Norman E. (Ned) Sharpless, MD, Professor of Cancer Policy and Innovation at the UNC School of Medicine, is this year’s winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award.
UNC Health is proud to announce that four members of our team were honored by the Triangle Business Journal as recipients of a 2026 Health Care Leadership Award.
The TBJ published a profile of each award recipient on April 17. Those from UNC Health who were selected, and the category in which they were honored, are:
Dr. Ned Sharpless
– Lifetime Achievement Award
Decades after his career first began, Norman “Ned” Sharpless is back to studying early-stage data while hunting for drugs that could save lives.
The work is familiar, and so is the setting. After leaving the federal government in 2022, Sharpless returned to Chapel Hill, where he began his career as an academic researcher, and formed Jupiter Bioventures, an incubator designed to identify and build early stage biotechnology companies around promising but unproven science.
“This is the most fun job I’ve ever had,” Sharpless said. “It’s all the good things about being a scientist — you get to talk to scientists, you get to look at data, you get to think about ideas — but none of the hassles of being a scientist.”
Sharpless grew up in Greensboro and earned his undergraduate and medical degrees at UNC-Chapel Hill, finishing in 1993. After training as a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Sharpless eventually returned to UNC in 2002, where he ran a lab focused on the basic biology of cancer.
Click here to read the full article.
Dr. Ross Boyce
– Doctor of the Year
What motivates you in your everyday work?
Scientifically, I am fascinated by how interactions between people, animals, insects and the environment all impact disease transmission. More specifically, I am interested in developing new ways to prevent people from being infected and even when they are, providing safe and effective treatments. I love that my work entails collaboration with not only epidemiologists and immunologists — more typical of clinical research — but also veterinarians, entomologists and geographers.
Click here to read the full article.
Dr. Michael Kappelman
– Physician & Physician Practice
What motivates you in your everyday work?
As a pediatric gastroenterologist, I care for children and young adults with inflammatory bowel disease and other gastrointestinal conditions. I have the great privilege of supporting them through difficult moments and celebrating their successes as they grow into adulthood. At the same time, many of the treatment decisions we make still involve uncertainty. That motivates my research: designing studies that answer the questions physicians and patients face in everyday practice so we can provide better, more confident care.
Click here to read the full article.
Dr. Jeffrey Stringer
– Healthcare Innovator/Researcher
What motivates you in your everyday work?
Improving access and quality of obstetrical care for women in poor areas of the world and our state.
What are your chief responsibilities?
I lead the division of global women’s health at UNC.
How does your work impact patients and others in the health care community?
We research novel, resource-appropriate interventions to improve maternal-child health outcomes.
Click here to read the full article.