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Two graduates of the Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University were recently recognized with distinguished alumni awards.

The awards were presented to Dr. Kyle Colvett and Dr. Allen Everett during the school’s alumni reunion weekend.

Everett, who received the Distinguished Alumni Award for Professional Achievement, is a pediatric cardiologist at Johns Hopkins University, where he has been on faculty since 2003 and is also director of the Pediatric Proteome Center. He received his M.D. degree from Quillen in 1984 and completed his post-doctoral training in pediatrics and pediatric cardiology at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville.

An active scientist, Everett has published more than 175 peer-reviewed articles during his 37-year career and has filed applications for a number of patents. He is also the author of two books.

Everett has had continuous NIH funding for his research for the past 31 years and currently is the principal investigator on two National Heart Lung and Blood Institute R01 awards and one National Institute of Child Health award.

Partnering with Scientific Software Solutions, Everett has helped create several multimedia materials, including the first-ever pediatric cardiac catherization reporting software on the market that is used in more than 80% of cardiac centers in the United States and around the world.

Other projects include the first CD-ROM with an encyclopedic approach to teaching congenital heart disease, as well as the first CD-ROM to provide full-color and comprehensive teaching materials for patients with congenital heart disease.

Everett also helped establish the Cove Point Foundation/Congenital Heart Disease Resource Center, a website providing the most up-to-date information on congenital heart disease in the world.

At Johns Hopkins University, Everett has served as a mentor to dozens of undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows. Beyond the university, he has served as a journal reviewer for 10 journals and as a member of advisory committees and review groups for the American Heart Association, the National Institutes of Health and other organizations.

Colvett, recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award for Service, is medical director of the oncology program with Ballad Health, a position he has held since 1995. During his time at Quillen, he served as class president and student body president. He completed an internship at ETSU in general surgery and was selected for a highly competitive residency in radiation oncology at Harvard Medical School.

He was named Outstanding Resident for the Massachusetts General/Harvard program and he launched an investigational career. Despite having an offer to remain at Harvard, he chose to return to East Tennessee to build a radiation oncology program.

A nationally recognized leader in his field, Colvett is the author of more than 80 peer-reviewed scientific publications and textbook chapters, and he has been the principal investigator for 23 clinical research trials. As a clinician, he sees approximately 1,600 new cancer patients per year.

He has served three terms as the chief of the medical staff of Johnson City Medical Center and was the inaugural winner of the James Gibson Award for medical staff leadership.  Colvett holds a teaching position as clinical professor at ETSU. He has received numerous teaching awards from medical students, residents and fellows.  He has served as the speaker/cloaker for the Quillen White Coat ceremony on four occasions.

Colvett is former president of the Quillen Alumni Society Board of Directors and is currently serving a second term with the ETSU National Alumni Society Board.

Throughout his career, Colvett has worked in medical missions in multiple foreign countries, including Haiti, Jamaica and Kenya, and has been a military reservist since 1988.