Charlotte H. Greene, PhD, is in every respect the embodiment of a pioneer faculty member who has long maintained a love for PCOM and its community. For 43 years, Dr. Greene served the College at increasing levels of responsibility: instructor; assistant professor; associate professor; and professor of neuroscience, physiology and pharmacology. She also served for 15 years as director of electron microscopy.
Prior to her tenure at PCOM, Dr. Greene acted as supervisor of the Metabolic Laboratory at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, as a laboratory instructor at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and as an instructor and grade level chair in the Pennsbury School District.
At PCOM, as a scientist-teacher, Dr. Greene steadfastly focused on what she always saw as her primary obligation: educating, training, and inspiring osteopathic and biomedical science students. “I strive to demonstrate to my students that a deep knowledge of physiology will enable them to be better clinicians; without cognitive skills, they may be influenced by vested interests that are not akin to their own practice or sense of ethics,” the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award recipient once shared in a Digest Magazine interview.
She supervised and mentored 45 graduate students through their thesis/research work.
Dr. Greene’s own significant research focusing on developing biological grafts for aortic repair, the role of the somatic component of myocardial infarction in osteopathic diagnoses and treatment, and wound healing interventions has been supported by the American Heart Association, the American Osteopathic Association, the Ben Franklin Partnership, the NIH Biomedical Research Development Grant, and PCOM.
She has held membership in scientific societies including, the Academy of Surgical Research, the American Academy of Osteopathy, the American Physiological Society, the Bioelectromagnetics Society, the Philadelphia Physiological Society, the Philadelphia Society for Microscopy, Sigma XI, and the Wound Healing Society.
A prolific writer, Dr. Greene was published more than 120 times in peer-reviewed journals. She authored several book chapters and newsletter columns. She was editor and contributor to Voices from the Floor: A PCOM Anthology, as well as The Collected Papers of David Heilig (the American Academy of Osteopathy). And she delivered nearly 30 national presentations in her field of expertise.
Dr. Greene holds a bachelor’s degree in biology/chemistry from West Chester State College (now West Chester University) and a doctoral degree in physiology/histology from Thomas Jefferson University. She is a fellow of the Institute for Applied Laser Surgery.
A legend to legions of PCOM alumni and patients, John P. Simelaro, DO ’71, FCCP, FACA, FACOI, is renowned as a scholar and a jokester, a teacher and a compassionate osteopathic physician whose eccentricities and unmistakable South Philly ethnolect have worked their way into the College’s consciousness.
For five decades, Dr. Simelaro served the College at increasing levels of responsibility beginning as a PCOM student, intern, resident and teaching fellow. In 1976, he was recruited to full-time teaching by then-president Thomas M. Rowland, Jr. Dr. Simelaro established the College’s Division of Pulmonary Medicine that same year, and acted as its longtime chairman. He also served as chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine/Pulmonary Critical Care and program director for the Internal Medicine Residency at the College, and as chairman of the Division of Pulmonary Medicine at Tenet City Avenue Hospital.
As a professor, Dr. Simelaro not only lectured on critical care medicine and management, but went into the “trenches” with “the kids,” making primary care doctors out of countless 20-somethings clad in short white coats. “Teaching and fun must be synonymous,” the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award recipient and ten-time Student Council Teaching Award champion always said.
As a clinical researcher, Dr. Simelaro focused on the treatment of asthma and complicated chest infections—conditions he himself suffered from as a young child. Over the years, his studies were supported by the American Lung Association, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, PCOM, and the Roerig Company, among others. He also led a number of pulmonary pharmaceutical studies.
A fellow of the American College of Osteopathic Internists, Dr. Simelaro served on that organization’s board of trustees for eight years. He held executive positions, including president, of the American College of Osteopathic Internists Subsection of Medical Diseases of the Chest. He was a fellow of the American College of Angiology, the American College of Chest Physicians, and the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, and a member of the Pennsylvania Osteopathic Medical Association.
He instituted four programs: the State [Pennsylvania] Tuberculosis Referral Center, the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program, the Pulmonary Fellowship Program, and the Student Athlete Physicals Program.
A prolific writer, Dr. Simelaro was published more than 30 times in professional journals. And he delivered nearly 800 graduate-level lectures, nationally and internationally, in his field of expertise.
In 2007, Dr. Simelaro was the recipient of the O. J. Snyder Memorial Medal, PCOM’s most prestigious award given to those who exemplify the highest ideals of the College and the osteopathic profession.
Dr. Simelaro holds a bachelor’s degree from Saint Joseph’s University and a doctor of osteopathic medicine degree from PCOM. He completed his internship, internal medicine residency, and internal medicine teaching fellowship at PCOM. His pulmonary fellowship was fulfilled at Hahnemann Hospital.
Dr. Simelaro and his wife, Felice, have two grown daughters, Annette and Christina. The couple’s first child, Gina, passed away at the age of three and a half from leukemia; a PCOM scholarship was established in her name.
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