Dr. Reddy is Secretary General, SHARE (Science Health Allied Research & Education) and a graduate of Gandhi Medical College. It is almost impossible to find any one like Dr. Reddy. He single handedly undertook the global health initiative through the REACH program in India. Despite his professional commitments and his family responsibilities, Dr. Reddy took that bold, innovative step in creating the REACH concept through which thousands of indigent persons are receiving both health care and counseling in disease prevention and the importance of community health.

Born September 15, 1936 in a small town in India to a family with modest means, Dr. Reddy attended medical school in Hyderabad and, in 1967, became a member of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh. UK, and migrated to the United States where he has achieved success as a clinician, researcher and teacher. In 1971 Reddy became a member of the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and was appointed Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory of Pittsburgh’s Presbyterian University Hospital. He has authored more than 100 articles in journals as well as a book, ‘Pericardial Disease’. In 1995 the cardiology fellows awarded him the Fellows Teaching Award. He was elected President of the Laennec Society of the American Heart Association and appointed a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, U.K.

However, P. S. Reddy’s professional career is only part of what makes him a recipient of the Most Distinguished Alumni Award. At the peak of his career he decided to reclaim the true meaning of medicine: service for the sake of service, not for glory or monetary gain.

He has spent most of his time for many years in “giving back” to India. He co-founded and promoted a charitable foundation, SHARE, principally funded by North Americans of Indian origin. Under his direction SHARH built MediCiti, a nonprofit hospital, and a rural hospital as well as supporting infrastructure in Andhra Pradesh with the purpose of encouraging health careers, research, and service. He envisioned a replicable model of cost-effective promotive, preventive and curative health care delivery for the rural poor in India and has led its implementation. REACH (Rural Effective Affordable Comprehensive Health Care), launched in 1994 to develop a viable model of health care delivery so that “Health Care for All” becomes a reality. REACH may very well serve as a model that the World Health Organization is likely to embrace.

Dr. Guntupalli is an alumnus of Osmania Medical College class of 1972. After graduating from medical school she arrived in the USA to undergo training in internal, pulmonary and critical care medicine at Georgetown University and the University of Pittsburgh. She subsequently served as faculty at the University of Pittsburgh and Emory State University Medical School. She is currently at the Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas as professor of medicine. She is the director of medical ICU and chief of pulmonary/critical care at the Ben Taub General Hospital, Houston, Texas.

Dr. Guntupalli personifies a rare combination of excellent teacher, fine academician and a leading force in organized medicine. She has authored over 100 papers, is a recipient of the National Institutes of Health Award, and is a sought-after speaker. She has served in many prestigious elected positions including Regent of President of the internal medicine section of the National Society of Critical Care Medicine. She is a trustee of the Chest Foundation and chair of the Women’s Network of the American College of Chest Physicians.

Recently she was appointed to the critical care board by the American Board of Internal Medicine, the highest academic board that writes, evaluates and defines policies pertaining to the certifying examination of critical care medicine.

She has served her home county well by organizing many CME courses, setting up the first school of respiratory therapy, and research on the respiratory illnesses in rural Andhra Pradesh women. With the help of a substantial grant from the Chest Foundation she has recently developed extensive educational material for combating the tobacco epidemic in India.

Dr. Reddy received the Most Distinguished Physician Award. He is Magerstadt Professor and Chairman, department of pathology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. He attended Nizam College in Hyderabad. He obtained his MBBS degree from the Osmania Medical College, Osmania University, Hyderabad and his medical degree in pathology from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.

Dr. Reddy arrived in the United States in 1966 for his residency and fellowship training at the University of Kansas Medical Center where he joined the faculty in 1970 as assistant professor and rose to the rank of professor in 1976. He moved to Northwestern University in 1976 as professor of pathology and was appointed department chairman of pathology in 1992.

Dr. Reddy is well known for his pioneering work on the cellular and molecular responses elicited by chemicals. He received many honors and awards including the NIH Merit Award, the 2000 Arnold J. Lehmna Award of the Society of Toxicology and the 2003 Rous-Whipple Award of The American Society of Investigative Pathology. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and serves on many editorial boards. He and his wife, Kamalesh, are members of AAPI.

