The 2025 ARP President’s & Merit Awards

Ms. Rodamaker has served the ACR/ARP in many capacities, including as the ARP member on the ACR Committee on Rheumatology Training and Workforce, the ACR Committee on Education, the ARP Annual Meeting Planning Committee and the ARP Executive Committee as Annual Planning Meeting co-chair in 2021. She has also served on the Rheumatology Research Foundation Development Advisory Council, the ACR Committee on Membership and Awards and the ARP Practice Committee.

At the local level, Ms. Rodamaker was previously active with the Denver Chapter of the National Association of Orthopedic Nurses, serving as treasurer for many years, and was co-chair of the Advanced Practice Council at the University of Colorado Hospital.

“I am so honored to receive the Addie Thomas Service Award,” says Ms. Rodamaker. “I have long enjoyed being a volunteer and participating with the ACR/ARP committees.

“When I went to my first annual ACR meeting I had no idea how many people would be there,” Ms. Rodamaker continues. “At that time, I was the only NP in my practice and wanted to start to get involved with ACR/ARP. I knew the way to do that was to volunteer and get to know people. I have made lifelong friends and now know so many colleagues who have helped me along my professional journey. Thank you again for this amazing recognition; I am so honored.”

Distinguished Scholar Award

The Distinguished Scholar Award, presented to an ARP member who demonstrates exceptional achievements in scholarly activities pertinent to arthritis and rheumatic disease, was given to Afton L. Hassett, PsyD, associate professor and director of pain and opioid research, Department of Anesthesiology, Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center, University of Michigan (UM) Medical School, Ann Arbor.

A licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Hassett serves as a principal investigator at UM’s Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center, where she conducts interdisciplinary research focused on the cognitive, affective and behavioral factors influencing chronic pain. She is widely recognized as a leading expert on resilience and pain, and delivered the keynote address at the 2023 National Institutes of Health Pain Consortium Symposium on Advances in Pain Research—Resilience and Pathways to Recovery.

Dr. Hassett’s research centers on the role of positive emotions in people with pain, as well as innovative interventions to foster resilience, enhance life satisfaction and improve pain self-management. Currently, she is a multiple principal investigator (MPI) on the Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative Back Pain Consortium (BACPAC) Mechanistic Research Center, where a sequential multiple assignment, randomized trial (SMART) design clinical trial is used to apply a personalized medicine approach to improve outcomes for patients with chronic low back pain. She also serves as the site principal investigator (PI) for BACPAC’s multisite collaborative clinical trial, Biomarkers for Evaluating Spine Treatments (BEST). More recently, Dr. Hassett is an MPI on a new UC2 award that is part of the HEAL Initiative’s INTERACT program supported by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.