By Brian McNeill and Mary Kate Brogan

Two Virginia Commonwealth University professors have been named recipients of 2022 Outstanding Faculty Awards, Virginia’s highest honor for faculty members, recognizing superior accomplishments in teaching, research and public service.

The awards, sponsored by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia and Dominion Energy, have been bestowed annually since 1987 to faculty members of Virginia’s public and private higher education institutions. Each recipient will receive a $7,500 gift from Dominion Energy at a ceremony on March 1.

Among this year’s 12 recipients are Jay Albanese, Ph.D., a professor of criminal justice in the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at VCU, and Rising Star award recipient Michelle Doll, M.D., an assistant professor of internal medicine in the VCU School of Medicine and associate hospital epidemiologist at VCU Health.

“Dr. Doll and Dr. Albanese are exceptional representatives of VCU’s mission,” said VCU President Michael Rao, Ph.D. “Their service as educators, clinicians and researchers reaches a diverse community and helps so many lead better-informed and safer lives. Recognition of their outstanding service is well-deserved, and I join the entire VCU community in expressing gratitude for their transformational work to serve humanity.”

Doll, a specialist in infectious diseases, said being named a recipient of the Outstanding Faculty Awards is an incredible honor. She is one of only two of the 12 recipients to earn the Rising Star designation.

“I still cannot believe that I was selected as a 2022 Rising Star,” she said. “I think my selection for this award acknowledges the importance of public health, as this is the area of my expertise. I am deeply grateful for the privilege of teaching the next generation of health care providers and public health practitioners, and for all the mentorship that I have received.”

Doll is course director for “Contemporary Issues and Controversies in Public Health,” a VCU Master of Public Health program awarded “Best Elective” by graduate students in spring 2020.

She chairs the Virginia Healthcare-Associated Infections Advisory Group, a collaboration of stakeholders in infection prevention composed of Virginia Department of Health, Health Quality Innovators and the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association.

Doll is co-principal investigator of a $6 million grant from the Virginia Department of Health to establish a statewide infection prevention training center. Doll is medical co-director of that center, the Virginia Infection Prevention Training Center, which will work in tandem with health care facilities and public health to strengthen infection prevention and control expertise and provide universal infection prevention and control training to front-line providers.

During the pandemic, Doll has been a leading voice for VCU Health in helping to educate the public about COVID-19, speaking with VCU and VCU Health News to answer questions about emerging variants, breakthrough infections and more.