Chancellor Padilla received the “5th R. Rodney Howell Award for Excellence in Newborn Health” in Minneapolis (Minnesota, USA) in recognition of her leadership in improving the lives of newborns and in her visionary work in enhancing human genetics, metabolic research, and newborn screening, not just in the Philippines, but around the world.

The award is named after an outstanding pediatrician and leader in newborn screening since the 1960s. Dr. Howell is a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Chairman Emeritus of Pediatrics, and Member of the John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.