Alumni Awards

The Tufts University Alumni Association began the Tufts University Alumni Awards Program in 1941 to honor accomplished individuals for their service to their profession, their communities, and to Tufts.

2025 Tufts University School of Medicine Award Recipients

The following are the Tufts University School of Medicine award winners:

Distinguished Achievement Award - Michael Atkins, A76, M80, A16P

Michael Atkins, A76, M80, A16P, graduated from Tufts University with a degree in Chemistry in 1976 and Tufts Medical School in 1980. He then did an Internal Medical Residency, Chief Residency, Hematology-Oncology Fellowship followed by ten years on staff at Tufts-New England Medical Center.  At T-NEMC he performed research as leader of the national Cytokine Working Group involving interleukin-2, the first immunotherapy, that led to its FDA approval for the treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma or kidney cancer. He moved to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in 1997 where he was appointed Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and served as Deputy Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology and leader of the Biologic Therapy and Cutaneous Oncology Programs, Co-PI of the Harvard Skin Cancer Specialized Program for Oncology Research Excellence (SPORE), founding leader of the DF/HCC Kidney Cancer Program and Director of the DF/HCC Kidney Cancer SPORE. 

In 2012, he moved to Georgetown University where he is Deputy Director of the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and William M. Scholl Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Oncology. His current research focuses on immunotherapy for melanoma and kidney cancer and development of biomarkers for treatment response and toxicity. This work has contributed to the approval over 30 treatments for melanoma and kidney cancer and laid the groundwork for the application of these treatments to many other cancers.  He has published over 600 peer-reviewed articles (H-Index 135) which have been cited over 117,000 times and 5 books and has lectured extensively on these topics. He is past president of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), and past member of the NIH Recombinant DNA Advisory Council and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Nominating Committee. He currently serves on the Melanoma Research Foundation Board of Directors and co-chairs its Scientific Advisory Council. 

He is a 2021 recipient of the OncLive Giant in Cancer Care Award for Melanoma and in 2022 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Immunotherapy from SITC. He was inducted into SITC’s 2023 Class of Fellows of the Academy of Immuno-Oncology (FAIO) and in 2024 became a Fellow of ASCO (FASCO).  He was an active member of TUAA for 25 years including over 15 years on the TUAA Awards Committee. He is married to Susan Crockin, JD, A76, a pioneer in the field of Assisted Reproductive Technology Law and an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law School. Together they have three children Benjamin, Melea and Jonathan, A16.

Distinguished Achievement Award – Johnathan Epstein, V02, MG02

A double Jumbo, Jonathan Epstein, V02, MG02, received his DVM from the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and MPH from Tufts Medical School in 2002. He is an epidemiologist and the Founder of One Health Science, a scientific research and policy consultancy. 

Dr. Epstein is recognized as a global leader in the fields of viral ecology and One Health, having extensively studied zoonotic viruses associated with bats such as Nipah virus, Ebola, and zoonotic coronaviruses, as well as the drivers of spillover from their wildlife reservoirs into domestic animals and people. In 2003, Dr. Epstein was part of an international team of scientists that discovered bats were the natural reservoir for SARS CoV. His work over the next two decades helped characterize the diversity of SARS-related coronaviruses in bats and show that they continue to have the potential to emerge and cause pandemics. Dr. Epstein has supported several government-led outbreak investigations including Nipah virus in Bangladesh, MERS-CoV in Saudi Arabia and Marburg virus in Ghana, and he continues to work with government health and wildlife agencies in the US and abroad, as well as intergovernmental institutions such as WHO, WOAH, FAO, Africa CDC and IUCN to support outbreak response and the development of zoonotic disease surveillance systems. 

In addition to research, Dr. Epstein is passionate about science education and communication. He is a member of the Board of Advisors at the Cummings School, where he is also an adjunct professor in Infectious Disease and Global Health. Through academic appointments at Tufts, Harvard University and Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health, he lectures in global health courses and mentors graduate and undergrad students. His research has been published in leading scientific journals such as Science, Nature, PNAS, and Cell and has been featured on 60 Minutes, CNN, the PBS documentary Spillover, in The New York Times and other news media. He was the Chief Scientific Advisor for the exhibit Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World, which opened at the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of Natural History in 2017. He currently co-hosts Thermometer, a YouTube talk show about current infectious disease outbreaks and public health policy, and chairs the STEM committee for his daughters’ school district in Westchester, NY.

