Thomas and Catherine Yoshikawa Award

Named in honor of Dr. Thomas T. Yoshikawa and his wife, Catherine—who together served the AGS and the geriatrics community for more than two decades—the Yoshikawa Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement for Clinical Investigation offers recognition and financial support to emerging eldercare scholars who represent the early promise of the Yoshikawas’ own illustrious career.

The award, which includes a $1,500 honorarium, has been supported through 2032 thanks to generous support from AGS members and countless friends and colleagues of Dr. and Mrs. Yoshikawa.

Click here for more information on eligibility and application process
 

Thomas and Catherine Yoshikawa
Thomas and Catherine Yoshikawa

Dr. Yoshikawa was the editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society from 2000-2016, supported by Mrs. Yoshikawa as Editorial Assistant.  Under his leadership, JAGS is now included in more than 9,000 library collections and has been recognized as one of the oldest and most impactful publications on gerontology and geriatrics, according to ISI Journal Citation Reports®.  They have also been trusted colleagues, mentors, and friends to countless AGS members, researchers, healthcare professionals, and students who have benefitted from their commitment to service leadership.

2025 Recipient

Nancy Schoenborn, MD, MHS

Nancy Schoenborn, MD, MHS is the 2025 recipient of the Thomas & Catherine Yoshikawa Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement in Clinical Investigation.

She is a national leader in the study of individualized care of medically complex older adults that considers each person’s health status and personal preferences. Her pioneering work has identified the disconnect between common concepts and language used in scientific research and guidelines (such as life expectancy) and patient perspectives which then negatively impact care. She has, in turn, bridged this disconnect by studying and incorporating patient preferences for how to communicate sensitive topics such as life expectancy and discontinuation of preventive services. Her work has examined decision-making from the clinician and the patient perspectives and has focused on the critical role of communication in facilitating patient-centered care. She is currently leading an interdisciplinary project to study how to more broadly message about the harms of cancer over screening to the public as well as the ethics of using persuasion in health communication. 

Dr. Schoenborn has been widely recognized for her contributions to geriatrics and aging research. The National Institute on Aging (NIA) awarded her a R03 grant (2015-2018) for early-career specialists transitioning to aging research (GEMSSTAR) and a Paul B. Beeson Emerging Leaders Career Development Award in Aging (2018-2024). She was among the inaugural cohort of Multiple Chronic Conditions Scholars in 2019, sponsored by the Healthcare Systems Research Network and the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independent Centers AGING Initiative. She also was named a T. Franklin Williams Scholar by the AGS Health in Aging Foundation and the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine (2015-2018). Her achievements within the American Geriatrics Society include receiving a New Investigator Award (2016), being honored as the Outstanding Junior Investigator of the Year (2019, and receiving Best Paper and Best Poster Awards (2022). Hopkins awarded her the Clinician Scientist Award in 2016. 
 

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