Three faculty members will receive the 1999 Health Sciences Foundation Teaching Excellence Awards during Commencement week in May. Chosen from 38 nominees, this year's recipients are Diana Vincent, Ph.D., Lisa Saladin, M.S., and Donna Johnson, M.D.
Diana
Vincent, Ph.D., will receive the Educator-Mentor award for
excellence in mentoring and role modeling.
An assistant professor in the Department of Radiology, College of Medicine, Vincent joined the MUSC faculty in 1993. She also holds an appointment as an associate member of the MUSC Graduate Faculty.
She was nominated in 1998 for a Health Sciences Foundation Developing Scholars Award in Applied/Clinical Sciences, and received an MUSC Applause Award in February 1999.
Vincent was nominated by fourth year medical student Donna Roberts, for whom Vincent has served as mentor, advisor, and teacher.
In her letter of nomination, Roberts wrote: “In general, but especially for a female professional, strong female role models and mentors are difficult to find. I am very fortunate to have found both in Dr. Vincent.”
“As a mentor she has helped me by providing guidance in areas of research and advice concerning major career decisions. As a role model she has shown me how to handle the extensive demands of both a professional and a personal life.”
Vincent frequently speaks to Scout troops and area schools and colleges on mathematics, the brain, medicine, and being a woman in the field of science. Her principal teaching responsibilities at MUSC include lectures and daily radiology conferences for medical students and residents in the areas of mathematics, physics, and functional neuroimaging. She conducts radiology grand rounds, and has supervised a variety of research projects involving students, residents and fellows.
David Ross, an undergraduate student at Yale University, served as a 1997 Summer Research Fellow with Vincent, and describes her as “a meticulous instructor with the ability to analyze complex questions and explain them at the most basic level. Rather than teaching facts, she is insistent that her students understand the broader context of the topic.”
“More significantly, though, Dr. Vincent is a compassionate individual with a remarkable ability to relate to students. She engenders an atmosphere that is both warm and highly conducive to student inquiry.”
Jeanne Hill, M.D., director of the Radiology Residency Training Program and Vincent's colleague, lauded Vincent's teaching skills, and noted that “despite the fact that physics is considered a ‘necessary evil' of radiology training, the residents consistently praise her enthusiasm for the subject, her innate ability to make difficult concepts accessible, and a willingness to go the extra mile to help the individual student. She has volunteered her time to give extra review sessions prior to board exams and provided hours of private instruction with individuals who had specific problems.”
Vincent's own essay on mentoring, which she recently contributed to a forthcoming newsletter of the MUSC organization, Women in Medicine and Science, sums up best what she exemplifies in receiving this year's Educator-Mentor award: “I hear many say they do not have time to mentor. Families, heavy clinic load, paperwork, teaching, committees all preclude having any time or energy left to give that much to yet another project.
“It is not another project. We are teachers and healers. Teaching and healing come in many forms. Let students be there with you while you work, explaining a bit more than usual while you proceed with your otherwise normal routine. Can it get more time consuming and involved? Of course. Some of my most treasured experiences are with the young people who have moved beyond these first casual steps, deeper into my life and career. This is the type of mentoring that cannot be assigned or sought after; it just happens.
“Many students, male and female, have been to my home, watched my struggles with single parenthood, career, being a Ph.D. in an M.D. world, being female in a male world, the hours and dedication it takes to be a researcher, and how to be a team player. “With them, I have spent and spend varying amounts of time and energy. All returned a hundred fold."
Lisa
Saladin, M.S., associate professor of Rehabilitation Sciences
(Physical Therapy) in the College of Health Professions will receive this
year's Educator-Lecturer award for excellence in classroom teaching. She
previously received the 1995 Teaching Excellence Award for Developing Teacher.
Saladin was independently nominated by 20 students (for both Educator-Lecturer and Educator-Mentor award categories) and by her department chairman, James Morrow, Ed.D.
The latter noted that upon joining the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Saladin "immediately established herself as an outstanding teacher and role model. Within a very short period of time, she was recognized as the College of Health Professions Teacher of the Year and received a Health Sciences Foundation Teaching Excellence Award. Since then, she has continued to refine her teaching style and is undoubtedly one of the most outstanding teachers at the Medical University.
“Her dedication to teaching is most acutely demonstrated in the time she devotes to students, her efforts to embrace innovative approaches, her effectiveness in the use of distance education technology, and her desire to offer students meaningful interdisciplinary experiences."
Saladin has been a faculty leader in adapting her teaching to two-way compressed video formats, supplemented with e-mail, chat rooms, and CD-ROM, in order to deliver the physical therapy curriculum to students based at the University Center in Greenville, for which she personally teaches a sizeable component.
Morrow noted that Saladin “has assumed a leadership role in the development and application of technology to both on-site instruction and distance education. As a result of her understanding of the unique characteristics of distance education, she has developed the ability to interact with and engage students at a distance as effectively as she does with on site students and to assist other faculty in developing these skills.”
