I am pleased to announce that the 2021 Robert E. Leach Award, formerly known as Mr. Sports Medicine, will be awarded for the first time ever to a woman. This recipient is no stranger to this audience. She was just honored and also was a Kennedy Lecturer at Specialty Day. But because that lecture was virtual and many of you did not see it, I will try to capture any suspense remaining. Our recipient, the middle child of three, grew up in Falls River, Massachusetts. Her parents, Arthur and Helen, installed a strong work ethic in all of their children. Although she played basketball and swam in high school, she did not discover her true sport until she founded the women's varsity crew team at Brown University, pushing for equity and equality. Following her graduation from Brown, she did post-graduate work at another Ivy League school, Dartmouth, before attending Albert Einstein University, where she earned her Ph.D. and M.D. She continued rowing throughout this time and jumped to the national level, winning national championships in her third year of medical school, and in 1984, she rowed her way to the top, setting records at the head of Charles Regatta and a silver medal in the World Championships in Montreal. Her women competed for the first time at the same distance as men. Not only did she find excellent coaching at the New York Athletic Club, where she trained, she also found the love of her life when she met John, her husband of almost 39 years. After graduating from medical school, our recipient completed a two-year fellowship at HSS and was invited to stay on as staff. So after almost two decades in training, she began as a junior and then an assistant attending HSS. She was so successful at HSS that she garnered many accolades and was recognized for outstanding research and teaching skills. She also founded the Women's Sports Medicine Center at HSS in 1997. She retired earlier this year after 31 years at that institution and will be greatly missed. Our awardee has been very active in Olympic team coverage, serving as rowing team physician since 1994 and as the head team physician for that sport since 2015. She also served as team physician for many other sports, including being the head team physician for the WNBA's New York Liberty since 2005. As I mentioned previously, the New York Athletic Club brought our recipient success in rowing, but also brought her a lifetime partnership with her husband, John. Not only were they partners in life, they also were rowing partners, with many wins and mixed doubles to their credit. They trained together and continued to track through life together with a beautiful family. Her greatest joy, however, will come from her three wonderful children. Andrew, who are oldest, thrived in the arts and graduated from Alfred University. Andrew is now a successful artist in Denver. He's a very bright child and consistently challenged everything, earning the nickname the King of Contradiction. Caitlyn, her daughter, on the other hand, had a propensity to spill or knock something over, earning her the title the Queen of Spillage. Caitlyn, who also graduated from Brown, now works in Seattle in tech and is getting married this fall. Congratulations to Caitlyn. We all send her our best wishes. And Connor, the youngest, discovered at an early age that polite words worked. So he was aptly dubbed the Prince of Politeness. A successful diver, winning medals at the NCAA championships, these days Connor is working in New York City as a real estate analyst. If there was any doubt about our recipient's kindness, dedication, and compassion, one only needs to look at her beautiful family for proof. She was the first female president of AOSSM in 2014 and has served as a member of the AOSSM board for nine years. She was also the first female president of the Herodica Society in 2015. She's published over 150 articles in peer-reviewed journals, received numerous awards, including the Orthopedic Research New Investigator Award, Our Society's O'Donoghue Award and Revere Award, the New York Academy of Science Outstanding Woman in Science Award, the U.S. Rowing Jack Kelly Award, the ORS Women's Leadership Forum Award, the Einstein Montefiore Orthopedic Distinguished Alumnus Award, she's an honorary medical officer of the City of New York Fire Department, Castle Connelly Physician of the Year, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from her own institution, the Hospital for Special Surgery in 2014. The accolades go on and on, and all are well-deserved. Through her numerous contributions to the field of sports medicine and services to AOSSM, she's made lasting contributions to our profession throughout her career. Her list of first women to do is quite remarkable, both in and out of medicine. Today we celebrate her career and her accomplishments. She's an extraordinary doctor, a dedicated wife and mother, and a very supportive friend. And if everything I listed this morning is not impressive enough, she's also a cancer survivor in her ninth year of remission, as if we did not have enough to celebrate already. With all that said, it's my absolute honor and pleasure to award the 2021 Robert E. Leach Award to my friend, Dr. Jo A. Hannafin. You made me cry. Well, the only good thing is I was happy to see that Ed was crying on the way up, because I'm not just the girl crying up on the podium here. I was joking with a number of the women in the forum before that I was trying my best not to cry with the Hall of Fame, because I said when I started orthopedics, I promised myself I would never cry in front of another orthopedic surgeon. And now I've just cried in view of a couple of thousand. But I'm honored, I'm really humbled, and extraordinarily grateful. And gratitude is my mantra over the last decade or so. And what I've learned is that gratitude is good for everybody, even if you don't feel like you need to be grateful. It improves your spirit, it improves the way you deal with people. So whatever little things happen in your day, be grateful for it, because God is good and life is good. Thank you very much.

2021 Robert E. Leach Award

Dr. Jo A. Hannafin

sports medicine

Women's Sports Medicine Center

cancer survivor