UB Alumni Association Honors Burstein, Severin

Gale R. Burstein, MD ’90, MPH, clinical professor of pediatrics, received the Community Leadership Award, presented in recognition of outstanding accomplishments in making the university community a better place to live and work.

As Erie County commissioner of health, Burstein works with the community to address the region's most urgent health issues.

She administers the community health assessment and health improvement plan for Erie County, co-leads its opioid task force and spearheads the county’s childhood lead toxicity prevention programs.

Burstein also is a practicing physician with Endeavor Health Services adolescent substance use treatment program and a research professor in UB’s School of Public Health and Health Professions.

Through her numerous lectures, mentorships and participation in workshops and panels, Burstein has exemplified outstanding achievements that make the university and community a better place to live, work and study.

Charles M. Severin, MD ’97, PhD, associate dean for student and academic affairs and associate professor of pathology and anatomical sciences, received the Richard T. Sarkin Award for Excellence in Teaching.

The award is named to honor the late Richard T. Sarkin, EdM ’98, a pediatrician and UB professor renowned for his work improving faculty and medical residents’ teaching skills and strengthening physicians’ communication with patients.

The award is given to UB alumni who have earned distinction as educators at accredited institutions of higher education.

Severin oversees the educational performance of first- and second-year medical students and monitors their research and clinical work. He is the past chairman of the school’s medical admissions committee.

He is known for his ability to put himself in his students' shoes — a talent that contributed to his receiving the State University of New York Chancellor’s Excellence in Teaching Award in 1989.

Severin also is a six-time recipient of the coveted Louis A. and Ruth Siegel Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Basic Sciences, a faculty inductee into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society and recipient of the 2017 Jacobs School Dean’s Award for extraordinary service to the school.

UB President Satish K. Tripathi, along with Rodney M. Grabowski, vice president for philanthropy and alumni engagement, and Michael Anderson, president of the alumni association’s board of directors, presented the awards during an Oct. 12 ceremony in the Center for the Arts on the North Campus.