The 2025 ACR Awards of Distinction

Dr. Neogi has served the ACR in multiple capacities over the past 15 years. Most recently, she is chair of the ACR Quality of Care Committee, which oversees criteria, guidelines, guidance and quality measures. She has previously served as co-chair on the Classification and Response Criteria Subcommittee, co-chair of an ACR abstract category, advisory editor for Arthritis & Rheumatology and in leadership roles in ACR OA and gout treatment guidelines, as well as in ACR-EULAR classification criteria for RA, gout and calcium pyrophosphate deposition disease.

“This award is especially meaningful because I was nominated by former mentees, some of whom are now collaborators, and I’ve even had the opportunity to mentor some of their own mentees—a mentor ‘grandparent’ of sorts,” says Dr. Neogi. “I enjoy witnessing the success of others whose journeys I may have played even a small role in helping to shape, and I’m honored that something I find rewarding is being recognized by the College.”

Dr. Weiss

Pamela Weiss, MD, MSCE, is a professor of pediatrics and epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, and serves as attending and clinical research director in the Division of Rheumatology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). She completed her undergraduate studies at Princeton University, N.J., medical school at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, and pediatric residency and rheumatology fellowship at CHOP. She also earned a Master of Science in clinical epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Weiss’s research centers on early diagnosis, precise phenotyping and targeted treatment of pediatric spondyloarthritis (SpA). She has led the development of several key tools and measures, including the Juvenile Spondyloarthritis (JSpA) Disease Activity Index (JSpADA), the JSpA Flare Outcome (JSpAflare) and magnetic resonance imaging-based definitions of sacroiliac joint lesions characteristic of axial disease in juvenile SpA. She also spearheaded the development and validation of classification criteria for axial involvement in juvenile SpA.

Her expertise spans clinical trials, comparative effectiveness research, pharmacoepidemiology and leading multicenter collaborations. She is the principal investigator on a NIAMS K24 mentoring award focused on developing the next generation of pediatric rheumatology researchers. Her mentees have gone on to receive funding from the NIH and foundations, and have earned distinctions including ACR Distinguished Fellow Awards, Rheumatology Research Foundation Investigator Awards, and NIH K awards, reflecting her strong commitment to mentorship and academic development.

Dr. Weiss has held numerous national leadership roles, including on the ACR Pediatric Rheumatology Special Committee and Guidelines Subcommittee, and as co-chair of the Juvenile Arthritis Treatment Recommendations Committee. She contributed to the Axial SpA Systematic Review Panel and has been an invited educator for the ACR Virtual Rheumatology Practicum.