APHL Honors 2024 Newborn Screening Award Winners 

– At the 2024 Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) Newborn Screening Symposium, APHL presented four awards to leaders who have made significant achievements in the field of newborn screening. The winners were announced during a ceremony on Tuesday, October 22. Congratulations to all award winners! 

The following awards were presented: 

The George Cunningham Visionary Award in Newborn Screening is given to someone who has made the greatest contribution to expanding or improving the screening of newborns by public health agencies in one or more states. This year’s award recipient is: 

• Michele Caggana, ScD, director, Newborn Screening Program, New York State Department of Health Wadsworth Center 

The Everyday Life Saver Award in Newborn Screening highlights the meaningful, ongoing ways the recipient contributes to the morale of their team and/or operations of their program on a daily basis. This year’s award recipient is: 

• Susan Tanksley, PhD, associate deputy commissioner, Public Health Laboratory, Texas Department of State Health Services 

The Harry Hannon Laboratory Improvement Award in Newborn Screening  honors someone who has made significant contributions in one or more of the following areas: assuring the quality of testing, enhancing the specificity of tests, establishing new creative laboratory approaches and technologies, providing laboratory training/education for new technologies and tests, or improving the detection of newborn disorders/conditions. This year there are two recipients. They are: 

• Christine Dorley, PhD, division chief, Division of Newborn and Childhood Screening, Laboratories Administration, Maryland Department of Health 

• Carla Cuthbert, PhD, branch chief, Newborn Screening and Molecular Biology Branch, Division of Laboratory Sciences, National Center for Environmental Health, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 

The Clinician Champion Award honors someone involved in patient care and who has made significant contributions in one or more of the following areas: ensuring newborns receive adequate screening and appropriate follow-up; assuring timely and effective communication of screening results to patients and families; and contributing to efforts to strengthen the impact of the public health newborn screening system by being directly involved in follow-up care, community affairs, newborn screening advocacy and/or community activities. This year’s award recipient is:  

• Laura Adang, MD, PhD, attending physician, Division of Neurology, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia 

APHL congratulates all award winners, and thanks them for their contributions to advancing the essential work of newborn screening. 

Newborn screening—recognized as one of the largest and most successful disease prevention systems in the US—is the practice of testing every newborn baby for certain harmful or potentially fatal genetic conditions that may not be otherwise apparent at birth. Early detection is crucial to prevent death or a lifetime of severe disabilities. 

Learn more about the APHL Newborn Screening Symposium.