The Children’s National Health System, a pediatric hospital based in D.C., presented University President Steven Knapp with an award last week for helping to establish GW’s presence at the hospital.

Knapp, along with three other local officials, received a Chairman’s Special Award from the hospital Wednesday. He was noted for building a partnership between GW and the hospital, where third and fourth year School of Medicine and Health Sciences pediatrics students are trained and SMHS’s pediatrics department is based.

In March, researchers in the department received a $6.2 million grant to study pediatric dysphagia, a chronic difficulty with feeding and swallowing commonly found in children with brain development disorders, according to a University release.

Ward 7 Council member Yvette Alexander, THEARC executive director Edmund Fleet and Catherine Merrill Williams, the president and publisher of Washingtonian Media, also received Chairman’s Special Awards.

Mayor Muriel Bowser gave a keynote address at the event and noted the hospital’s role as a major employer in the city, according to a hospital release.