Louis T. Benezet Award

Raleigh Anne Bowden '74 is the recipient of the Louis T. Benezet Award. Bowden attended medical school and has worked in the cancer and palliative care field since 1978. Her early career was in academic medicine at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center where she was associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine until 1998. She was involved in national and international research in infections in transplant patients. She authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles and edited the first book of its kind on transplant infections, which is in its third edition.

In 1998 Bowden left academics and began developing community-based programs to serve vulnerable populations facing life-threatening health challenges. She founded and directed the Seattle African American Comfort Program from 2002-2008, subsequently moving to rural eastern Washington state. In 2010 she started the Lookout Coalition, where she currently works. The Lookout Coalition is a volunteer house-call based palliative care practice serving people facing health challenges, including aging and end of life. Most recently, she built the Okanogan Palliative Care Team to provide services in the largest rural county in Washington state. In 2019, she and her team received the prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Award to support that work and the development of clinical leaders for the future.