May 8, 2015

OHSU School of Medicine students and a preceptor in the Department of Family Medicine were presented with awards at the Oregon Academy of Family Physicians Celebration Luncheon on April 18 at the Skamania Lodge in Stevenson, Wash.

Benjamin Holland, MS4, was the recipient of the Robert B. Taylor, M.D., Award. The award honors Robert B. Taylor, M.D., professor emeritus and former department chair, and is presented to a student in each graduating class who best exemplifies the qualities of the ideal family physician. Students are selected based on scholarship, leadership and dedication to Family Medicine as a specialty over the course of their four years at OHSU.

Ben was raised in John Day, and "grew up" in the culture of Family Medicine. His father, Dr. Bob Holland, was a family physician in John Day – and so from an early age, Ben watched and learned about what it meant to be a rural physician who is also an integral part of the community. He was also a Rural Scholar and chair of both the family medicine and rural medicine interest groups. He was a volunteer at the Southwest Community Health Center as well as a volunteer for the Tar Wars Program and the Ready, Set, Fit Program. He will be doing his residency in Boise, Idaho.

Joe Volpi, MS4, was the winner of the Mary Gonzales Lundy Award. The award, established in 2000 to honor the retirement of Mary Gonzales Lundy who served as the OAFP executive director for 21 years, is presented to graduating seniors entering a family medicine residency.

Joe served as a nuclear engineer in the U.S. Navy for six years before graduating from the University of Oregon. While attending OHSU, he was a Rural Scholar and chair of both the family medicine and rural medicine interest groups. He coordinated OHSU's Healthcare Equity Week and has been a medical volunteer for several community and hospital-based organizations. He will be joining the Cascades East Family Medicine Residency in Klamath Falls.

Jim Novak, M.D., adjunct associate professor of family medicine, OHSU School of Medicine, was presented with the Lewis and Ruth Carpenter Teaching Award for Teaching Excellence in an Outpatient Setting. Dr. Novak, of Klamath Falls, has been a member of Family Medicine's volunteer faculty since 1992. He has welcomed a number of OHSU Family Medicine Summer Observership medical students into his practice and his home, and he has been instrumental in developing the Cascades East Family Medicine Residency Program.

The award was presented by John Saultz, M.D., professor and chair of family medicine, OHSU School of Medicine and Joyce Hollander-Rodriguez, M.D. '00 R '03, program director of the Cascades East Family Medicine residency program.

"Jim Novak was a leader in the Klamath Falls family medicine community in the early 1990's when we were working to start the Cascades East residency," Dr. Saultz said. "He was among a small number of people whose support was essential for the residency to be built. He is past president of the OAFP and has been a continuous preceptor with residents and students for over 20 years."

Novak thanked those who selected him for the award.

"I feel deeply honored to receive this award and to join the group of respected colleagues who have previously been recipients," Dr. Novak said. "I have enjoyed teaching residents and medical students, and I feel I have learned more from them than they have learned from me."

Dr. Novak is a diplomat of the American Board of Family Medicine and a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). He has served as an Oregon Delegate to the AAFP Congress of Delegates.

Pictured:  Ben Holland and Joe Volpi (top).  Mark Novak, M.D., (son); Jim Novak, M.D.; Marilynn Novak, (wife); and Vince Novak (son).