Shawnee High School’s Academic Hall of Fame inducted its third class on June 4.
Shawnee High School’s Academic Hall of Fame inducted its third class on Monday, June 4, as part of the school’s Academic Awards. This year’s inductions included an entrepreneur who has served as Founder & CEO of five privately held technology companies, an orthopedic doctor who has a private practice and an orthopedic residency program, a Physician Assistant who has helped grow one Community Health Center to four full-service health centers, and a university Department Head of Kinesiology and Professor of Kinesiology & Physiology who has developed a successful and internationally recognized research program of women’s health and exercise. These four outstanding individuals will join the 11 other individuals currently in the Shawnee Academic Hall of Fame.
Michael Koch, 1996 graduate of Shawnee High School has served as Founder & CEO of five privately held technology companies. Four of his companies have served world class brands such as Campbell’s, Visa, General Motors, P&G, Pepsi Co, Nike, Gillette and McDonald’s. He has built and created an industry leading global delivery model and scaled multiple technology development centers to over 400+ resources each. His teams have delivered across 267 offices in 79 countries worldwide. Koch has won four Cannes Lions over the course of his career, the ultimate accolade for the advertising, creative, marketing communications, entertainment, design and tech industries. Koch has appeared on the cover of Forbes twice in Europe and been recognized by Forbes Magazine as one of the Most Powerful People in the World. In addition, he has appeared on the cover of Men’s Health and been recognized as the “Fittest CEO in Europe.” Koch also works with future entrepreneurs by sponsoring and leading the Wharton School of Business Entrepreneur program business competition and been a keynote speaker at the Georgetown Business School for their Start Up Competition.
Dr. Ronald Lippe is a 1977 graduate of Shawnee High School. Lippe is an orthopedic surgeon who has been in practice for 28 years and his current position allows for a private practice and an orthopedic residency program. Lippe currently serves as Chairman of Orthopedics, Pinnacle Health System, Clinical Professor of Neurosciences and Anatomy and Assistant Clinical Professor of Orthopedics for Penn State University College of Medicine, Director, Bone and Joint Institute, Pinnacle Health System, Core Faculty, Orthopedic residency, Pinnacle Health System and a member Executive Committee, Orthopedic Institute of Pennsylvania. Lippe was given the Orthopedic Surgery Teaching Award at Pinnacle Health System and has delivered talks on orthopedics at various conferences and symposiums.
Sarah Smith, MHS, PA-C is a Physician Assistant with Philadelphia FIGHT Community Health Centers. She began with them in 2005 and has been promoted over the years and now serves Chief Quality Officer. Smith helped grow the agency from one Community Health Center to four full-service health centers that reach over 4,500 patients annually. As an employee of a non-for profit federally qualified health centers, Smith’s job is to provide culturally competent comprehensive primary care, and state of the art HIV primary care to low income members of the community, along with research, consumer education, advocacy, social services and outreach to people living with HIV and those who are at high risk. In her role as Chief Quality Officer, she works with staff across all the health centers to ensure that all patients receive low-threshold quality medical care regardless of their background and ability to pay. In 2018, her organization, with her lead, was awarded a Certificate of Achievement in Quality Improvement for the best overall clinical performance among all health centers in the nation, placing in the top 30 percent of quartile rankings for 2017 Clinical Quality Measures. Smith is a credentialed HIV specialist by the American Academy of HIV Medicine. She serves as Project Officer for major federal and local medical funding grants, chairs the Quality Management Program and monitors compliance with standards in the health centers. Currently, she is leading a work group to improve care delivered to Transgender and Gender Non-conforming patients in all of our health centers. During her time at FIGHT, she has participated in over 100 clinical trials as a Sub-Investigator for new HIV and Hepatitis C medicines and served as a guest lecturer at the Physician Assistant training programs of Drexel University and University of the Sciences on the topics of Ethics and Confidentiality, Hyperlipidemia and Opiates Use Disorder. In 2017, she was one of the first Physician Assistants in the United States to be licensed to prescribe Suboxone, a medication for Opiate Use Disorder. In her professional world, Smith has been recognized for her dedication to her community and profession. Smith was the recipient of The Above and Beyond Award 2017 which is given to FIGHT staff member who goes above and beyond their job obligations on a consistent basis, in addition to the P. Jean Drew Award given to a Drexel University Alumni for integrating the highest level of caring and humanitarianism into clinical practice, and the Physician/PA Team award from the Pennsylvania Society of Physician Assistants for being part of a MD-PA team showing outstanding collaboration and teamwork. She is a member of Shawnee’s graduating class of 1998.
Nancy Williams, Sc.D., after graduating from Shawnee in 1980, went on to Bucknell for her bachelor’s degree, Ohio State for her master’s degree and Boston University for her Doctor of Science in Exercise Physiology. She did postdoctoral work at the University of Pittsburgh, was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Ohio University and in 1997 was hired by the Department of Kinesiology at Penn State University. She was promoted up the ranks to Professor and has been serving as the Department Head since 2012. Under her leadership the graduate program of Kinesiology at Penn State is ranked third in the country by the National Academy of Kinesiology. She has been inducted as a Fellow into the National Academy of Kinesiology, has served as President and Past President of the Female Athlete Triad Coalition, and she is currently serving 3-year term to the elected position of President of the American Kinesiology Association. Williams has had a very successful career as a faculty member at Penn State. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals and books. She has spoken about her research at national and international venues. Her research “has documented the causal role of low energy availability in the induction and reversal of menstrual disturbances with exercise training.” For over 25 years, she has worked in this field to “elucidate the underlying physiological and behavioral mechanisms whereby reproductive function is suppressed in women during chronic low energy availability created by an imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure.” She has worked to translate this work to the layperson by co-authoring Consensus Statements (2014) and through her work with the Female Athlete Triad Coalition.
