Kurt Petschke receives 2025 Staff Award for Outstanding Service

When Kurt Petschke arrived at the Yale School of Public Health as a research and project coordinator in 2004, his job responsibilities were clear—help manage faculty projects and take care of the multitude of administrative tasks attached to grants.

Petschke quickly distinguished himself as a valued contributor to faculty initiatives, someone who went above and beyond the usual duties of drafting budgets, maintaining accounts, and ensuring compliance. His work evolved from transactional administration to strategic coordination. He became a primary liaison to Yale’s Institutional Review Board, managed communications with subcontractors, and dealt directly with important contacts at the National Institutes of Health.

Nowhere was Petschke’s impact more noticeable than in his role as program manager for the Yale Inclusion Body Myositis (IBM) Project. The project, launched by Yale Professors Martin Shubik, PhD, and A. David Paltiel, PhD ’92, MBA ’85, in 2008, collected demographic and clinical data from patients who were living with the rare and debilitating muscle disease.

Petschke’s initial role was to provide administrative support in managing a modest self-reported national survey. But Petschke, through his own diligence, persistence, and dedication to the project, transformed the initiative into what is now the world’s largest prospective patient database for IBM—a resource that has fundamentally changed how researchers and patients approach this devastating disease.

As a direct result of Petschke’s project leadership, the initial survey expanded on multiple fronts. Petschke helped create a dedicated Yale IBM website that serves as a national information hub for patients, providers, and researchers. He also helped create a free, one-of-a-kind index service that allows patients to benchmark their personal experiences against others in the survey. And the ‘small’ survey? It became Yale’s IBM Registry, a longitudinal history of the world’s largest IBM patient cohort over time. Petschke’s deep involvement in the project led to him being cited as a co-author on several key publications.

Given his outstanding performance over the past two decades, school leaders are honoring Petschke with this year’s Staff Award for Outstanding Service.

"Kurt is more than a brilliant manager; he is a trusted colleague, a knowledgeable advisor, and an exemplary institutional citizen who elevates the work of everyone around him,” multiple YSPH faculty said in a group letter nominating Petschke for the award.

Authors of the nomination letter were Dr. Paltiel, Professor of Public Health (Health Policy); Dr. Susan Busch, PhD, Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Public Health (Health Policy); Dr. Chima Ndumele, PhD, MPH, Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Policy & Management; Dr. Jody Sindelar, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Public Health; and Dr. Joshua Warren, PhD, Professor of Biostatistics.

The faculty described Petschke as “the central pillar” of the IBM project and the project’s representative at national and international events. During a recent patient support group, Petschke fielded questions for over an hour. He writes personalized letters of condolence to bereaved families of Registry participants, manages vendor relationships, and responds to inquiries from around the world. None of this is in his job description.

“We nominate Kurt Petschke not only for his individual achievements but for the standard of excellence he sets for the YSPH community,” faculty said in their letter. “His career demonstrates how outstanding staff members can transcend their roles, creating work that earns national recognition and profoundly improves the lives of the communities we serve. He approaches every task with integrity and a genuine desire to make a difference, embodying the very definition of outstanding service.”

Petschke, in return, praised the outstanding faculty with whom he works. Petschke is currently assigned to the Public Health Modeling Unit (PHMU).

“Working with David and Jody over the past 20+ years has been an absolute pleasure for me, and I am grateful for the opportunity they gave me to begin working at YSPH,” Petschke said. “As my responsibilities have evolved, I now also work with faculty, staff, and students in the Public Health Modeling Unit. I continue to enjoy all that I do, particularly because of the people I work with here in the PHMU and at YSPH. I couldn’t imagine a better place to work!”