Distinguished Service Award - Kalahn Taylor-Clark, J99, MG01

Kalahn Taylor-Clark, J99, MG01, recently joined Merck as Vice President, & Head of Social Impact and Sustainability. She oversees the ESG/sustainability, global impact investment and giving, and mission aligned corporate initiative portfolios for the company. Her scope includes oversight of the Merck Foundation, Merck for Mothers, the Mectizan Donation Program, employee giving, the U.S. Patient Assistance Program and the Merck Impact Venture Fund. Dr. Taylor-Clark is also an adjunct faculty member at the Carey Business School at The Johns Hopkins University where she teaches Healthcare Organizational Leadership and Inclusive Leadership. 

Previously, she served as Vice President and Head of Strategic Partnerships and Innovation at Myovant Sciences, where she oversaw patient centered advocacy and digital innovation. Her team was responsible for driving transformative advocacy in the areas of women’s health and prostate cancer, addressing health equity, and advancing digital innovation strategies to improve patient experiences and outcomes.

From 2015-2021, Dr. Taylor-Clark served as Associate Vice President of the US Cardiometabolic Public Affairs and Patient Advocacy team at Sanofi. In 2020 she was promoted to Vice President and Global Head of Patient Centered Outcomes and Innovation at Sanofi. In this role she was instrumental in developing the Patient Informed Development & Health Value Translation department that expanded the team FTEs seven-fold and increased the budget ten-fold. Sanofi is now the only large pharmaceutical company with 100% of late-stage pre-clinical research and development staged programs, indications and clinical trials informed by patients. Dr. Taylor-Clark also served as a Senior Advisor to the Center for Health Policy, Research and Ethics and Assistant Professor in Health Administration and Policy at George Mason University, where she provided strategic guidance on the development and evaluation of patient and consumer engagement activities for a range of stakeholders, including: private and public payers, hospital and integrated health systems, business groups, and policy leaders. Her work at GMU led to the development of Accountable Health Communities (AHC) in Vermont, which served as an exemplar for Medicaid’s $157 million expansion of Section 1115 waivers for non-medical care services in 2015. 

She also served as the Director of Health Policy at the National Partnership for Women and Families, where her primary responsibilities were in providing strategic direction on a range of activities related to delivery system and payment reform, including: quality measurement, reduction of health disparities, patient and consumer engagement in patient-centered care delivery and the effective use of health information technology (HIT) to improve patient-reported outcomes measurement. From 2007-2011, Dr. Taylor-Clark led the Patient-Centeredness and Health Equity Portfolios in the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C.

She holds a BA in International Relations from Tufts University, an MPH from Tufts School of Medicine, and a PhD in Health Policy from Harvard University. She serves as a Member of the Board of Trustees for Tufts University. From 2007-2022 she served as President of the Board of Directors at Prevention Institute in Oakland, CA. She has one son, Dashiell (aged 12), and 2 fur babies (Peter and Baby) and lives in Arlington, VA.

Lifetime Service Award - Gerard Gaughan, M71

Gerard Gaughan, M71, is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at TUSM. Following graduation from the medical school in 1971, Dr. Gaughan served his residency with the Tufts Medicine Service at Boston City Hospital. From 1973 to 1975 he was an Air Force flight surgeon at Shaw AFB in South Carolina. He was a cardiology fellow at George Washington University Hospital and Peter Bent Brigham Hospital from 1975 to 1978.

Dr. Gaughan was a clinician and teacher at Carney Hospital in Dorchester. He was instrumental in developing an affiliation between TUSM and Carney. At Carney he oversaw a cardiology elective for 4th year TUSM students and the medicine clerkships for 3rd and 4th year students. He was an attending for coronary care residents and the cardiology consultation service.

Dr. Gaughan served and chaired the TUSM Student Evaluation and Promotions Committee for 15 years. He was a member of the Admissions Committee from 2008 to 2024. Dr. Gaughan has served as a student advisor and coach for many years.

Gaughan's late wife Jane had strong ties to the University of Massachusetts Boston, and she encouraged him to create a collaboration between TUSM and UMB. Each year since 2012, 25 UMB pre-med students have participated in a 3-week winter enrichment program at TUSM. The program provides a diverse and deserving group of students an opportunity to experience the medical school atmosphere and to strengthen their medical and graduate school applications. Many excellent students from the program have attended TUSM. Dr. Gaughan is a member of the Chancellor’s advisory panel at UMB.

Dr. Gaughan endowed the Dr. Jane Murphy Gaughan Professorship in memory of his wife. 

Tufts University School of Medicine Award Recipients Since 1941

The following are Tufts University School of Medicine alumni who have been recognized for their achievements since the Tufts University Alumni Awards Program began in 1941: