SALISBURY – Livingstone College Board of Trustee member, Dr. James R. Gavin, III, has been selected to receive the Endocrine Society’s Laureate Award as Mentor of the Year for 2021.

The Endocrine Society is the foremost professional organization for endocrine scientists, researchers, practitioners and educators in the world. The annual award recognizes a career commitment to mentoring and a significant positive impact on mentees’ education and career, according to the Society’s website.

Gavin has served as a direct mentor to more than 50 early stage physician-scientists and has touched the careers of countless others through his leadership of both the Howard Hughes Medical Institute-National Institutes of Health (NIH) Medical Research Scholars Program and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program (AMFDP).

During his more than 35-year involvement with the RWJF AMFDP, he has contributed to the career development of more than 300 minority physician-scientists.

“This is a very special award to me and a pinnacle personal honor because the award is driven by nominations from young scholars who feel that I have had a positive impact on their lives and careers,” Gavin said. “This is as meaningful and important to me as any brick-and-mortar award. I am humbled and honored by this designation.”

Adding even more sentiment to the award is that one of Gavin’s mentees, Dr. Anne L. Peters, is also a 2021 award recipient in the Outstanding Public Service Award category; and one of his own mentors, Dr. Phillip Gorden, is recipient of the Fred Conrad Koch Lifetime Achievement Award.

Gavin said in all of his mentoring activities over the decades, he always echoes the excellent mentoring he received at Livingstone College and how important that experience has been for the entirety of his career.

“Those who assert that I have made a difference in their lives always know that they owe a bit of debt to Livingstone,” he said.

Gavin is a clinical professor of medicine at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Ga., and the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, Ind. He is also chief executive officer and chief medical officer of Healing Our Village, Inc., a corporation that specializes in targeted advocacy, training, education, disease management, and outreach for health care professionals and minority communities.

“We are extremely proud of this special recognition being bestowed upon one of our most esteemed alumni and Board of Trustee members in that of Dr. Gavin,” said Livingstone President Dr. Jimmy R. Jenkins, Sr. “He is as philanthropic as he is a mentor, having given generously to his alma mater throughout the years. This kind of honor demonstrates to our campus community the influence and impact that Livingstone College can have on students and the unyielding reach of its legacy.”