Stroke Center director named McCann Scholar
May 4th, 2005
Kerri Remmel
Kerri Remmel has a passion for caring for stroke patients. Her ability to get others motivated in that task has earned her one of the most prestigious mentoring honors in the nation.
Remmel, an assistant professor of neurology at the University of Louisville who directs the University Hospital Stroke Center, has been named a McCann Scholar for 2005. She is one of only four people in the country earning the designation this year from the Joy McCann Foundation in Tampa, Fla.
McCann Scholars each receive a $150,000 prize in honor of their contributions to mentoring in medicine, nursing or science.
Remmel learned of her award when she received a phone call from the McCann Foundation on a Sunday while she was seeing patients in the Stroke Center’s intensive care unit.
“At first I thought it was a prank call,” she said. “It was a total surprise.”
McCann Scholars are chosen through a lengthy process that remains secret until the winners are selected from 30 finalists around the country, she said. Remmel still has no idea who nominated her for the honor.
On April 30, she attended the McCann award ceremony in Tampa, where she and other winners shared their views on mentoring. “It was a truly memorable experience,” she said.
Remmel began her career as a speech pathologist. In 1985, she earned a Ph.D. in communication disorders and linguistics at Louisiana State University, then decided a few years later that she also wanted a doctorate in medicine. She received her M.D. in 1996 from U of L.
After studying neurobehavior at the University of California at Los Angeles as a resident, she joined U of L’s faculty in 2000. The next year, she founded the Stroke Center as part of the U of L Health Care system. It is the region’s only 24-hour comprehensive care facility for stroke patients. The center has been cited as a model for its team approach to patient care, which involves neurologists, neurosurgeons, cardiologists, nutritionists, physical therapists, speech-language pathologists, diabetic coordinators and nurses.
A funded researcher in acute stroke treatment and stroke rehabilitation, Remmel is active in the American Academy of Neurology and the American Stroke Association and has won the academy’s National Teaching Scholarship and Excellence in Teaching Neurology awards.
Besides her excellent credentials, Remmel possesses an uncanny ability to inspire others, said Kari Moore, a mentee of Remmel’s who is now director of nursing for the Stroke Center.
“When Dr. Remmel started the stroke program in 2001, I was a staff nurse and she was a resident at University Hospital,” Moore said. “The thing I noticed right away is that she spent extra time explaining things. She communicates her enthusiasm to everyone around her, and that motivates them to put the patients first.”
Remmel, who was praised by the McCann Foundation for creating a highly effective team approach to caring for stroke patients, has been asked by the Association of Academic Health Centers to guide others who want to set up similar teams.
Moore has gone from being a nurse without a specialty four years ago to a nurse who focuses on treating stroke patients. She has been invited to speak on the topic to peers at John Hopkins University, Cleveland Clinic and University of Cincinnati, as well as at several professional conferences, Remmel said.
Time constraints in today’s academic environment often keep faculty members from acting as mentors to those who are still learning, noted Robert Daugherty, McCann Foundation co-chair.
“Our award makes a statement that time devoted to mentoring is equally important as other duties,” Daugherty said.
