Clearwater, Fl, March 21, 2006— The Arthritis Research Institute of America, headquartered in Clearwater, FL has announced the winner of the Betty Jean Hall Memorial Prize for Epidemiological Research in Osteoarthritis. Frances V. Wilder, PhD, Director of Research for ARIA and 1998 University of South Florida graduate in Epidemiology and Biostatistics traveled to Chicago to award the $5000 prize. Cheryl Der Ananian, PhD, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Illinois at Chicago, took the honor for her original manuscript on the topic “Exercise and Osteoarthritis: Where are we now?” Dr. Wilder says “The manuscript is exemplary. With her cooperation, we intend to seek its publication.” Dr. Der Ananian is a recent graduate of the Norman J. Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina and is currently doing a National Institute of Aging Fellowship.


The scholarship was established for the purpose of attracting new investigators into the field of osteoarthritis research. This was a competitive scholarship for a public health graduate student. Students submitted an original manuscript according to ARIA guidelines. This memorial scholarship was sponsored and funded by The Arthritis Research Institute of America, Inc.

Betty Jean Hall

Betty Jean Hall was the Executive Director of the Arthritis Research Institute of America, Inc. (ARIA) from 1990 - 2003. Her dedicated commitment and personal enthusiasm carried the institute from its modest beginnings into the world’s largest repository of sequential radiographic data for osteoarthritis. It was her dedication and hard work that established ARIA as a world-class research facility. With a lifelong career in critical care nursing, ARIA benefited from her clinical background. During her thirteen-year tenure, Betty Jean also served as the institute’s nurse, conducting over 13,000 physical exams. Upon her death in 2003, the ARIA Board of Directors unanimously agreed to create a scholarship memorial in an effort to honor her lasting legacy.