Presidential Citations

Presidential Citations acknowledge individuals who have given much to otolaryngology in a variety of ways and uniquely within the life of the standing president. The following well deserving recipients have been influential to the specialty and particularly to our president, Rodney P. Lusk, MD. Thomas J. Balkany, MD T Thomas J. Balkany, MD, is the Hotchkiss Endowed Professor and director, University of Miami Ear Institute, and chair emeritus of its department of otolaryngology. He is also professor of otolaryngology, neurological surgery, and pediatrics for the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Dr. Balkany is a pioneer in the field of cochlear implantation and known for his work on the ethics of cochlear implantation in deaf infants. Dr. Balkany has published more than 250 scientific articles and three books and served on the editorial boards of numerous medical journals. He holds 14 U.S. and international patents, including 13 on cochlear implants. His service to the American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery exemplifies a lifetime commitment to the specialty, serving in positions on the Board of Directors, Audit Committee, Nominating Committee, and chairing three hearing-related committees. Dr. Balkany also has received an AAO-HNS Honor Award and Distinguished Service Award, and now this Presidential Citation. His activities have influenced the global practice of otolaryngology, earning him the Bárány Society Hallpike-Nylen Prize for Clinical Research (Uppsala, Sweden); the League for the Hard of Hearing Fowler Award (a national award); the Graham Fraser Medal and Lecturer, (Royal College of Surgeons, London, England); and the Prof. Y. N. Mehra Medal and Oration (Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India). Dr. Balkany is widely respected within our specialty and by the deaf and hard of hearing community. Among other honors, he holds the President’s Honor Award of the American Neurotology Society and the Otological Society President’s Award. He has served as senior examiner of the American Board of Otolaryngology and vice president of the Otological, Rhinological, and Laryngological Society (Triological). Charles D. Bluestone, MD CD Charles D. Bluestone, MD, received his bachelor’s (Magna Cum Laude) and medical degrees (Alpha Omega Alpha) at the University of Pittsburgh (UP), was the first UP Eberly Professor of Pediatric Otolaryngology, and was recently promoted to distinguished professor of otolaryngology. Dr. Bluestone and his division have trained more than 60 fellows in pediatric otolaryngology—most of whom are now in academic medicine. He founded the NIH-funded Pittsburgh Otitis Media Research Center and is a recipient of the UP Philip S. Hench Distinguished Medical Alumnus Award, the Albany Medical College Theobald Smith Award, and has been the guest of honor at several national and international meetings. In 2004, the president of the Triological Society designated him a “near giant” in otolaryngology. He is a pioneer of pediatric otolaryngology, particularly for his contributions as founding chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Pediatric Otolaryngology Section, and as a charter member and past president of the American Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology. Dr. Bluestone’s activities beyond the specialty include membership on the NIH National Advisory Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke Council and presidency of the UP Medical Alumni. He has authored or co-authored more than 500 publications; 250 of which are peer-reviewed articles and almost 40 of which are textbooks or similar publications. In 1975, he, David Lim, MD, and Ben Senturia, MD, organized the first of 10 quadrennial international symposia on advances in otitis media. David W. Kennedy, MD David W. Kennedy, MD, is best known nationally and internationally for pioneering endoscopic sinus surgery and minimally invasive endoscopic skull base surgery. He has served as chair of the department of otorhinolaryngology–head and neck surgery and vice dean at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also continues clinical practice as a rhinology professor. He is past president of the American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, the American Rhinologic Society, the International Rhinologic Society, and the International Symposium on Infection and Allergy of the Nose. He helped to establish the subspecialty of rhinology by developing its first fellowship and holding the first courses in endoscopic sinus surgery internationally. His research interests are the pathogenesis of chronic rhinosinusitis and continued development of minimally invasive skull base surgery. Dr. Kennedy has been elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He is a prior recipient of the Board of Governors Practitioner Excellence Award and was awarded the 2010 National Physician of the Year for Clinical Excellence from Castle Connolly, publishers of America’s Top Doctors. He is editor-in-chief of the International Forum of Allergy and Rhinology and serves on the editorial boards of numerous other journals. Dr. Kennedy has published nearly 200 articles and chapters and received a number of international awards. Harlan R. Muntz, MD Harlan R. Muntz, MD, was trained in otolaryngology at the Washington University School of Medicine under Joseph Ogura, MD. He became the acting director of pediatric otolaryngology at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, recruiting current AAO-HNS/F President Rodney P. Lusk, MD, as the director. He remained at St. Louis Children’s for 18 years focusing on team building and multidisciplinary care of children as the otolaryngologist for the cleft palate team and starting the trach-speech-airway team and the speech physiology team. In 2000 he moved to direct the pediatric otolaryngology program at the University of Utah, helping to develop subspecialty pediatric ENT and multidisciplinary programs in aerodigestive, swallowing, and trach-vent. Dr. Muntz has traveled Latin America extensively during the last 20 years, primarily educating in airway and sinus disease, including animal courses on airway foreign body and airway reconstruction. He trained two surgeons at Mercy Hospital in Kolkata, India, in cleft surgery, allowing it to become the first Smile Train-accredited hospital in northeastern India. The hospital now performs more than 500 cleft cases each year. Dr. Muntz is currently a part of Operation Restore Hope, caring for cleft palate children in Cebu, Philippines. Though his clinical focus is diverse, he has a passion for global surgery and the influence that timely and well done surgical care may have on the lives and communities of those in developing countries. Dr. Muntz has remained active in the AAO-HNS in committees and in research-focused groups.