Boxboro resident recognized for excellence in public health
Contact: Richard P. Gulla
781-434-7101
rgulla@mms.org
Linda D. Sagor, M.D., M.P. H.
Waltham, Mass. – May 1 – Linda D. Sagor, M.D., M.P. H., director of the Division of General Pediatrics at UMass Memorial Health Care, has been honored by the Massachusetts Medical Society as the 2013 recipient of the Henry Ingersoll Bowditch Award for Excellence in Public Health.
Named after a leading figure in medicine and public health in the 19th century, the award is presented to a Massachusetts physician who demonstrates creativity, commendable citizenship, initiative, innovation and leadership in the public health and advocacy fields. She will receive the award, one of the Society’s most prestigious honors, at the organization’s Annual Public Health Forum to be held April 3 at the Society’s headquarters in Waltham.
A Boxboro resident, Dr. Sagor is being honored for her contributions to improving the public health of children through advocacy and education. In 2003, she established the FaCES Clinic (Foster Children Evaluation Services) to address the unmet needs of foster children in the Worcester area. As a result, all children in Central Massachusetts in the foster care system have a central site where the medical, dental, and psychological needs of the children may be coordinated and delivered. The FaCES model of care has been so successful that the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families has asked her to develop new programs to coordinate and improve health care for children in foster care across the state.
Board certified in pediatrics, Dr. Sagor received her undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania, her master’s in public health from the University of Michigan, and her medical degree from Michigan State University. In addition to her primary care duties, she is an executive board member of the UMass Center for the Advancement of Primary Care and Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Among many professional and civic activities, Dr. Sagor is a board member of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Council on Foster Care, Adoption, and Kinship Care; chair of the Committee on Foster Care of the Massachusetts AAP; and a board member of Community Legal Aid Central/Western Massachusetts.
Dr. Sagor is the recipient of a number of honors, including the University of Massachusetts President’s Public Service Award in 2009, Community Clinician of the Year of the Worcester District Medical Society in 2009, the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 2008, a Worcester Business Journal Health Care Hero in 2006, and Outstanding Primary Care Educator by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 1999. She has been voted one of The Best Doctors in America in the Northeast Region nine times by Woodward White, Inc.
The Massachusetts Medical Society, with nearly 24,000 physicians and student members, is dedicated to educating and advocating for the patients and physicians of Massachusetts. The Society publishes the New England Journal of Medicine, a leading global medical journal and web site, and Journal Watch alerts and newsletters covering 12 specialties. The Society is also a leader in continuing medical education for health care professionals throughout Massachusetts, conducting a variety of medical education programs for physicians and health care professionals. Founded in 1781, MMS is the oldest continuously operating medical society in the country. For more information please visit www.massmed.org, www.nejm.org, or www.jwatch.org.
