Washington Post columnist Joe Davidson calls the Presidential Rank Awards “serious business.”

So it seems especially appropriate for NLM to congratulate one of its most serious and respected leaders of the past century, Betsy Humphreys, who was recently recognized as a Presidential Rank Awardee at the Distinguished Level.

Betsy Humphreys

Humphreys, who retired as deputy director of NLM last June, worked at the Library for more than 44 years. In addition to serving as acting director of NLM for 15 months prior to Dr. Patricia Flatley Brennan’s appointment, Humphreys is remembered for many contributions, including the Unified Medical Language System, NLM’s activities related to health data standards, and for contributing to the development of NIH and HHS policies on health information technology, public access to research results, and clinical trial registration and results reporting.

The Presidential Rank Awards Program recognizes a select group of career members of the Senior Executive Service (SES) for exceptional performance over an extended period of time.

Two categories of Presidential Rank Award are available: distinguished and meritorious. Distinguished Rank recipients are recognized for sustained extraordinary accomplishment. Only one percent of the career SES or SL/ST may receive this rank. Meritorious Rank recipients are recognized for sustained accomplishment.