The Distinguished Alumni Award of Rush Medical College was established in 1968 to honor alumni who have given distinguished service to the profession of medicine. The award is presented biennially by the Alumni Association to a graduate who has brought distinction to the college through broadly recognized professional accomplishments. It is the highest honor that the Alumni Association can bestow.

The 2011 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient is Linda P. Fried, MD, MPH (1979).

Linda P. Fried, MD, MPH (pictured with Rush Medical College Alumni Association President David Hines, MD 1981, GME) is a leader in the fields of epidemiology and geriatrics. She has dedicated her career to the science of healthy aging, particularly the prevention of frailty and disability, and design of approaches that will strengthen the benefits to all of being an aging society. The latter includes the design of health-promoting activities and roles for older adults that solve major societal needs.

Dr. Fried co-founded Experience Corps, a community-based senior volunteer program designed to support the academic success of children while also serving as a health promotion program for older adults. Dr. Fried's scientific career has defined the phenotype of frailty as a new clinical syndrome, provided evidence as to its causes and identified opportunities for prevention. Her research has also identified approaches to prevent cardiovascular disease and the loss of independence with aging.

Dr. Fried is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the APHA Archstone Award, the U.S. national Bridge Builders Award, the Maxwell Pollock Award of the Gerontological Society of America, and has been named a "Living Legend in Medicine" by the U.S. Congress. Dr. Fried is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine and of the Association of American Physicians where she serves on the governing Council. She is a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council and Council on an Aging World, and of the MacArthur Network on an Aging Society.

Previously, Dr. Fried served as the Mason F. Lord Professor of Geriatric Medicine at The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, with appointments in the School of Medicine, and Bloomberg School of Public Health and School of Nursing. She directed The Johns Hopkins Center of Excellence for Aging Research, the Center on Aging and Health, and the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, and led major multidisciplinary research programs on the causes and consequences cardiovascular disease, frailty, cognitive impairment and disability in older adults, and approaches to prevention.

Dr. Fried received her MD from Rush Medical College in Chicago and her MPH from Johns Hopkins. She trained in internal medicine at Rush Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago and in general internal medicine, cardiovascular epidemiology and geriatrics at Johns Hopkins.