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Distinguished Humanitarian Award

Scott A. Leckman, MD ‘83Scott Leckman, MD

Dr. Leckman is a general surgeon in private practice in Salt Lake City. He is Chairman of the Board of RESULTS, an organization dedicated to creating the political will to end poverty. As a volunteer for over 30 years he has successfully advocated for increasing U.S. commitment to maternal and child health, fighting HIV, TB and malaria, and the spread of microfinance throughout the world.

In 2001, he helped initiate the Health Access Project, with the mission to improve access and coordinate comprehensive health care for low-income uninsured individuals in Salt Lake County. More than 600 physicians and nine hospitals in the county are providing free care to qualified individuals. Thus far, more than $22 million of health care has been donated. In 2014, in recognition of this effort, he received the Surgical Volunteerism Domestic Award from the American College of Surgeons.

As a civilian surgeon with Project Hope, working with the US Navy, he has operated in Indonesia after the Tsunami, in Mississippi after Katrina, in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands and in Latin America. He has taught local surgeons hernia repair using mosquito net for mesh, in Nigeria, Peru, Cambodia, Ecuador, and Thailand. In addition, he has taught laparoscopic surgery to surgeons in Mongolia.

He regularly organizes trips for Utah Rotarians to India where they participate in Rotary’s greatest project, the eradication of polio, by immunizing children with polio vaccine. In 2015, he was awarded The Rotary Foundation, Certificate of Excellence, in recognition of his valuable service to the cause of polio eradication.