2009 Hewlett Award Winner
This Year's Hewlett Award Goes to Neonatologist and Faculty Advisor 
David Stevenson is the second pediatrician to receive the Albion Walter Hewlett Award. Given as a tribute to Albion Walter Hewlett, professor and executive head of the Department of Medicine from 1916 -1925, the award recognizes a physician who demonstrates compassionate care and extraordinary clinical skills. In his practice as a neonatologist, and his work as vice dean and senior associate dean for academic affairs, David Stevenson, MD, Harold K. Faber, professor of pediatrics, exemplifies those values every single day.
“He encompasses everything that is outstanding about an academician. He is a superb clinician and wonderful teacher,” said Philip Sunshine, MD, emeritus professor of pediatrics, a friend and long time colleague.
Long Relationship with Stanford
Stevenson came to Stanford as an undergraduate in 1967 and fell in love with the University. He left but later returned to do his postdoctoral work in neonatology, joining the faculty in 1979. Although, the school has grown and the number of buildings has increased, some things haven’t changed very much.
He remarked, “It’s still a collection of incredibly bright intellects and people who make amazing contributions. The spirit of the place has remained pretty much the same and been rekindled over and over again in a really important way.”
Stevenson’s academic life is a balance between intense academic issues, which involve many departments and his research in newborn jaundice, teaching, and practice. “Taking care of babies is big part of who I am as a physician,” said Stevenson. “From the outset, neonatology is a field that required and embraced research. You couldn’t take care of increasingly smaller premature people without asking questions every time you did it. We learned early about clinical investigation, randomized controlled trials, and things of that nature.“
An Honorable Profession
Stevenson admits that being a physician is a way of life that often requires adaptations and sacrifices. And yet, it’s also an honor, which starts from the moment you get your MD degree and begin your training. “By virtue of the trust between a patient and physician, you have the privilege to touch someone physically to understand how you might be able to help them. It embraces values which you have to practice every day to be a good physician. And that’s the same, whether you’re in pediatrics or in medicine.”