Dr. Vidyasagar received the Most Distinguished Teacher/Researcher Award. A graduate of Osmania Medical College, Hyderabad, A,P. India, he has been directing the neonatology program at the prestigious University of Illinois at Chicago for the last three decades.

Dr. Vidyasagar has achieved national and international recognition for his scientific contributions and academic achievements. His major scientific contributions include extensive studies in the field of Hyaline Membrane Disease, Meconium Aspiration Syndrome and a variety of newborn problems. His work in the area of surfactant therapy in Hyaline Membrane Disease is widely recognized and cited in literature.

He was responsible for developing strong clinical and teaching programs at Cook County Hospital, Chicago and then at the University of Illinois at Chicago; both have become highly recognized patient care and physician training centers. During the last thirty years he has trained over 70 neonatologists, of whom some have developed into nationally/internationally known academicians. He has authored more than 200 publications and has made notable contributions in the field of pulmonary functions, monitoring systems, lung surfactant and recently molecular biology of lung injury.

In addition, Dr. Vidyasagar has taken a keen interest in helping developing countries to build strong neonatology programs. His main concern has been to reduce existing high infant mortality in developing countries through improving care of the newborn and high-risk mothers. His international work has made a major impact on many countries including China, Poland. Lithuania, Uzbekistan and, of course, India. In India alone, the National Neonatology Forum and Dr. Vidyasagar’s team has trained over 35,000 health care workers.

Dr. Deshmukh graduated from Osmania Medical College in 1961 and has worked as a general and vascular surgeon at the Guthrie Healthcare System since 1973. Currently he is president of the medical staff, the first asian to hold that post.

He joined the U.S. Army Reserve in 1984 as a major. In 1986 he was promoted to Lt. Colonel and to Colonel in 1991. He is only one of a handful of Indians who has graduated from the Army Command and General Staff College. He has distinguished himself in his service to the military. In 1988 he went to Honduras with the U.S. Army on a humanitarian mission. In 1990/1991 he served in Saudi Arabia in a military medical unit during Desert Storm. He earned several medals during those tours of duty. In 1999 he went on humanitarian missions with the U.S. Army to Bolivia and Equador. In 2001 he went to Kosovo to participate in the NATO peace keeping mission where he performed several operations on wounded soldiers. Afterward, on special request from the Pentagon, lie went to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to use his language skills in Urdu to assist with the interrogation of the Taliban and Al Qaeda prisoners.

Over his years of service Dr. Deshmukh earned the Army Commendation Medal, the National Defense Medal, the Southwest Asia Service Medal and the Kuwait Liberation Medal. He went to the Air Assault School and won the Air Assault Badge in May 1992, the coveted Expert Field Medal Badge in July 1992 and the Flight Surgeons’s Badge in 1994. He also has earned the right to wear the combat patch of both the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions for going to Afghanistan in 2002.

Besides his military service, he has distinguished himself in many other ways. He is one of the founders of OGKMA and was its first Secretary. Over the years he has helped many Indian medical professionals pursue their careers.

He has authored over 70 scientific papers and was President of the Society of Asian Indian Surgeons of North America (1995-97). He was also President of the Central Pennsylvania Chapter of the American College of Surgeons (2001-03).

Dr. Ram graduated from Osmania Medical College and completed his residency in medicine at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island and a fellowship at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Ram’s medical career has centered around the prevention of hypertension. Author of over 250 articles and a book on the treatment of hypertension, he is also medical director of the Texas Blood Pressure Institute, director of medical education and research at Dallas Nephrology Associates and he is a clinical professor of internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas. He is the youngest person ever to become the Master of the American College of Physicians.

Dr. Ram has made numerous contributions to our understanding of born the physiology and the management of hypertension. For more than two decades, Dr. Ram’s work has explored the mechanisms of action of various antihypertensive drugs.

Dr. Ram is the regional president of the American Society of Hypertension and a trustee of the International Society of Hypertension in Blacks. Dr. Ram has been an invited professor at many of the top universities in the U.S. and abroad. He is also on the editorial boards of numerous national and international scientific journals.

