Health Sciences vice chancellor awarded alma mater’s highest honor
Dr. Mark Stacy, dean of the Brody School of Medicine and vice chancellor of ECU’s Division of Health Sciences, was recently awarded the University of Missouri School of Medicine’s highest honor.
Stacy, a 1986 graduate of the University of Missouri’s School of Medicine, was presented the school’s Citation of Merit during a reception at the Country Club of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri, on April 26.
ECU Brody School of Medicine Dean Dr. Mark Stacy (front/center) was recently award the University of Missouri School of Medicine’s highest honor. (Contributed photos)
Dr. George Hubbell, former president of the university’s Medical Alumni Organization, said while introducing Stacy during the event that the award is “the highest honor presented by the School of Medicine to recognize alumni who have performed outstanding work in their fields and made significant contributions to the medical profession.”
“Dr. Stacy is a highly respected clinical investigator and talented administrator,” Hubbell said. “His leadership, knowledge and passion for research and collaboration and partnership benefit patients, families and the communities he serves.”
A statement from the university added: “Dr. Stacy has tremendous academic and research accomplishments to his credit, and a distinguished record of service to institutions he has been a part of, as well as to the field of neurology at the local, regional, national and international level.”
Stacy received his undergraduate degree from Southeast Missouri State University. He then went on to complete an internal medicine internship at St. Mary’s Hospital in St. Louis, a neurology residency at Hahnemann (now Drexel) University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and a fellowship in Parkinson’s disease and movement disorders at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.
Dr. George Hubbell, former president of the University of Missouri’s Medical Alumni Organization, presents the university’s Citation of Merit to Dr. Mark Stacy.
Prior to becoming the dean of the Brody School of Medicine in September 2017, Stacy was the vice dean for clinical research at Duke University and directed Duke’s Human Research Protection Program.
With clinical and research interests in motor and non-motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease, Stacy has published more than 250 manuscripts and a book, “The Handbook of Dystonia.” He serves on the steering committee of the World Parkinson Congress and has been a member of the Parkinson Disease and Movement Disorders Society since 1990. He is the co-editor of the society newsletter, Moving Along.
Stacy, who was awarded the university’s Outstanding Young Physician Award in 2003, told those in attendance for the ceremony about how the school helped make his career achievements possible.
He was a senior biology major at Southeast Missouri State University in 1981 when he first met his wife, Tina, who was working as an engineer at Procter & Gamble at the time.
“A week later, I showed her my value by getting rejected from medical school,” Stacy said.
After he sought guidance from University of Missouri officials, the couple decided to head to the university where Stacy was an unclassified graduate student for a year and where his wife received a grant to finish her PhD in engineering.
The couple lived off of that grant from the university for the four years he was in medical school, which he was accepted into on his second try.
“We owe the University of Missouri our happiness and our livelihood, and I’m very grateful and thankful for this award,” Stacy said.
-by Rob Spahr, University Communications