Community Service Award Honors Sachs
The New Orleans Council for Community and Justice has honored Dr. Benjamin Sachs, senior vice president and dean of Tulane University School of Medicine, with one of its Weiss Awards for “exceptional civic and humanitarian contributions” to the New Orleans area.
Under the leadership of Dr. Benjamin Sachs, center, the Tulane School of Medicine has played a major role in regional health care by improving both the access to and the quality of care in New Orleans. (Photo by Paula Burch-Celentano)
He was one of six leaders to receive the honor on Tuesday (June 21) at the council's 54th annual awards presentation.
Health care is a vital component to the revival of New Orleans, said Stephanie Bridges, president of the council, and Sachs “has been highly influential in Tulane's efforts to strengthen the quality and accessibility of health care in our city.”
Sachs joined Tulane in November 2007 and has helped guide the School of Medicine through a major rebirth. Compared to pre-Hurricane Katrina numbers, applications to the medical school have increased nearly 50 percent, which means that approximately one out of four students applying to medical school in the United States have applied to Tulane. The academic scores of the medical school's class of 2015 are the highest in the history of Tulane.
In addition, the school's federal biomedical research awards have increased 33 percent and federally funded research has grown 15 percent.
Tulane also has played a major leadership role in regional health care by improving both the access to and the quality of care in the city. In 2009, approximately 200,000 people received care through largely new community-based clinics. Tulane has helped raise funds to build three major neighborhood health centers that are designed to provide care for 60,000 people per year.
The Tulane School of Medicine received the prestigious national Spencer Foreman Award for Outstanding Community Service in 2010 from the Association of American Medical Colleges.
The New Orleans Council for Community and Justice has been serving the Greater New Orleans area since 1943 through advocacy and educational services. Founded as the National Conference of Christians and Jews, it is a human relations organization dedicated to fighting bias, bigotry and racism.
