Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Dr. Susan Furth Receives Distinguished Educator Award for Inspiring Next Generation of Clinical and Translational Researchers

Honoring her outstanding innovation of mentorship to promote diversity and inspire future researchers, the Association for Clinical and Translational Science (ACTS) has awarded Susan Furth, MD, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer and Executive Vice President at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), with the 2023 Distinguished Educator: Mentorship Innovation Award.

Throughout her distinguished career, Dr. Furth has had a passion for mentoring junior researchers, personally mentoring many students, residents, postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty. She held an NIH Mid-Career Mentoring Award for 10 years, developed the Carole Marcus Mid-Career Award to Promote Career Development and Mentoring in Pediatric Research at CHOP, and won the Faculty Mentor Award at CHOP in 2016. In recognition of her mentoring across the CHOP and Penn campus, in 2020, Dr. Furth was the recipient of the FOCUS Award for the Advancement of Women in Medicine Penn Medicine.

“It’s incredibly meaningful to be recognized with this award from ACTS,” Dr. Furth said. “I was very fortunate to have terrific mentors early on as well as the opportunity to develop structures that can propagate mentorship so others can have the same benefit. Trying to model the mentorship I received for the people coming behind me always has been a big focus of my career. It’s extraordinarily gratifying to have so many talented people in medicine and research, whether they are students interested in healthcare or medical students and trainees. When you point them in the right direction, they can far exceed your expectations.”

A renowned researcher in her own right, for decades Dr. Furth has led a landmark international cohort study of children with kidney disease, which has defined the natural history and clinical co-morbidities in this patient population and has led to clinical trials of targeted therapies to improve outcomes.

ACTS presents its annual Translational Science Awards to recognize investigators for their outstanding contributions to the clinical research and translational science field. Individuals and teams are nominated by their colleagues and peers and may be selected from all industry segments.

"The ACTS awards recognize talented investigators who translate their findings ultimately from the bench to the community. Awardees are in all phases of studies and disciplines throughout the workforce which includes investigators, trainees, educators, and research teams as well as the advancement of diversity, inclusion and health equity”, said ACTS President Linda B Cottler, PhD, MPH, FACE. These award winners and their work represent the values and mission of ACTS and we are happy to celebrate their achievements at Translational Science 2023 right here in our nation’s capital."

The ACTS Distinguished Educator: Mentorship Innovation Award recognizes distinguished mentors with outstanding innovation in mentorship resulting in significant scientific accomplishments by the next generation of clinical and translational researchers and/or innovative approaches in mentorship to promote diversity and retention of under-represented groups in translational research.