 during Alumni Weekend.
DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD RECIPIENTS:
Irene Aguilar, MD’85
Former Senator
Colorado General Assembly
Senator Aguilar was born and raised in Chicago, attended Chicago Public Schools, and was the first in her family to receive a bachelor’s degree. She attended Washington University in St. Louis on a scholarship and received her medical degree from the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago.
In 1985, she moved to Denver for her residency training in internal medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Dr. Aguilar worked for twenty-three years as a primary care physician for Denver Health Medical Center and Hospital and served on its board of directors for twelve years. As the parent of a daughter with developmental disabilities, she was drawn to public service and appointed to the Colorado Developmental Disabilities Council and the Colorado Blue Ribbon Commission for Healthcare Reform’s Vulnerable Populations Task Force.
In November 2010, Dr. Aguilar ran for public office to advance the cause of universal healthcare and represented Denver’s Senate District 32 in the Colorado General Assembly until December 2018. During her tenure, she served on the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services, the Judiciary and State Affairs Committees, and the Health Benefit Exchange Review Committee. Senator Aguilar continued her work in public policy for the City of Denver as the Neighborhood Equity and Stabilization Program Director until her retirement in March 2021. She now enjoys traveling and spending time with her first grandson.
Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, MD’04, MPH
Immediate Past President
American Medical Association
Dr. Ehrenfeld was inaugurated as president of the American Medical Association (AMA) in June 2023. He is a senior associate dean, tenured professor of anesthesiology, and director of the Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Elected to the AMA Board of Trustees in 2014, he has played a key role in shaping national health policy.
Dr. Ehrenfeld divides his time between clinical practice, teaching, research, and directing a $560 million statewide health philanthropy. He also holds adjunct appointments in anesthesiology and health policy at Vanderbilt University and in surgery at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. A consultant to the World Health Organization’s Digital Health Technical Advisory Group, he previously co-chaired the Navy Surgeon General’s Taskforce on Personalized and Digital Medicine and served as a special advisor to the 20th U.S. Surgeon General.
His research focuses on how information technology can improve surgical safety and patient outcomes. His work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation, and the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research. He currently serves on the National Academy of Medicine’s Health Policy Fellowships and Leadership Programs Advisory Committee.
Dr. Ehrenfeld has published more than 275 peer-reviewed manuscripts and co-authored 22 clinical textbooks, which have been translated into multiple languages. He is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Medical Systems and has received numerous awards for research and teaching. Upon his inauguration, Dr. Ehrenfeld made AMA history as its first openly gay president. A nationally recognized advocate for LGBTQ+ rights for more than two decades, he received the inaugural Sexual and Gender Minority Research Investigator Award from the NIH in 2018 for his contributions to LGBTQ+ health research.
A combat veteran who deployed to Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom and Resolute Support Mission, he was recognized in 2015 with a White House News Photographers Association award and in 2016 with an Emmy nomination for his work capturing and supporting the lives of LGBTQ+ people. Dr. Ehrenfeld and his husband, Judd Taback, have two children.
Mark A. Krasnow, PhD’83, MD’85
Professor and Investigator
Stanford University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Mark Krasnow, MD, PhD, is the Paul and Mildred Berg Professor, executive director of the Wall Center for Pulmonary Vascular Disease, and past chair of the Department of Biochemistry at Stanford University, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator. He earned his BS in biology and chemistry from the University of Illinois (1978), and both his PhD in biochemistry with Nicholas Cozzarelli (1983) and his MD (1985) from the University of Chicago.
He did postdoctoral work on the Ultrabithorax developmental control gene with David Hogness at Stanford University, and has been a Stanford professor since 1988 and HHMI Investigator since 1997. He and his lab pioneered single cell genetic and genomic approaches, including single cell RNA sequencing, to elucidate organ development and stem cell programs, focusing on the respiratory system.
His lab started with Drosophila, where they defined the genes and molecular programs controlling each of the fundamental steps in organogenesis. His lab developed similar approaches for mouse lung and used them to define a single cell resolution of the progenitors, stem cells, and their niches for many lung cell types. They created a molecular cell atlas of the human lung, identifying 58 molecular cell types, 14 of which are new, including specialized cells and stem cells on each side (air and blood) of the alveolar gas exchange surface. The lab is using this comprehensive atlas to map the targeted cell types and how they are transformed in major lung diseases, including lung cancer, COPD/emphysema, pulmonary fibrosis, pulmonary hypertension, and respiratory infections such as COVID-19. They have also led establishment of a new genetic model organism, the mouse lemur, to study primate physiology, behavior, disease, and ecology.
