The Omenn Award is the most prestigious, School-wide recognition for students. Each year, the School of Public Health honors two standout graduate students — one doctoral and one master's — for their academic excellence and commitment to public health. This year's recipients are Tessa Matson, a Ph.D. student in health systems and population health, and Horacio Chacon Torrico, who is pursuing an MPH in global health.

GILBERT S. OMENN AWARD FOR ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

PhD: Tessa Matson
Health Systems and Population Health

Tessa Matson will graduate from UW’s Health Systems and Population Health Ph.D. program. She is a predoctoral fellow at VA Puget Sound and Research Interventionist at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute. Her overall career goal is to integrate addiction health services within primary care in patient-centered ways that can reduce disparities and help patients feel valued and more informed about treatment options. Her dissertation describes gaps and potential biases in diagnosis and treatment of cannabis use disorder and validates practical tools to improve cannabis use disorder recognition in primary care. After graduating, she will pursue opportunities in implementation science.
Read about Tessa

Master's: Horacio Chacon Torrico
Global Health

Horacio is a Peruvian physician that has spent the last seven years working in health metrics and public health. After his MD, he studied Biomedical Informatics to better understand health information systems and support the development of a maternal and neonatal community-led program in the Amazon. He co-developed community health worker-led interventions using information and communication technologies, where his main interests lay in underserved and remote populations. He was awarded an OAS Graduate studies scholarship to pursue his Global Health MPH, and has been working in I-TECH ́s Zimbabwe HIV Care and Treatment program where he contributed to understanding performance indicators and the information system of the intervention ́s Monitoring and Evaluation framework.
Read about Horacio