2025 Barbara J. McNeil Faculty Award for Exceptional Service to HMS and HSDM presented to Dr. David K. Urion

David K. Urion, MD, FAAN, an HMS Associate Professor of Neurology and a long‑time educational leader at Boston Children’s Hospital, received the Barbara J. McNeil Award for Exceptional Institutional Service on December 3, 2025, during the HMS Faculty of Medicine Meeting. This recognition honors Dr. Urion’s four decades of extraordinary dedication to Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Dental Medicine. In addition to directing Education and the Pediatric Behavioral Neurology Fellowship, he holds the Charles F. Barlow Chair in the Department of Neurology.

Dr. Urion has shaped HMS medical education at every level: founding and sustaining the Bresnan Child Neurology Course, elevating Child Neurology and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities programs to national distinction, mentoring countless students and fellows, and building international partnerships through exchange programs in Chile. His leadership—from creating the Division of Service Learning to guiding the course Essentials of the Profession II—reflects his belief that rigorous academic training must be inseparable from service, humanism, and ethical responsibility. Many of his trainees now serve as HMS faculty and leaders across neurology.

Equally influential in the field of medical ethics, Dr. Urion has helped define ethical education across HMS and HSDM. He has chaired ethics committees, guided curricular design, founded the Harvard Ethics Leadership Group, and was honored with the 2024 Henry K. Beecher Prize for Medical School Ethics Teaching. Colleagues describe him as a mentor whose wisdom, empathy, and clarity of thought elevate every discussion. His more than 30 years of care at the South End Community Health Center—providing culturally attuned pediatric neurology services—embodies the values he teaches. Through his compassion, humility, and a deep respect for the communities that physicians serve, Dr. Urion’s career stands as a profound testament to exceptional institutional service.