Dr. Cheri Blauwet Honored with Harold Amos Diversity Award by Harvard Medical School

(Boston, MA)-  Harvard Medical School announced today that Dr. Cheri Blauwet is a 2016 recipient of the Harold Amos Diversity Award. Dr. Blauwet serves as an attending physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and an Instructor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Blauwet was recognized for her work in advancing equality in opportunities for faculty and trainees with disabilities as well as excellence in her academic work promoting research and clinical care for athletes and active adults with disabilities.

“Dr. Blauwet has dedicated her life toward advancing opportunities for individuals with disabilities to become involved in sports and physical activities, leading to enhanced personal health, social empowerment, and achievement.  Dr. Blauwet’s leadership footprint across the Harvard Medical School community is impressive. For example, she has been instrumental to paving the way for permanent structural changes to be put in place at Spaulding, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School,” said Joan Reede, MD, MPH, MS, MBA, Dean for Diversity and Community Partnership at Harvard Medical School. “She has also worked to ensure that medical students and residents have the opportunity to be exposed to and receive training in adaptive sports as part of their career development. These efforts have helped shine the light on disability as a critical diversity issue that must be addressed to truly foster an inclusive community.”

The Harold Amos Diversity Award was established to recognize Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM) faculty who have made significant achievements in moving HMS/HSDM toward being a diverse and inclusive community. The award is in honor of Harold Amos, Ph.D., who was the first African-American to chair a department, now the Department of Microbiology and Medical Genetics, of the Harvard Medical School.

“Dr. Blauwet is a shining example of the traits we encourage in our faculty - fierce advocacy for the communities we serve combined with a commitment to dynamic research and education. We are so proud of this recognition for a very deserving colleague,” said Dr. Ross Zafonte, Chair of the Department of PM&R at Harvard Medical School.

In addition to her clinical endeavors, Dr. Blauwet is also an accomplished athlete, as a former Paralympic athlete in the sport of wheelchair racing, competing for the United States Team in three Paralympic Games (Sydney '00, Athens '04, Beijing '08) and bringing home a total of seven Paralympic medals. She is also a two-time winner of both the Boston and New York City Marathons. She is the Chairperson of the International Paralympic Committee’s Medical Committee and serves on the Board of Directors for the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) as well as the Neilsen Foundation Quality of Life Grant Review Board.  

Dr. Blauwet also currently serves as the Principle Investigator of the Kelley Adaptive Sports Research at Spaulding Rehabilitation. The program allows her to merge her sports background, clinical interest and advocacy experience to push forward the knowledge base for using adaptive sports in clinical settings to facilitate recovery.

About Spaulding Rehabilitation

A member of Partners HealthCare, The Spaulding Rehabilitation Network includes Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, its main campus the new 132-bed facility in Charlestown, which is a national model for environmental and inclusive design as well as Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital Cape Cod, Spaulding Hospital Cambridge and two skilled nursing facilities, as well as twenty-three outpatient sites throughout Eastern Massachusetts. Spaulding strives to continually update and improve its programs to offer patients the latest, high-quality care through its leading, expert providers. Spaulding has been awarded a Model Systems designation in three specialty areas- Brain Injury, Burn Injury Rehabilitation, and Spinal Cord Injury - by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. Spaulding is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School as well as the official rehabilitation hospital of the New England Revolution. Spaulding is the only rehabilitation hospital in New England continually ranked since 1995 by U.S. News and World Report in its Best Hospitals survey with a #6 ranking in 2015-2016. For more information, please visit www.spauldingrehab.org.