Two from Boston area named Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ‘Young Leaders’

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

Dr. Somava Stout/ Photo by Allan Hunter Shoemake, courtesy of RWJF

Two people in the Boston area have been recognized with the first Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Young Leaders awards for people under 40. Among the 10 national winners were Rebecca D. Onie, chief executive of Health Leads in Boston, and Dr. Somava Stout, vice president of patient-centered medical home development at Cambridge Health Alliance.

Onie worked with Dr. Barry Zuckerman of Boston Medical Center to create Health Leads while she was a sophomore at Harvard College. The program deploys volunteers in six cities to help patients get connected with resources for food, transportation, job training, and other basic needs for which doctors write prescriptions. She was a 2009 recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, often called the “genius” award.

Stout was medical director at Revere Family Health Center, recognized as a model medical home, and is now expanding that model in primary and specialty care practices in Cambridge, Somerville, and other communities north of Boston.

Stout earned her medicine degree at the University of California, San Francisco, and a master’s in public health at the University of California, Berkeley. She also studied at Harvard Medical School and trained in internal medicine and pediatrics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Boston Children’s Hospital. She is an instructor at Harvard Medical School.

“Dr. Stout’s commitment to the underserved is unparalleled, and we congratulate her on this prestigious honor,” Patrick Wardell, Cambridge Health Alliance chief executive, said in a press release.

See the full list of winners, each of whom were awarded $40,000, on the website for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The foundation celebrated its 40th anniversary during a conference this week.