The Hepatitis B Foundation, a global nonprofit organization based in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, said it recently chose Dr. Su Wang, the medical director of Viral Hepatitis Programs and the Center for Asian Health at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, to receive the Foundation’s 2023 Community Commitment Award.
Wang is a practicing internist who also lives with hepatitis B. She was diagnosed when she donated blood in college.
A dedicated advocate to improving awareness, screening and linkage-to-care and treatment for people living with hepatitis B, Wang is a member of the Hepatitis B Foundation board of directors. She is immediate past president of the World Hepatitis Alliance, a patient-led international organization whose mission is to harness the power of people living with viral hepatitis to achieve its elimination.
“We have never had another advocate like Su Wang, who merges her clinical expertise with her lived experience to elevate the voices of those most impacted by hepatitis B,” Dr. Chari Cohen, Hepatitis B Foundation president, said. “She has been leading the global charge to motivate patients, community leaders, clinicians and policy-makers to prioritize hepatitis B elimination efforts. Su has a global reach, and a local impact — changing lives for her own patients, her local community and around the world.”
Wang has had an impressive impact in the field of hepatitis B. She has created hepatitis B screening and linkage-to-care initiatives in the Asian and foreign-born communities in northern New Jersey and New York City. She leads primary care-based hepatitis care programs and advocates for simplification and expansion of treatment guidelines. As a mother herself, she has been passionate about elimination of mother-to-child transmission and has designed the HepB Moms programs for pregnant women and their infants. She has served on several World Health Organization committees, including for guideline development and for the triple elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B. She was recognized as a Hep B Champion in 2014 by the Hepatitis B United National Coalition, a HepB Hero by the San Francisco Hep B Free in 2020 and as a 2022 Elimination Champion by the Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination.
“I am humbled to receive HBF’s 2023 Community Commitment Award,” Wang said. “I strongly believe that many of my accomplishments would not have been possible without the work that HBF has done in laying the groundwork for hepatitis B. Together, we will continue to be the voice for those living with hepatitis B around the world — many who do not have a voice.”
The Community Commitment Award is presented annually at the Hepatitis B Foundation Gala, which will be held March 10. The 12 previous recipients include a wide range of advocates including #justB storytellers, dedicated philanthropists and valued advisers to the foundation.