Dr. Krasnow is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
W. Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, MMHC
Former Director
National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health
Dr. Rathmell was sworn in as the 17th director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in December 2023. She previously served as physician-in-chief and chair of the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
A leader in cancer research, Dr. Rathmell is a recipient of the 2025 American Cancer Society Medal of Honor, the 2025 American Society for Clinical Investigation Stanley J. Korsmeyer Award, and the Paragon Award for Research Excellence from the Doris Duke Foundation. She played a key role in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) kidney cancer projects and was a TCGA analysis working group member across multiple cancer types, earning the 2020 American Association for Cancer Research Team Science Award. She has also served on the NCI Board of Scientific Advisors and the Forbeck Foundation Scientific Advisory Board.
Dr. Rathmell has held leadership positions with the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Society for Clinical Investigation, serving as secretary–treasurer and president. In recognition of her contributions, she has been elected to the Association of American Physicians, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Medicine.
Her research and clinical expertise focus on the diagnosis and treatment of complex and hereditary kidney cancers, as well as the genetic, molecular, and cellular drivers of the disease. Her work has led to more than 250 publications in leading peer-reviewed journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Dr. Rathmell earned undergraduate degrees in biology and chemistry from the University of Northern Iowa, a PhD in biophysics and an MD from Stanford University. She completed an internal medicine internship at the University of Chicago, followed by an internal medicine residency, medical oncology fellowship, and postdoctoral studies at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2022, she received a Master of Management in Health Care from Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management.
Distinguished Alumni Award for Early Achievement Recipient:
Abigail S. Cutler, MD’13, MPH
Assistant Professor Academic Specialists in Obstetrics and Gynecology
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Dr. Cutler specializes in obstetrics and benign gynecology with a focus on family planning and contraception. Board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology and the subspecialty of complex family planning, she is an expert in complex contraception, abortion care, and early pregnancy management.
As director of the University of Wisconsin’s Ryan Residency Training Program and an associate program director of the residency, Dr. Cutler works closely with residents to ensure they receive comprehensive, evidence-based education in complex family planning. She has led initiatives to enhance resident training, including developing out-of-state abortion training for her residents.
Dr. Cutler’s research focuses on reproductive health equity, abortion stigma, and decision-making. A large grant from the Society of Family Planning funded her clinical trial on the impact of first-person abortion storytelling on public attitudes. Her current research examines how the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision has affected pregnancy care providers in Wisconsin. Her work has been published in Contraception, Women’s Health Issues, and the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
A former journalist, Dr. Cutler is committed to using media to highlight the effects of abortion stigma and legislation on medical education and reproductive health. Her expertise has been featured by NBC News, The New York Times, NPR, and The New England Journal of Medicine. In 2023, she received the UW School of Medicine and Public Health Group on Women in Medicine and Science Impact Award for advancing reproductive health equity.
Dr. Cutler earned a bachelor’s degree in comparative literature and East Asian studies from Brown University, a medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, and a master’s in public health from Yale. She completed her OBGYN residency and fellowship in complex family planning at Yale. She and her husband, Alex Chiu, MD’14, live in Madison, Wisconsin, with their three children.
Alumni Service Award Recipient:
Douglass B. Given, PhD’79, MD’80
Managing Partner
Health2047 Capital Partners LLC
Dr. Given is a founder and chairman of Vivaldi Biosciences, Inc., which develops genetically modified intranasal vaccines for epidemic and pandemic viral respiratory diseases. Vivaldi’s lead vaccine in clinical development, DeltaFLU, is a universal influenza vaccine administered as a nasal spray. Clinical trials of DeltaFLU are supported by grants from the European Union and the National Institutes of Health, with two studies set to begin in 2025.
He is also a founder of Health2047 Capital Partners, a healthcare venture capital firm, where he has served as managing partner since 2018. Previously, he co-founded Health2047 Inc. in partnership with the American Medical Association and served as its chief executive from 2015 to 2018. Before that, Dr. Given spent more than two decades in venture capital as a general partner at Bay City Capital, investing in life sciences funds from 1999 to 2015. He also held corporate and operating leadership roles at Lilly, Monsanto, Schering-Plough and Mallinckrodt, and has led three public biopharmaceutical companies as CEO.
Dr. Given has served on more than 20 public and private company boards. He is currently chairman of Visirna Inc. (Shanghai) and Vivaldi AG (Vienna) and serves as a director of Health2047 Inc. and BrYet Health Ltd. He is also managing partner at the G5 Partners LLC family office. From 2010 to 2024, he served as chairman of Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Inc.
He remains actively involved in academic advisory roles, serving on the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and Biological Sciences Division Council (former chair) and the Health Advisory Board of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He has also contributed to advisory boards for Harvard’s HIV/AIDS Initiative and International Council, Stanford Medicine, the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, the Houston Methodist Research Institute, the Queensland Investment Corporation, and InnoMed Ventures.
Dr. Given is a physician-scientist and earned his MD and PhD in virology from the University of Chicago and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He completed a clinical and research fellowship in internal medicine and infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital.