In addition to expertise in clinical research and medical practice, Dr. Ram is considered a uniquely skilled communicator of scientific advances. He is one of the most sought after reviewers and speakers in the world today. Former Governor of Texas, Ann Richards, characterized Dr. Ram as an, “asset for the State of Texas,” and Senator Phil Gramm described him as ‘an asset to two countries-the U.S. and India’. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison introduced Dr. Ram recently as a, ‘physician of unusual talent and impeccable discipline’.

Besides his contributions to research, Dr. Ram has served as the AAPI President and also as Chair of its CME Committee.

Dr. D.Sudhaker Rao received his M.B;B.S. degree in 1969 from The Gandhi Medical College, Osmania University, Hyderabad, AP. He joined The National Institute of Nutrition, India, where he began his career in vitamin D and calcium metabolism. After a year of research he moved to USA for further studies. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine and surgery in New York and a fellowship in endocrinology and metabolism at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. He then joined the faculty of Henry Ford Hospital as a research fellow in Bone and Mineral Metabolism under Dr. A. M. Parfitt and late Dr. Boy Frame. He rose through the ranks of the division and is currently: the Section Head, Bone & Mineral Metabolism, Director, Bone & Mineral Research Laboratory, and Program Director, Endocrinology Fellowship Training. He is also a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI.

He has contributed extensively to the broad field of bone & mineral metabolism. His main research interests are the role of vitamin D and calcium nutrition in parathyroid disorders and bone health. He has contributed more than 100 peer reviewed original papers, 100 symposium proceedings, abstracts, and letters to the editor, and 10 book chapters. He is the founding member and current Vice President of The Indian Society of Bone & Mineral Research (ISBMR), which he helped launch in 1997.

He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American College of Endocrinology. He received several awards including Willard O. Thomson Travelling Scholarship by the American College of Physicians, Boy Frame award from the American Society for Bone & Mineral Research, Kentucky Colonel by the Governor of Kentucky, Outstanding Service award from the Michigan Association of Physicians of Indian Origin.

He lives in Rochester, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, with his wife while their two sons, aged 32 and 28, are pursuing their medical careers. He enjoys listening both classical and popular Indian music, loves photography, and plays tennis regularly. His other passion is to serve the public. He was involved in at least half dozen organizations either as a founding member or an office bearer. He also helped raise funds for Bhopal gas leak tragedy, Maharashtra earthquake, Gujarat earthquake, and the free clinics run by The American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin. He considers himself being drawn imperceptibly towards Gandhian principles. He is a frequent traveler to India, and is currently pursuing what he describes as “Re-discovering India myself through the hearts and minds of my close friends and acquaintances”.

Dr. Bhimsen S. Rao, after graduating from Osmania Medical College in 1966 came to the US in 1968. He completed his residency in pediatrics and clinical fellowship in pediatric pulmonology at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan, Detroit, followed by a research fellowship at Yale University, CN. After 2 years of emergency senior staff position at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan, he entered private practice, which he continues at present. He has been the Chairman of Pediatrics at Holy Cross and South Macomb Hospitals from 1984-1990 and a Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Wayne State University School of Medicine from 1989-1997. He serves as a preceptor for community based pediatric program of the medical school.

He is a member of several professional societies including American Academy of Pediatrics, AMA, American Lung Society and American College of Chest Physicians. More importantly, he was the founding Chair of Foundation of Michigan Association of Physicians from India, the AAPI and the Chair of AAPI Charitable Foundation. He served as the President, India League of America, member, Board of Trustees, America India Foundation under the Honorary Chairmanship of President Bill Clinton, and President, Children’s Hospital of Michigan Alumni Association.

He was involved in many charitable and community activities: raising funds for the AAPI Charitable foundation by bringing luminaries of the likes of Smt. Lata Mangeshkar, Smt Asha Bhosle and Padmashree Dr. S.P. Balasubrahmaniam, setting up Children’s wing at Dhanvantari Hospital, Gulbarga, India, help raise funds for victims of Bhopal gas leak tragedy, help rebuild hospitals after the Gujarat earthquake, and many others. For his unrelenting community service he was named the “Citizen of the Week” by WWJ Radio Station in Detroit. He received numerous awards from MAPI, AAPI. ILA, and Children’s Hospital of Michigan to name a few.

