2025 Distinguished Alumni
DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
June McKoy, MD, MPH, JD, MBA, ’89, is recipient of the 2025 SIU School of Medcine Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award.
Dr. McKoy attained the rank of full professor of medicine, preventive medicine, and medical education at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine where she distinguished herself as a teacher, fellowship program director, National Institutes of Health-funded (K-Award; R awards) clinical cancer and health services researcher, leader, and mentor to medical students, resident trainees, and junior faculty alike.
Notably, Dr. McKoy was elected to full membership of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center and has served as the Director of Geriatric Oncology and the Assistant Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Lurie. She founded several programs at Lurie that have benefited patients and trainees, including the Emma Ann Reynolds Circle that mentors Black women medical students at the Feinberg School of Medicine.
She has received numerous teaching awards during her tenure at Northwestern, and has authored more than 100 publications. Her contributions as the Program Director of the Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program led to the program being ranked number 1 in Illinois through 2023.
Dr. McKoy is an internationally known geriatric oncology researcher and has been invited to moderate research panels by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN). She is currently a member of the NCCN Older Adult Oncology Panel that sets guidelines for treating older adults living with cancer and also serves on the Symptom Science and Palliative Care track of the ASCO Annual Meeting Scientific Program Committee. Furthermore, she is an Associate Editor of JNCCN and an Editorial Board member of both the Journal of Oncology Practice (JOP) and the Journal of Geriatric Oncology (JGO). Dr. McKoy is also one of the leaders of the Buddy Task Force for the NIH-funded Cancer and Aging Research Group (CARG).
She is a sought-after researcher for membership on several NIH Study Section Review Panels and she has also reviewed for PCORI. Dr. McKoy has been engaged in volunteering within the cancer support community (Equal Hope and Wellness House) and on several not-for-profit boards, committees, and commissions. For example, she has served on the accreditation board for the National Commission on Orthotics and Prosthetics Education (NCOPE) and the not-for-profit board for Housing Opportunities and Maintenance for the Elderly (HOME)
An enduring and impeccable mentor, she continues to influence policy through her work with various national and international societies, including as a member of the Older Adult Services Advisory Committee (OASAC) of the Illinois Department on Aging and a member of the governance board of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM). Dr. McKoy is a fellow of Leadership Greater Chicago (LGC), class of 2005 and was inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha (academic medical honor society) in 2022.
DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI SERVICE AWARD
David Henderson, MD, ’81, is the recipient of the 2025 SIU School of Medicine Distinguished Alumni Service Award.
Dr. Henderson is a Professor Emeritus, and previously the chair for the Department of Family Medicine and Associate Dean for Multicultural and Community Affairs at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. He completed his family medicine residency training at UConn in 1984, and later joined the faculty of the School of Medicine in 2003. Before joining the faculty, Dr. Henderson worked for a year as a physician volunteer in a rural hospital in Sierra Leone, West Africa. He also volunteered part-time at Charter Oak Terrace Community Health Center in Hartford for two years while working as a full-time clinical physician in private practice.
He was instrumental in the development of a community health center in Norwich, Connecticut- and was the center’s only full-time physician in its first three years. While chairman of the Family Medicine Department at Backus Hospital he assisted in the development of a series of hospital-run, community-based primary care sites and served as the primary care director.
He has been a physician advisor to the Community Advisory Team of Sister Talk Hartford, a community-based research project involving a consortium of 12 churches in Hartford investigating health promotion strategies in the African American community. He has served as co-PI on a Title VII-funded HRSA grant aimed, in part, to increase the number of graduating students choosing training and practice opportunities in medically underserved communities.
Since joining the faculty at UConn SOM full-time in 2003, Dr. Henderson has continued to pursue his interest in community involvement and service. From 2010 to 2019, he served as associate dean for medical student affairs overseeing the admissions process and the academic progress of matriculated students, and later in 2015 was appointed associate dean for multicultural and community affairs. He retired from UConn in 2022, and assumed his current role at the AMA as the VP for Equity, Diversity, and Belonging, working primarily in medical education.
As an educator and administrator, Dr. Henderson helped lead UConn School of Medicine’s 2016 major curriculum reform initiative launching a new team-based curriculum called MDELTA (Making a Difference in Education, Learning, and Teaching Across the Curriculum) designed to meet the challenges of the rapidly changing healthcare field and prepare medical students to excel as leaders in the field. In addition, he led the development of the new Certificate on Social Determinants of Health Disparities for the UConn SOM’s MD program. His hard work also resulted in UConn’s selection by the American Medical Association to join its esteemed Accelerating Change in Medical Education Consortium, reshaping the future of medical education nationally.
In addition to a traditional medical practice, Dr. Henderson is also trained in medical acupuncture which he uses in direct patient care and teaching. He is an inventor awarded patents in both the U.S. and the European Union for his novel intravenous catheter design; and has published numerous peer-reviewed research publications. He also served on the Board of Directors of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM) and currently serves on the National Academic Affiliations Council for Veterans Affairs (VA).
DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI EARLY CAREER AWARD
Lacey Kruse, MD, ’09 is the recipient of the 2025 SIU School of Medicine Distinguished Alumni Early Career Award.
Dr. Kruse is a pediatric dermatologist at Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Dermatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She specializes in pediatric pigmented lesions and founded the Lurie Children's Hospital Pigmented Lesion Center of Excellence, which cares for children with melanoma, Spitz tumors, and large congenital nevi. In addition to her clinical work in pigmented lesions, Dr. Kruse is a founding member of the Skin Tumors and Reactions to Cancer Therapies Working Group of the Pediatric Dermatology Research Alliance.
She has co-authored 16 manuscripts on the evaluation and management of pigmented lesions in the pediatric population and is considered a national leader in the field. Dr. Kruse also serves as a telemedicine specialist for Doctors Without Borders, offering immediate access to specialized pediatric dermatology expertise for children throughout the world.
Dr. Kruse has been passionate about medical education since her time as a medical student at SIU School of Medicine and has made substantial contributions in pediatric dermatology education at the institutional, regional, and national levels. She is the current chair of the Society for Pediatric Dermatology's Education Committee, and also serves as the Vice Chair of the Section on Pediatric Dermatology for the Association of Professors of Dermatology. When Pediatric Dermatology was recognized as an ACGME-accredited specialty in 2020, Dr. Kruse was selected by her peers to co-author the ACGME milestones for her specialty. In 2024, she was chosen as Program Chair to lead the Society for Pediatric Dermatology’s Annual National Meeting. Locally, she serves as program director for the Pediatric Dermatology Fellowship at McGaw Medical Center/Northwestern University and was awarded her institutional Excellence in Education award in 2024.
