Project HOPE Names Volunteer of the Year, Honors Exceptional Medical Volunteers at Ceremony Marking National Volunteer Week

Project HOPE, a global health education and humanitarian assistance organization, kicked off National Volunteer Week a couple of days early today by presenting its second annual Volunteer of the Year awards in a special ceremony at its Millwood, Virginia headquarters.  Dr. Alan Jamison, a pediatrician from Morristown, TN and long-time Project HOPE volunteer, was awarded a gold medal as 2013 Volunteer of the Year for his exceptional work at Project HOPE program sites in Mozambique, Ghana and Benin treating hundreds of underserved patients and volunteering tirelessly to educate local hospital and clinical staff.

Project HOPE recognizes its top three volunteers from the previous calendar year each April during National Volunteer Week with gold, silver and bronze Volunteer of the Year awards.  Five nominees for the awards were chosen from a pool of 420 individuals who volunteered 8,332 days for Project HOPE in 25 countries in 2013.  They were nominated for their remarkable performances, which were considered above and beyond the baseline of excellence.  The winners were then elected by Project HOPE staff, alumni and more than 850 supporters who had visited Project HOPE’s website to vote.

“As one can imagine, it is very difficult to narrow down a field of 420 outstanding volunteers to just three winners,” said John P. Howe, III, M.D., President and CEO of Project HOPE.  “The 2013 Volunteer of the Year winners have truly demonstrated an exceptional willingness to serve people in need all over the world, and we are so grateful to them for that.”

Dr. Alan Jamison earned the top award for the six weeks he spent volunteering with HOPE in Africa during the fall of 2013. “My greatest joy is providing clinical care for children,” said Dr. Jamison.  “However, as I mature in experience on humanitarian missions, I have come to realize the true sustainability in my work resides in training the trainer and imparting the spirit of selfless giving to others.”

The silver volunteer of the year medal was presented to Carma Erickson-Hurt, RN, a hospice and palliative care nurse from North Bend, OR for her work with Project HOPE in Japan creating a disaster management training program and the Philippines supplementing care at a hospital devastated by Typhoon Haiyan.  The bronze medal went to Rose Wilson, RN, a nurse from Melbourne, Australia who volunteered in Samoa, Tonga, Kiribati and the Marshall and Solomon Islands providing health screenings and nursing education.

Project HOPE also honored Leah Bardfield, PhD today as its first-ever Global Corporate Volunteer of the Year.  Project HOPE is pleased to partner with Pfizer’s Global Health Fellowship program, the company’s skills based volunteer program that pairs Pfizer colleagues with leading international health organizations on short term assignments to strengthen health service delivery in underserved populations. Dr. Bardfield, who holds a PhD in pharmacology, is a Senior Oncology Specialty Consultant for Pfizer in Chicago.  She performed exceptionally during a three-month fellowship at Project HOPE’s Shanghai, China office, where she helped edit 12 medical, peer-reviewed articles and assisted with HOPE’s senior care program in Shanghai’s Tangqiao Community.

About Project HOPE

Founded in 1958, Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere) is dedicated to providing lasting solutions to health problems with the mission of helping people to help themselves. Identifiable to many by the SS HOPE, the world’s first peacetime hospital ship, Project HOPE now provides medical training and health education, as well as conducts humanitarian assistance programs in more than 35 countries.  http://www.projecthope.org Follow us on Twitter: @projecthopeorg