12-08-2008, WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Kathi J. Kemper, M.D., M.P.H., a pioneer in wellness promotion and integrative health care for children, received the inaugural IPC Leadership Award from the Integrative Pediatrics Council, a group of concerned health care practitioners and child health advocates. Kemper received the award in November at “Pangea 2008: A Conference for the Future of Children’s Health” in New York.
Kemper is the Caryl J. Guth Chair for Holistic and Integrative Medicine and professor of pediatrics, public health sciences, and family and community medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
“The decision to honor Dr. Kemper with the first IPC Leadership Award was unanimous. She is without a doubt one of the country’s finest pediatricians and has long led the way toward an integrative model of health for children,” said Lawrence D. Rosen, M.D., chair of the Integrative Pediatrics Council and founder of the Whole Child Center in northern New Jersey.
An influential advocate, clinician and researcher in the field of integrative pediatrics, which combines the best of conventional and complementary approaches to the health care of children, Kemper founded and chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Complementary and Integrative Medicine. She is also past president of the Ambulatory Pediatrics Association. Prior to her appointment at Wake Forest, she founded the Center for Holistic Pediatric Education and Research at Boston’s Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School.
Kemper’s book The Holistic Pediatrician is considered an important resource for health care practitioners, medical educators and families. In response to being named the first recipient of the IPC Leadership Award, she said, “I’m thrilled and deeply grateful to win this prestigious award. Fifteen years ago, when I wrote The Holistic Pediatrician, I could not have imagined that there would even be an Integrative Pediatrics Council. Now there are more than 200 members of the new Section for Complementary and Integrative Medicine within the American Academy of Pediatrics and more than 300 members of the IPC Network. I am deeply grateful to my compassionate, innovative, dedicated colleagues who are working together in many disciplines across the world to enhance the health of children and families.”
The Integrative Pediatrics Council (www.integrativepeds.org) is a non-profit dedicated to transforming children’s health care. Their mission is to enhance the health and development of children, families and communities by leading the evolution of pediatric health care toward integrative, high-quality, accessible care.
Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center (www.wfubmc.edu) is an academic health system comprised of North Carolina Baptist Hospital, Brenner Children’s Hospital, Wake Forest University Physicians, and Wake Forest University Health Sciences, which operates the university’s School of Medicine and Piedmont Triad Research Park. The system comprises 1,154 acute care, rehabilitation and long-term care beds and has been ranked as one of “America’s Best Hospitals” by U.S. News & World Report since 1993. Wake Forest Baptist is ranked 32nd in the nation by America’s Top Doctors for the number of its doctors considered best by their peers. The institution ranks in the top third in funding by the National Institutes of Health and fourth in the Southeast in revenues from its licensed intellectual property.