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 2008
Outstanding Service Award Recipient
Rebecca R. Socolar
The NC Pediatric Society recently presented an Outstanding Service Award
to Rebecca R. Socolar, MD, MPH, FAAP of the Department of Pediatrics at
the University of North Carolina’s School of Medicine. The ceremony
occurred on Monday, March 17 during Prevent Child Abuse North Carolina’s
26th Statewide Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect. Sara
Sinal, MD, FAAP of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center
presented the award on behalf of the NCPS in front of a large audience
that included pediatricians, child health professionals and advocates
plus representatives from many public health and social service
agencies.
Socolar joined the
faculty at UNC in 1992 with an interest in and published research on
forms of discipline in families. As a classroom instructor for medical
students and a clinical attending physician for students and residents
in the primary care settings of the newborn nursery and the well child
clinics, she focused on positive parenting approaches. Later she
directed implementation of the Healthy Steps for Young Children program
leading to a Duke Endowment Achievement Award in 2005.
She has also worked
with the Intensive Home Visiting Program in seven counties, a program
recognized as an effective intervention with high risk families. She is
responsible for formalizing the suspected child maltreatment on-call
consultation program at UNC Hospitals and for obtaining funding and
combining it with the efforts re: domestic violence and elder abuse in
order to address issues of family dysfunction. Socolar instituted
screening for domestic violence in pediatric primary care settings. She
has conducted and monitored the assessment of possible child
maltreatment victims in multiple clinical settings including years of
service as a consultant to NC’s Child Medical Evaluation Program (CMEP). She
has been the medical director for CMEP since 1999.
During her time at
UNC, she has had published more than 30 journal articles and monitored
10 physician fellows, contributing to the knowledge of child
maltreatment worldwide and the training of future physicians both in and
outside of North Carolina. In 2006, she worked to obtain funding for
and has helped establish a program in 28 eastern NC counties for the
treatment of sexually abuse children.
Joyce Moore, RN, MPH,
recently retired after 30 years as program coordinator for the CMEP,
commended Rebecca’s “character traits” as a colleague, teacher, learner
and innovator. She also cited her “tenacity and courage” for her
ability to challenge the status quo and bring about change in the UNC
system’s approach to services for children. Socolar is married to Joshua
Socolar, a Duke Professor of physics and they have two children, Jacob
and Yvonne. She was recently diagnosed with colon cancer and is
engaged in a rigorous treatment plan. She is writing a web log about the
experience that is online at
http://rebeccasocolar.wordpress.com/.
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