UAMS College of Medicine Honors Janet T. Honeycutt With Distinguished Service Award
| LITTLE ROCK – In a May 14 ceremony, the College of Medicine at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) honored Janet T. Honeycutt with its Distinguished Service Award.
Honeycutt is director of alumni programs in the College of Medicine and executive director of the Arkansas Caduceus Club, the school’s alumni association; she has held both positions for the past 19 years. She is also a board member of the Founders Society, which seeks major endowments for the college.
E. Albert Reece, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., the dean of the UAMS College of Medicine, presented Honeycutt with the Distinguished Service Award during the honors convocation for 2004 graduating medical students at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock. “Mrs. Honeycutt’s poise and determination have been instrumental in earning the Arkansas Caduceus Club the reputation as one of the most exceptional alumni associations in the nation,” Reece said. “Furthermore, her infectious character, boundless energy and eagerness to help inspire those around her and are the foundation of her many accomplishments.”
When asked about her professional achievements at UAMS, Honeycutt named two that have been most gratifying to her. “First – and much of the credit for this goes to the chancellor [I. Dodd Wilson, M.D.] and the dean – is the increasingly warm relationship that our alumni and other Arkansas physicians feel toward the College of Medicine,” she said. “Their practical and effective help was important in getting the UAMS Biomedical Research Center built and in passing Amendment One, which assured that Arkansas’ share of the tobacco settlement goes exclusively toward health purposes.
“Second, 57 of our College of Medicine alumni classes have established endowments for the school. These endowments support a variety of needs, including student scholarships; the White Coat Ceremony for freshman medical students; Student Research Week; the Clinical Skills Center; and computer hardware and software for the Gross Anatomy Laboratories. I don’t know any other medical school that benefits in this way from its former students!”
A native of Pine Bluff, Ark., Honeycutt received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. In 1954, she married UAMS junior medical student W. Mage Honeycutt; they had two children, Grace Ann and Wesley Mage Jr. Her husband received the College of Medicine’s Distinguished Service Award posthumously in 1980.
After joining UAMS in 1985, Honeycutt became a member of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and began actively participating in the organization’s Group on Institutional Advancement, which addresses issues related to alumni affairs, development, public relations and marketing. AAMC President and Chief Executive Officer Jordan J. Cohen, M.D., of Washington, D.C., also received the UAMS College of Medicine Distinguished Service Award this year.