SP friend receives top honor in the motherland

Drs. Kourembanas (left) and Mitsialis.

Dr. Kourembanas  delivering her acceptance speech.

Sabbatoparea rejoices in the recent recognition of Dr. Stella Kourembanas, a distinguished friend of the group and wife of Sympareotis Alex Mitsialis, who was named an honorary professor of the medical school of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA). The ceremony was held in Athens on March 6.

Dr. Kourembanas is the Clement A. Smith Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Chief of the Division of Newborn Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital & Academic Chair of the Harvard Program in Neonatology.

In its citation, NKUA praised Dr. Kourembanas for having rigorously attended to the science of medicine, which she has has served through both practice and scholarship and for having exhibited in multiple ways her philanthropic spirit and care for the Hellenes.

Dr. Kourembanas is from the village of Kynigos in Pylos and came to the United States with her family when she was 6. In her acceptance speech, Dr. Kourembanas stressed that it is in incumbent upon her generation of physicians to “not only do what is right for the patients and their families, but also to serve as an example for the physicians of tomorrow,” according to a news story in Ethnikos Kirix.

Dr. Kourembana is the fourth friend or member of Sabbatoparea who has been recognized by NKUA after Dr. Nickolaos Madias, Dr. Theoharis Theoharidis and Dr. George Tsokos.

Frome left, Prof. Consgtantine Bourazelis, NKUA associate academic dean, Ariadne Malamitsi-Puchner, professor of pediatrics and neonatology, Dr. Kourembanas and NKUA School of Medicine Dean Petros Sifakis.

NKUA's citation.