He lives in Bloomfield Hills, MI with his wife Dr. Surekha Rao, an accomplished radiologist and physician leader in her own right. They have two daughters, one of whom a physician, and a son.

Dr. Vijay Yeldandi is a graduate of GMC(1980). He completed his Internal Medicine residency from Grant Hospital, Chicago and Fellowship in Infections Diseases from Loyola University in 1988. He had been Asst. Professor of Medicine at Rush Medical College followed by Loyola University, Chicago from 1989 to 2006. Since July ’06 he has been Associate Professor of Medicine at Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University, Chicago. He received several awards including Intern of the Year, outstanding resident, Gold, Silver and Bronze Apple Awards from Loyola Univ. He has several publications in infectious diseases. He delivered several lectures/presentations under various banners including, Am. College of Chest Physicians, Loyola Univ., AAPI etc. He had been Principal Investigator and Co-investigator for several Investigation/Research projects. He is involved in several community activities such as increasing the public awareness of HIV/AIDS through SHARE, which is a non-profit organization promoting health care research in India.

Dr. Krishna Tripuraneni was born in Vijayawada, AP. He completed medical school in 1980 from Osmania Medical College. He came to United States in 1982. He completed Internal Medicine residency from Hahnemann University, PA in 1989. He completed GI fellowship from University of Pittsburgh in 1991. After practicing in Moline, IL for five years, he moved to Florida in 1997. He donated about $ 1,500,000 to the Boys & Girls Club of Palm Beach County, Florida to build a new facility in the honor of Krishna and Nirmala Tripuraneni. Boys & Girls Club offers several programs that promote and enhance the development of boys and girls by instilling a sense of competence, usefulness, belonging and influence. Children can learn and grow-all while having fun. He is dedicated to promoting the welfare of children in their growing years.

Dr. Lakireddy was Born in Velvadam, AP in a farming family. He lost his mother at age 6 and was raised by his grandmother. In spite of being born in a relatively uneducated family, he worked hard and joined medical school. After graduating from KMC in 1966, he practiced in Mylawaram until 1978 before migrating to US. He completed Internal Medicine from Bronx, New York in 1982 and Cardiology Fellowship in 1985 from St. Vincent’s, Connecticut. Then he moved to Merced, CA where he was the first practicing cardiologist. He donated $1 million to Univ. of California, Merced towards Dr. Lakireddy Auditorium. He donated $100,000 to Merced Comm. College towards their Health Sciences Program. He sponsors a scholarship at the Merced High School. He was awarded “Philanthropist of the year” by the Merced Community. He spent more than Rs. 6 crores rebuilding govt. schools in Velvadam and Mylawaram towns. He sponsors an annual prize distribution and talent show at these schools. He built a sports complex in Mylawaram. He donated Rs. 1 crore each to KMC and Kakatiya University. He runs a pension program in Velvadam, where he promised that “as long as I live, not a single person will go hungry”. The goal of his philanthropy is to promote and preach the virtue of education.

Dr. Jagan Ailinani obtained his medical degree from Osmania Medical College and did his radiology residency at St. Louis University Hospital. He served as the Clinical Professor of Radiology and Community Medicine, Southern Illinois School of Medicine, Springfield, Illinois. Shaped by his childhood experiences, Dr.Ailinani, adopted his native village where he sponsored a water purification plant, helped in expanding local school. Dr.Ailinani provided first free ambulance to the Jagtial and surrounding villages.

His leadership qualities are of highest standards and that helped him become President of OGKMA from 2000-2003 and managed to raise $250,000 to establish and maintain a electronic/digital library at Osmania Medical College. As President of the American Association of Physicians of Indian origin (AAPI) along with its charitable foundation, helped raise $55,000 to help Tsunami victims. As the president of Jackson County Medical Society he established free clinic for working poor of Jackson County, Illinois and was instrumental in organizing childhood obesity awareness and prevention program for local schools.