: Glendale Campus Names Winners of 2009 Littlejohn Awards

November 16, 2009

by Karen Mattox

GLENDALE, ARIZONA (October 2009)—At its annual fall recognition dinner, Midwestern University (MWU) recently announced the winners of the 2009 Littlejohn Awards. These awards were created in honor of three physician brothers, the Littlejohns, who in 1900 founded the American College of Osteopathic Medicine & Surgery, which became the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine (MWU’s founding college). Since 2000, three Littlejohn Awards have been presented annually by Kathleen H. Goeppinger, Ph.D., MWU President & CEO, to honor outstanding contributions of faculty, staff, and alumni to the community, the health professions, and the University. This year’s winners are alumnus Alan Schalscha, D.O., Clinical Assistant Professor, Family Medicine; faculty member Craig Johnston, Ph.D., Chair, Pharmaceutical Sciences; and staff member Daniel Tapia, Assistant Director, Information Technology Services.

Dr. Schalscha, a 2003 alumnus of MWU’s Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine, has been a faculty member and family medicine physician at the Midwestern University Clinic since 2007. He serves as the Medical Director for the HOME (Health Outreach through Medicine and Education) Project, the faculty advisor for the Business of Medicine Club, as a member of the Alumni Leadership Council, and as Chief Medical Officer for the DOCARE medical mission to Guatemala, a project he participated in as a medical student and now helps to lead.

In the three years since Dr. Johnston began his faculty appointment at MWU, publications from his department have quadrupled, due largely to his encouragement and mentoring of other faculty to engage in research, complete publications, and apply for grants. Besides his role as a faculty mentor, he is also a strong advocate for student involvement, and recently won a national award as the most outstanding student chapter advisor for the Kappa Psi pharmaceutical fraternity.

Mr. Tapia started his work with MWU In 2003, and has taken on additional campus initiatives each year, from creating standardized Copy Center policies to opening the first MWU Testing Center on the Glendale Campus. Recently, he also dedicated extra effort to helping to open a new lab for MWU’s Arizona College of Optometry.

Congratulations to this year’s award winners for their outstanding representation of MWU and the health care community.

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Midwestern University is a graduate degree-granting institution specializing in the health sciences with seven colleges and two campuses. The Illinois campus, located on a 105-acre site in Downers Grove, is home to 2,082 students and three colleges: the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine, the Chicago College of Pharmacy, and the College of Health Sciences. The Arizona campus, located on a 144-acre site in Glendale, is home to 2,079 students and five colleges: the Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine, the College of Pharmacy-Glendale, the College of Health Sciences, the College of Dental Medicine-Arizona, and the Arizona College of Optometry. The University is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission, a Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

More Information

For more information, please contact:
Karen Mattox
623-572-3310
kmatto@midwestern.edu