Young Alumni Award

The Office of Alumni Development and Alumni Relations presents the Young Alumni Service Award in recognition of demonstrated leadership at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The award is presented at Medical Alumni Weekend during the Dean's Dinner.

2010 - Margaret Kan Kasner, M.D.’00, RES’04, FEL’07

Margaret Kasner, M’00, RES’04, FEL’07 has demonstrated outstanding loyalty to the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania since her student days. She served as the Medical Student Government representative to the former Penn Medicine Alumni Society Executive Committee, and since graduation, has served as Class Agent for the Medical Class of 2000. As an inaugural member of the Council of Recent Graduates (founded in 2009), Dr. Kasner has assumed a leadership role and helped Penn Medicine graduates from the last 15 years connect to their alma mater through outreach, event planning, and mentorship. Additionally, she is a member of the Women in Medicine Planning Committee and the Medical Alumni Advisory Council.

Dr. Kasner is a rising star in the field of medical oncology. She specializes in hematologic malignancies and bone marrow transplant, and conducts early phase translational research in acute leukemias. Since 2008, she has been an Assistant Professor of Medical Oncology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.

Dr. Kasner received her undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering from Case Western Reserve University in 1996, and her M.D. at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania where she went on to complete her residency in the Department of Medicine. In 2007, she was a fellow in the Division of Hematology/Oncology and one year later she became a clinical instructor. During that time, she also completed her coursework for a master's in clinical epidemiology.

In 2009, she was awarded the American Society of Clinical Oncology Foundation Career Development Award, the International Association for Comparative Research on Leukemia and Related Diseases Symposium Travel Award, and the Thomas Jefferson University Certificate of Appreciation for Outstanding Service to the Kimmel Cancer Center.

Dr. Kasner and her husband, Scott, a Professor of Neurology at Penn, enjoy spending time with their daughters, Sophia and Talia.

2008 - Aaron S. Kesselheim, M’02, L’02

Dr. Aaron S. Kesselheim is an expert in pharmaceutical policy and the complex relationship between law and medicine. He is an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School and a faculty member in the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Penn Medicine Alumni proudly presented Dr. Kesselheim with the inaugural Young Alumni Service Award.

Dr. Kesselheim graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College in 1996, and in 2002 completed his postgraduate training at Penn Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was selected to join the Alpha Omega Alpha and Order of the Coif honor societies. He completed his internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he currently manages a primary care clinic and attends on the general medicine inpatient service. In 2007, he received his M.P.H. from Harvard School of Public Health.

Dr. Kesselheim’s research focuses on the effects of intellectual property laws and government regulatory policies on pharmaceutical development, the drug approval process, and the costs and availability of therapeutic products both domestically and in resource-poor settings.  He also investigates how other legal issues impact the American health-care system, including expert testimony in malpractice cases, health-care fraud, and insurance reimbursement practices. He is a patent attorney and member of the New York State Bar.

Dr. Kesselheim is a member of the International Society of Pharmacoepidemiology and has authored over 30 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and articles.  His work has appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, Annals of Internal Medicine, British Medical Journal, and Health Affairs.

Dr. Kesselheim has received numerous awards and honors including the History of Medicine Prize at Penn Medicine, the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Karen Kaufman Memorial Book Award, the Burton Award for national excellence in legal writing, and the American College of Legal Medicine Schwartz Award.

Dr. Kesselheim is a devoted alumnus and joined the Medical Alumni Advisory Council at Penn Medicine in 2007; he has served as a HOST program volunteer and as a member of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Reunion Committee.

Dr. Kesselheim resides in Boston with his wife, Jennifer, M’02, and their son, Max.  In his spare time, he enjoys comedy writing, including short stories, screenplays and numerous Penn Med spoof skits.