USF Health professor of internal medicine Lucy Guerra, MD, MPH, FACP, FHM, has received the Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Trust Award for 2019. Dr. Guerra directs the Division of General Internal Medicine in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine.
The $25,000 award recognizes current or former academic faculty members who have inspired their former students to “create an organization which has demonstrably conferred a benefit on the community at large” or “establish(ed) on a lasting basis a concept, procedure, or movement of comparable benefit to the community at large.”
“I was very humbled to receive this award,” Dr. Guerra said. “The true heroes are those students, faculty and other health care workers who work with the undeserved and disenfranchised populations every day. I am very grateful and blessed to be a part of that legacy.”
Morsani College of Medicine alum Samuel Crane, MD, and one of the founders of the BRIDGE Healthcare Clinic, nominated Dr. Guerra.
“As medical students at the University of South Florida in 2007, my friends and I founded the BRIDGE Healthcare Clinic—the nation’s first multi-specialty free clinic run by students, which still provides care to underserved populations in the Tampa Bay area today. Our accomplishments would not have been possible without the mentorship of Dr. Lucy Guerra, who not only provided encouragement and advice, but also volunteered her time as the clinic’s medical director.” Dr. Crane wrote in his nomination application. “Dr. Guerra became a valuable mentor and our greatest cheerleader as we developed the BRIDGE Clinic over nine months of immense effort in addition to our already heavy student workload. She encouraged us every step of the way as we used our connections to other USF faculty to secure a location.”
Gail McKnight Beckman created the award in honor of her mother, Dr. Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman, who was an educator, author and pioneer in the field of psychology.
Allison Long | USF Health Communications and Marketing