A Wealth of Achievements

At the 2010 ACR/ARHP Annual Scientific Meeting in Atlanta, the ACR and ARHP honored a group of distinguished individuals who have made significant contributions to rheumatology research, education, and patient care. The Rheumatologist spoke with the winners about their individual contributions to advancing rheumatology. This month, we’ll meet the ARHP award winners. (See the December 2010 issue, p. 1, to read about the ACR winners.)

ARHP Award

ARHP Lifetime Achievement Award

Donna J Hawley, MSN, EdD

Director, Department of Institutional Research, Wichita State University, Kans.

Background: With her distinguished history of volunteer service to the AHRP, long years of membership, dedication to arthritis-related issues, and important contributions to rheumatologic research, Hawley exemplifies the ideal envisioned for the AHRP Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest honor bestowed by the organization.

Hawley’s interest in arthritis and related diseases was piqued by her early graduate school work at the University of Kansas with fellow ARHP member Professor Geri Neuberger. Her interest in the field accelerated when she took a faculty position at the School of Nursing at Wichita State University and ended up working with Frederick Wolfe, MD. Dr. Wolfe founded the National Data Bank for Rheumatic Diseases, a large, long-term arthritis-outcomes database with information on rheumatoid arthritis (RA), osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and related disorders. Looking back, Hawley sees this data compilation effort as being ahead of its time, because Dr. Wolfe collected “real-world” data rather than clinical trial data. Today, says Hawley, researchers appreciate how large databases like the National Data Bank for Rheumatic Diseases complement clinical trial data by providing a picture of actual clinical practice.

Hawley is the founding editor of Arthritis Care & Research (AC&R), now an official journal of the ACR. She has been a member of the faculty and administration at Wichita State for 30 years. For the past decade, she has been Director of Institutional Research for Wichita State, providing internal data on enrollment, retention, graduation rates, and faculty workloads.

Despite her heavy professional responsibilities, Hawley remains an active volunteer in her community. She works with the Women’s Crisis Center in Wichita and is also deeply involved with the Wichita branch of Soroptimist, an international volunteer organization for business and professional women who work to improve the lives of women and girls, particularly those trying to balance the demands of school, family, work, and other responsibilities. Hawley says she has always been interested in helping women in their careers.