She also supervises graduate clinical practica, independent studies, and research projects for students enrolled in the physical therapy program, and is currently designing a web-based supplement for a required course on neuroscience.
The many students who nominated and wrote letters in support of Saladin reveal the deep admiration and respect they have for her: “She is talented in large classrooms and just as approachable in one-on-one situations.” “She wants every student to succeed, to reach their highest potential, and will take the extra time in order for that potential to be reached.” “It is refreshing to know that some instructors still love to teach. This characteristic was clear in every class with Lisa.”
“She provides incredible insights to very difficult material and is able to explain topics in a way that all can comprehend. I am able to recall information from my neuroscience course from last summer. I consider that the most powerful testimony of her teaching ability!”
“She presents material in a variety of ways because she realizes that not all students learn in the same way—that our learning methods are as unique as each individual.”
“Lisa always speaks to students like they are her colleagues, having the utmost respect for them and their ideas. I hope that one day I will impact someone's life as she has mine.”
Saladin's own philosophy of teaching is based on three assumptions: “All students have the potential to learn challenging material but many are unaware of the various strategies that may be applied to help them learn effectively and efficiently. Students will learn, retain, and apply information more effectively if they are involved in discovery learning that encourages them to independently analyze and solve problems. And students must be motivated in order to learn.”
Saladin says the latter is the core of her teaching philosophy: “My method of motivating students is to share my passion and excitement about the materials I teach and about the profession I have chosen. If I am not interested in what I am teaching, how can I expect my students to be?”
Donna
Johnson, M.D., is this year's recipient of the Developing
Teacher award for teaching excellence demonstrated by a junior faculty
member with less than four years of teaching experience.
Johnson joined the MUSC faculty as an assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1996.
In her relatively brief tenure at MUSC, Johnson has been nominated for a Golden Apple Award by College of Medicine students, and has been invited twice to participate in the graduating class oath ceremony.
In 1998, she received her department's Medical Student Teaching Award as well as its Council on Resident Education Teaching Award.
Johnson's teaching responsibilities include formal lectures, facilitating small group sessions and supervising clinical experiences in the Ob-Gyn medical student core clerkship rotation, giving guest lectures to physician assistant students, and educating Obstetrics-Gynecology medical residents through grand rounds, clinical conferences, clinical practice and research mentoring.
Johnson was nominated by fourth-year medical student, Kim Phillips, by Ob-Gyn resident, Jennifer Chasedunn-Roark, M.D., and by faculty colleague, Roger Newman, M.D.
The latter noted, “In the short time she has been at MUSC, Donna has established a reputation as a superb teacher, mentor and role model.
“She has received the highest scores of any faculty member in the department for teaching and mentorship from both the residents and from nearly every group of students coming through on core rotations. You can sense her impact by talking with any group of residents or students and encountering the inevitable, ‘Well, Dr. Johnson said.'”
Chasedunn-Roark described Johnson's “joy of learning” as “infectious.”
Phillips praised Johnson's obvious dedication to teaching: “She is always interested in how we are doing, even months after ending a rotation with her. She made me a better student.”
One of Johnson's letters of support was signed by 20 students from the Class of 2000, who agreed, “Being on call with Dr. Johnson was a particular treat. When there was no patient work that needed to be done, she spent time talking to us not only about what we needed to know about obstetrics, but also about being responsible and competent physicians.
“We never pass her in the hospital without her addressing us by name. And when she meets with us individually, we never feel she is going to cut our time short unless a patient needs her. She is clearly among MUSC's finest as a teacher, a physician, and a person.”
Peter VanDorsten, M.D., professor and vice chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, described Johnson's “passion for teaching” as “unparalleled in my experience. She loves students and they love her.”
He noted, however, that Johnson is not an easy teacher: “She is quite the task master, but she is so motivational that students do not even know that they are being worked.”
Johnson's philosophy of teaching focuses on several key elements: “motivating each student to reach his/her utmost potential,” earning students' trust and building their confidence, actively engaging students in learning through a process of inquiry, approaching each lecture “as if it was my first," and “teaching by example.”
Michelle Phillips Hudspeth, a fourth-year medical student, summed up the consensus about Dr. Johnson: “In an era where the word ‘excellence’ is often tossed around like a catchy ad campaign slogan, Dr. Johnson truly exemplifies the meaning of the word in all aspects, as both a physician and a human being.”
The awards will be presented to the recipients by Raymond Greenberg, M.D., Ph.D., vice president for academic affairs and provost, and William Hewitt, chairman of the Health Sciences Foundation Board of Directors, at the pre-commencement dinner with President Edwards and the Board of Trustees on May 20.
The Teaching Excellence Awards program is supported by the Health Sciences Foundation and the Office of the Provost. The program's purpose is to strengthen MUSC's education mission and provide appropriate recognition and reward for faculty teaching excellence.