One is a pulmonologist. Another is a surgeon. There is a neurobiologist and two psychiatrists. And the list goes on. Their personalities are as different as their specialties, but this prestigious group shares one trait: They have all been recognized by students and peers as excellent teachers.
Each year since 1982, the Program in Medical Education at Harvard Medical School has honored faculty members who, “through their excellence in teaching, would impact and influence the professional lives of students long after graduation.”
Dean for Medical Education Jules Dienstag told those assembled May 7 in the Carl W. Walter Amphitheatre that the award ceremony had been renamed.
“One of our most illustrious and celebrated teachers and role models is Dan Federman,” Dienstag said. “This year, we honored him and the importance of teaching by naming the teaching awards the Daniel D. Federman Teaching Awards Ceremony.” Federman, former HMS dean for medical education, is the Carl W. Walter Distinguished Professor of Medicine.
Another notable change in the ceremony was the addition of the annual Richard A. Gillis Award for Excellence in Medical Education. The inaugural recipient was the Office of Curriculum Services, the staff team that Gillis, former executive director of Curriculum Programs, established and led until his death in October 2011.
Other honorees included Richard Schwartzstein, the Ellen and Melvin Gordon Professor of Medical Education, who received a Donald O’Hara, Ph.D. Faculty Prize for Excellence in Teaching. A student’s nomination letter lauded Schwartzstein’s “truly wonderful gift for making even the toughest physiology concepts understandable.”
Dienstag praised Schwartzstein and his colleagues for their skill and for their commitment to teaching and to their students.
“Think of those few teachers who had a lasting, life-altering influence, who demonstrated genuine concern that their students were actually learning, who elucidated the mystifying, who challenged students to grow intellectually,” said Deinstag. “These are the kinds of teachers we honor today.”
The following faculty members were honored on May 7, 2012, at the Daniel D. Federman Teaching Awards Ceremony:
2012 Harvard Medical School Donald O’Hara Faculty Prize for Excellence in Teaching
Emma Eggleston, HMS instructor in population medicine
Richard Schwartzstein, Ellen and Melvin Gordon Professor of Medical Education and director of the HMS Academy
2012 Harvard Medical School Charles McCabe Faculty Prize for Excellence in Teaching
Nora Osman, instructor in medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Fidencio Saldaña, HMS instructor in medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and faculty assistant dean for Student Affairs in the Office of Recruitment and Multicultural Affairs
2012 Harvard Medical School Special Faculty Prize for Sustained Excellence in Teaching
David Cardozo, HMS assistant professor of neurobiology and associate dean for Basic Graduate Studies
S. Robert Stone Award for Excellence in Teaching at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Bernard Chang, HMS associate professor of neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Leo Blacklow Award at Mount Auburn Hospital
Kyle Pond, HMS instructor in medicine at Mount Auburn Hospital
The Bernard Lown Award for Excellence in Teaching at Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Selwyn Rogers, Jr., HMS associate professor of surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Bruce Feinberg, HMS instructor in obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital
The Masland Award for Excellence in Teaching at Children’s Hospital Boston
Thomas Sandora, HMS assistant professor of pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Boston
Bulfinch Medical Student Teaching Award at Massachusetts General Hospital
Carey York-Best, HMS assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Massachusetts General Hospital
Cynthia N. Kettyle Teaching Award/Harvard Departments of Psychiatry
Todd Griswold, HMS clinical instructor in psychiatry at Cambridge Health Alliance
AAMC Humanism in Medicine HMS Nominee
Anthony D’Amico, professor of radiation oncology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital
L. James Wiczai, Jr. Award
Lucia Renata Vicari, HMS Medical Education Coordinator
Richard A. Gillis Award for Excellence in Medical Education
The HMS Office of Curriculum Services
