November 5, 2026 – The American Thyroid Association® is delighted to recognize Spyridoula Maraka, MD, MS, with the 2026 Van Meter Award. Established in 1930 and given annually The Van Meter Award Lectureship recognizes outstanding contributions to research on the thyroid gland or related subjects. The award is given to an investigator who is not older than the age of forty-five in the year of the award. The Van Meter award winner is kept secret until the time of the award lecture during the ATA Annual Meeting.
Dr. Maraka presented “Less Can Be More: Advancing Evidence-Based Thyroid Care” on November 5th during the 95th ATA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is a Clinician-Scientist and Chief of the Endocrine Section at the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System (CAVHS), Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), and Program Director of the Endocrinology Fellowship Program.
Dr. Maraka is internationally recognized for her research on thyroid disease in pregnancy and evidence-based thyroid hormone therapy. Her work has demonstrated substantial overuse of levothyroxine therapy in the United States and has shown that many patients with subclinical hypothyroidism can safely discontinue treatment while maintaining normal thyroid function. She has published more than 20 original articles on thyroid disease in pregnancy and served on the Task Force for the 2026 American Thyroid Association Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Thyroid Disease During Preconception, Pregnancy, and the Postpartum Period. She currently leads implementation science research funded by a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Merit Award aimed at reducing unnecessary thyroid hormone treatment.
In addition to her research accomplishments, Dr. Maraka serves in numerous national leadership roles, including within the VA Endocrine Field Advisory Board, the Endocrine Society Clinical Affairs Core Committee and Guideline Methodologists, and the American Thyroid Association, where she is the current Chair of Women in Thyroidology. Her contributions have been recognized with multiple honors, including the 2020 Women Advancing Thyroid Research Award from the ATA and the 2025 Rising Star in Endocrinology Award from the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology.
Dr. Maraka graduated summa cum laude from the University of Athens Medical School, Greece and pursued postgraduate research training at Northwestern University. She completed residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Connecticut and fellowship in Endocrinology at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, where she also earned a master’s degree in Clinical and Translational Science.
The ATA is honored to recognize Dr. Maraka and her work with this prestigious award.
About the American Thyroid Association® (ATA)
The ATA is dedicated to transforming thyroid care through clinical excellence, education, scientific discovery and advocacy in a collaborative and diverse community. ATA® is an international professional medical society with over 1,700 members from seventy countries around the world.
The ATA® promotes thyroid awareness and information through its online Clinical Thyroidology® for the Public (distributed free of charge to over 12,000 patients and public subscribers) and extensive, authoritative explanations of thyroid disease and thyroid cancer in both English and Spanish. The ATA® website www.thyroid.org serves as a trusted clinical resource for patients and the public looking for reliable thyroid-related information.
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