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International Awards Night Emory Honors . . .
Emory Honors International HIV/AIDS Expert Carlos del Rio By Alma Freeman

As professor of medicine and chief of the Emory medical service at Grady Hospital, Carlos del Rio has had a lot of proud moments, but Nov. 30, 2006, sticks in his mind as one of the most memorable. On stage at the National Theatre in the Republic of Georgia, before the opening of the ballet season, first lady Sandra Roelofs presented del Rio and his colleagues, Dale Morse, director of the Office of Science and Public Health at New York State's Department of Health, Jack DeHovitz, professor at SUNY-Downstate Medical Center, and Kenrad Nelson, professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University, with an award recognizing their 10 years of work in the field of HIV/AIDS in the Republic of Georgia. Seeing this level of engagement from the Georgian government was a moment to remember, recalled del Rio, as high level political commitment is critical in advancing the fights against AIDS.

On March 26, at this year's International Awards Night, del Rio found himself on stage again when Emory presented him with the 2007 Marion V. Creekmore Award for Internationalization. Named for Marion Creekmore, Emory's first vice provost for International Affairs, the Creekmore Award was established in 2000 by Coca-Cola executive and Emory benefactor Claus M. Halle and is given each year to an Emory faculty member who excels in the advancement of the University's commitment to internationalization. Along with the Sheth Distinguished International Alumni Award, given to Omanian Shariffa Al-Jabri (see sidebar), the award is one of the highest honors for internationalization at the University.

After graduating from medical school at Mexico's Universidad La Salle in 1983, del Rio moved to Atlanta where he completed his Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases residencies at Emory. In 1989, he returned to Mexico where he served from 1992-1996 as the executive director of the National AIDS Council of Mexico (CONASIDA), the Federal agency responsible for AIDS policy in Mexico. It was there that he realized, through close work with the World Health Organization (WHO), the global catastrophe that HIV/AIDS was going to be and the urgent need to continue promoting research. In 1996, del Rio returned to Emory as associate professor of medicine and adjunct associate professor of International Health in the Rollins School of Public Health. "I returned convinced that Emory is uniquely positioned among peer institutions to become an international leader," del Rio said during the awards ceremony.

"Since his arrival at Emory, Dr. del Rio has worked tirelessly to increase Emory's stature as an internationally recognized institution in the area of infectious diseases,"said Emory School of Medicine Dean Thomas Lawley. "His multitude of accomplishments in citizenship, teaching, and research are done while he carries out a busy medical practice and is recognized as an outstanding physician."

Some people say that del Rio does the work of three people, while others insist there must actually be three of him. In addition to his work at Grady Hospital and his role as a professor at Emory, del Rio serves as co-director for Clinical Science and International Research of the Emory Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), where he was instrumental in having the Center designated as a United National AIDS Program (UNAIDS) Collaborating Center.

In 1997, del Rio obtained an international training grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH) to form the AIDS International Training and Research Program (AITRP), where he serves as program director and principal investigator. Designed initially to train young investigators from Mexico, the Republic of Georgia, Armenia, and Vietnam as AIDS researchers, AITRP – thanks to the determination of del Rio and his colleague Hubert Department of Global Health Professor Susan Allen – recently submitted a successful competitive grant renewal application for the program, which has now added collaborations in Ethiopia, Zambia, and Rwanda. Although not the primary purpose of the AITRP grant, through the program, del Rio has helped to facilitate exchange programs through which students from the schools of Medicine and Public Health as well as medical residents have gone overseas to do research. Del Rio has also helped develop a collaborative exchange program with his former medical school in Mexico that allows medical students from Mexico to come to Emory and senior medical students from Emory to go to Mexico on electives.

Del Rio's research specializes in issues related to the early diagnosis of HIV, with a focus on access to care and the barriers faced by those infected with HIV. He is particularly interested in the impact of HIV in developing countries, including the use of antiretroviral drugs as well as the ethics surrounding HIV care and research.

Del Rio is a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Latin-American AIDS Initiative (SIDALAC), the Monitoring of the AIDS Pandemic (MAP) Network and the Education Committee of the HIVMA (HIV Medicine Association) of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Since 1998, he has served as associate editor and as an editorial board member of AIDS Clinical Care, a journal published by the New England Journal of Medicine, AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses and is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of AIDS, Women, Children and HIV and Global Public Health. He has co-authored five books, 30 book chapters, and over 100 scientific papers.

The most rewarding aspect of working in the field of HIV/AIDS, said del Rio, who travels nearly 60,000 miles a year, is getting to know the other people involved, whether it be the staff at Grady Hospital, the patients at a clinic in Ethiopia, or researchers in Georgia. "Through my work," said del Rio, "you get to see how lucky you are for the things you have, and you see how people in other countries are living. … To meet the people working on the ground everyday is rewarding, because at the end of the day, these are the people who really make a difference.

2007 SHETH DISTINGUISHED INTERNATIONAL ALUMNI AWARD WINNER, SHARIFFA AL-JABRI

"Shariffa, you make Emory very, very proud," said President James Wagner after presenting Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing graduate and director of Nursing Affairs for the Oman Ministry of Health Shariffa Al-Jabri with this year's Sheth Distinguished International Alumni Award.

The annual Sheth Award, established by Mahdu and Jagdish Sheth, Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing, recognizes Emory's international alumni who have gone on to achieve prominence in their careers around the world.

"It is a great honor that an alumna of the School of Nursing was selected as this year's Sheth Award winner. We are extremely proud of Ms. Al-Jabri's dedication to the promotion of health in her country and for her commitment to the field of nursing and midwifery. She shines brightly on Emory and our school," said Marla Salmon, dean of Emory's Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing." Al-Jabri served as a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow at the Rollins School of Public Health from 1995-1996.

"It is so great to feel appreciated and what this award does is make you [want to] work more and more," said Al-Jabri, who traveled with her two sisters from Oman for the ceremony. "For health workers, our problems and issues are the same wherever you go. … Emory has provided me the opportunity to gain knowledge and to apply that knowledge in my country."

Alma Freeman is the communications coordinator for the Office of International Affairs.