J. Charles Jennette, MD, the Kenneth M. Brinkhous Distinguished Professor and Chair of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Professor of Medicine, and Chief of Pathology and UNC Laboratory Medicine Services, has been selected to receive the 2019 Distinguished Service Award from the Association of Pathology Chairs (APC). The APC award recognizes lifetime achievement in the field of academic pathology, encompassing the full spectrum of contributions at the local and national level, in undergraduate and graduate medical education, research, and clinical service.
Peter Jensen, MD, Chair of the APC Nominating Committee and Chair of Pathology at the University of Utah, states that the Distinguished Service Award is the highest award given by the APC, acknowledging that Jennette has made “lasting contributions as an innovative and highly effective leader in our field and in academic medicine.” He also recognizes that his “impact through research, scholarship, and leadership in the field of renal pathology have profoundly influenced the field.” The award will be presented July 23 at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the APC in Boston, Massachusetts.
Jennette has focused on kidney disease throughout his career, teaching and developing the researchers of current and future generations, while his own investigations have led to pioneering discoveries. Research partner Ron Falk, MD, Chair of the UNC Department of Medicine says his service has had a manifest impact on national pathology education.
“Charles is a peerless nephropathologist with crystal clear communication skills,” said Falk. “He is both a thought leader and an administrative leader, which has led to universal admiration by his UNC Pathology faculty and the Association of Pathology Chairs.”
Jennette’s decades-long collaboration with Falk has led to pioneering discoveries in the area of vasculitis and glomerulonephritis associated with anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies (ANCA), with a compelling case for the pathogenic role for ANCA in these diseases. With Falk, he co-founded and co-directs the Glomerular Disease Collaborative Network, coordinating kidney disease research by approximately 300 nephrologists throughout the Southeastern United States. With Fred Dalldorf, MD, Jennette established the UNC Nephropathology Laboratory, which evaluates approximately 2,000 renal biopsy specimens per year from throughout the southeastern USA. He is also Associate Director of the UNC Kidney Center, an interdisciplinary consortium with the mission of improving all aspects of kidney disease prevention and treatment.
Jennette received his medical degree from the UNC School of Medicine in 1973. He completed anatomic and clinical pathology residency training at UNC, followed by a research fellowship in immunopathology at Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in La Jolla, CA. He then joined the faculty of the UNC School of Medicine 1978 and has remained at UNC throughout his career. Jennette has been President of the Association of Pathology Chairs and President of the Renal Pathology Society.
The Association of Pathology Chairs (APC) is a non-profit society which serves as the voice of academic departments of Pathology in the U.S. and Canada. APC exists to provide leadership and advocacy for the dynamic discipline of Pathology, and to enable academic departments to meet the demands of their three missions: medical education, research, and practice.