2025 AOA Award Winners
Each year, AOA members select two renowned peers for special recognition. Congratulations to our 2025 winners!
Kevin P. Black, MD, FAOA
Distinguished Clinician Educator Award Recipient
Michael A. Simon, MD, FAOA
Distinguished Contributions to Orthopaedics Award Recipient
About the 2025 Award Winners
Dr. Black completed medical school and residency at the University of Rochester, followed by a sports medicine fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic. After being the founding director of the sports medicine program at the Medical College of Wisconsin, he joined the Penn State College of Medicine and Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in 1993.
While there he served as residency program director prior to becoming the C. McCollister Evarts Professor and Chair from 2002 to 2019. From 2013 to 2019 he also served as vice dean of the College’s regional medical campus in University Park, leading its transition from a two to four-year medical curriculum. In 2019 he was appointed to the role of interim dean and Physician in Chief of the Penn State College of Medicine and Hershey Medical Center, a role he remained in for over four years. After exiting that role, he became special advisor to the dean, and in February 2025 was asked to assume responsibility as vice dean for educational affairs for the college of medicine, a position he continues to hold.
He has received the Traveling Fellowship Award from the Clinical Orthopaedic Society and was a European Traveling Fellow of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine. While in Wisconsin he was orthopaedic consultant for the Green Bay Packers, and for 32 years has been a team physician for the Hershey Bears hockey team.
He was course director for five years for the academy’s “Course for Orthopaedic Educators”, as well as two years for the AOA’s “Becoming a More Effective Educator” course.
He has twice been named teacher of the year by the orthopaedic surgery residents and recognized as a Distinguished Educator for Penn State College of Medicine. He has served in leadership positions on numerous state and national medical organizations, including the executive committee/boards of the American Orthopaedic Association, American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and the American Orthopaedic Society of Sports Medicine, president of the Pennsylvania Orthopaedic Society, and president of the American Orthopaedic Association. In 2022 he was recognized by the American Orthopaedic Association as a Pillar of the Orthopaedic Profession.
Dr. Michael Simon received his medical education at the University of Michigan in 1967 followed by an internship and general surgery residency, also at Michigan. From 1969 to 1971, he served in the U.S. Air Force, first at Nellis Air Force Base, then in Vietnam. In 1971 he returned to Michigan to begin an orthopaedic surgery residency. Following this he completed a fellowship in musculoskeletal pathology/oncology at the University of Florida and achieved board certification. He was appointed to the faculty of the Section of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Chicago as an Assistant Professor in July of 1975. He quickly rose through the ranks to Associate Professor in 1979 and Professor in 1983. He was Acting Chief of the Section 1983 to 1984 and was named Chief of the Section of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation Medicine in 1987, a position he held until 2006. He discontinued his leadership position as the Chief of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation Medicine as of July 1, 2006.
Dr. Simon has published over 200 scientific articles, book chapters, abstracts, and has been a frequent Visiting Professor. In 2005, Dr. Simon, his wife Barbara, daughter Susan Kalt along with his son-in-law David Kalt, established the Simon and Kalt Families Professor in Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Chicago. In 2021, Dr Simon and his wife Barbara establish the Simon Diversity Scholarship.
Dr. Simon was the Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education/DIO, Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery from 2003 through 2018 at the University of Chicago. He has been Chair or President of numerous national, regional and international professional organizations, including serving as President of the Illinois Orthopaedic Association, the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society, the Academic Orthopaedic Society, the American Orthopaedic Association, and the Chairman of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery, the Board of Trustees of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery and the Residency Review Committee for Orthopaedic Surgery.
He has been honored as an American British Canadian Exchange Fellow by the AOA in 1983 and received the AOA Smith and Nephew Distinguished Clinician Educator Award in 2005. In 2018, Dr. Simon was awarded the prestigious Pillar of the Orthopaedic Profession by the American Orthopaedic Association.
Currently, completing Dr. Simon is a board member of two townhome associations, historian of the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society and the American Orthopaedic Association, and completing a history of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation Medicine.
View the AOA Award Winners Hall of Fame. Learn more about the Awards criteria, including how to submit a nomination.