June 30, 2019 — Dr. Zorayda Leopando of the College of Medicine (CM) and Prof. Lydia Leonardo of the College of Public Health (CPH) were among the seven retired faculty members who were conferred the honorific title of Professor Emeritus by the UP Board of Regents at its meeting held on April 29, 2019.
Based on the BOR-approved guidelines for the granting of the title (1282nd BOR meeting, September 20, 2012), a Professor Emeritus title is a recognition of productive service in teaching/mentoring, research or creative work, and extension service or institutions/nation building and marked distinction as a productive scholar, artist, or scientist, and as an effective and dedicated educator. He/She is acknowledged to have significant leadership in teaching/mentoring, research or creative activity and public service to the University and the nation.
Dr. Leopando is one of the prime movers of the Orientation Course in Family Medicine, Quality Assurance instruction, learning portfolio and mentoring and the Integrated Family and Community Medicine course for medical students. She is currently one of the Editors-in-Chief of Asia Pacific Family Medicine Journal and Chair-elect of Wonca Working Party for Women and Family Medicine. Likewise, she was Wonca Regional President for Asia Pacific. During her term, she paved the way for the Family Medicine Education workshop in the region, the Wes Fabb Oration, and the Asia Pacific Family Medicine journal. She assisted in the development of the discipline in Indonesia, Vietnam, Mongolia and Thailand.
Dr. Leonardo was a professor in Parasitology and chair of the CPH Parasitology Department and a University Scientist of the UP System. She has been working on schistosomiasis since 1993, published several papers on the disease and did schistosomiasis program reviews in the Philippines, Laos, and Cambodia. She served as the secretary of the Regional Network on Asian Schistosomiasis and Other Helminth Zoonoses.
