J. Kenneth Petersen, MD (pictured right, receiving award from Jon Almquist, MD) is a pediatrician with a long-standing passion for helping American Indian and Alaska Native children.

Dr. Petersen has served Native American children for over 30 years, starting on the Ft. Peck Indian Reservation. He pursued training to return to the Indian Health Service as a pediatrician. He was chief of pediatrics and medical director of the Alaska Native Medical Center and then researcher and chief of epidemiology with CDC's Arctic Investigations Program (AIP) concentrating on infectious diseases of Alaska Native children. He served as Senior Clinician in Pediatrics for the Indian Health Service from 1989 to 1996. Following retirement he has volunteered with the polio eradication program in Pakistan and with CDC/AIP, focusing on Alaska Native children.