January 25, 2023 | Volume V, Issue 2

Faculty Educators and Scholars Recognized at Teaching Academy Ceremony

Faculty from across the Larner College of Medicine gathered in the Sullivan Classroom January 11 for the Teaching Academy’s annual Induction and Award Ceremony. The event marked the start of the annual Snow Season Education Retreat, which took place at UVM’s Davis Center on January 12 and 13. (Find more information about the 2023 Snow Season Retreat here.)

Faculty recognized with 2023 Teaching and Educational Excellence Awards include L. E. Faricy, M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics; Bronwyn Bryant, M.D., assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine; Molly Rideout, M.D., professor of pediatrics; Anthony Williams, M.D., assistant professor of family medicine; and Cynthia Forehand, Ph.D., professor of neurological sciences. Faricy received the Innovation in Curriculum Development or Pedagogy Award, Bryant was the recipient of the Learner Assessment Award, Rideout was honored with the Educational Scholarship Award, Williams received the Outstanding Contribution Award, and Forehand was honored with the Frederick C. Morin III, M.D., Educational Leadership Award.

The event also featured the presentation of UVM Health Network Medical Group Education Awards. Anisha Rimal, M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics, and Miller Celestin, RN, MSN, CEN, CMSRN, clinical instructor of nursing, as principal investigator and co-investigator, respectively, received the UVM Health Network Medical Group Education Grant for their project, titled “Building a Sense of Belonging and Improving Mentorship Skills: An Interprofessional BIPOC Mentorship Program for Health Professions Students.” Clara Keegan, M.D., associate professor of family medicine, received the Graduate Medical Education Educator of the Year award. Jennifer Kelly, D.O., associate professor of medicine, was named Continuing Medical Education Educator of the Year. 

View the list of Teaching Academy inductees and additional information about the awards presented at the event.

Pictured above (left to right): Teaching Academy inductees Astill-Vaccaro, Jirka, Jennifer Covino, M.D.,* Pawlowski, Strange, Moaven, and James Wolf, M.D.* (*Spring 2022 cohort)

Peer-to-Peer: Medical Students Support Each Other’s Education

Ensuring medical students’ academic success and well-being relies on having access to numerous resources. At the Larner College of Medicine, those assets include the students themselves, who create and host peer-based learning opportunities for their junior colleagues. The interactive and collaborative nature of peer-based learning helps to engage learners, facilitate the understanding of complex topics, and build confidence for both the tutor and the tutee. 

Last fall, Class of 2025 medical student Richard Vuong launched “Supplemental Processing,” a bi-weekly content review and tutoring session for first-year medical students. Vuong worked with Tim Moynihan, Ph.D., director of academic achievement, to set up the pilot program, which is based on an active learning framework that Vuong participated in as an undergraduate student at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, when he was planning on applying to medical school.

Another program launch last fall by medical students Sam Afshari ’24, Megan Zhou ’25, and Will Brown ’23 featured an interactive session for Class of 2026 medical students to practice cross-sectional imaging, a relatively new technology that uses advanced imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance (MR) to display a body in cross-section, providing a look “inside” the chest, abdomen, or pelvis. 

Students attending peer-led learning sessions benefit from their colleagues’ experience, and receive study tips and mnemonics that helped the senior medical students succeed during their earlier years of medical school. The mentor-mentee relationship also has value outside of academics.

“Students who take care of each other, who support each other to be successful, those are the kind of physicians that you want to have out in the world,” said Director of Student Well-Being Lee Rosen, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry.

Read the full article.

Pictured above: Vuong hosting one of his bi-weekly sessions for first-year medical students in the Reardon Classroom in the Medical Education Center.

Cancer Medicine Study Explores Racial Disparities in Cytopenia-Related Cancer Death

Cytopenia — a condition in which there is a lower-than-normal number of blood cells — is a risk factor for cancer death through conditions like chronic inflammation and clonal hematopoiesis, which is linked to the development of blood cancers. These conditions are more prevalent in Black Americans compared to White Americans; however, the relationship of cytopenia and racial disparities in cancer mortality is unknown.

In a new study published in Cancer Medicine, University of Vermont Cancer Center members Diego Adrianzen-Herrera, M.D., assistant professor of medicine, and Neil Zakai, M.D., professor of medicine, and colleagues found that cytopenia is a risk factor for cancer death with stronger association in Black compared to White people; however, cytopenia is not a mediator in the Black-to-White disparity in cancer mortality.

The study's findings offer guidance for future research on the causes of racial disparities in cancer death and could help identify mechanisms for racial disparities in cancer mortality.

Read the full article.

Join storyteller, author, and cultural geographer Carolyn Finney, Ph.D., for the University of Vermont’s 2023 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration keynote presentation, “The Fullness of Ourselves,” on Thursday, January 26, at 4 p.m. The event will take place in person at UVM’s Ira Allen Chapel and will also be streamed live. Tickets are free but are required for both in-person and online attendees.

Dr. Finney, who is the author of Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors (UNC Press, 2014), is deeply interested in issues related to identity, differences, creativity, and resilience. Her work aims to develop greater cultural competency within environmental organizations and institutions, challenge media outlets on their representation of difference, and increase awareness of how privilege shapes who gets to speak to environmental issues and determine policy. She received B.A. and M.A. degrees in gender and environmental issues in Kenya and Nepal, and a Ph.D. in geography from Clark University, where she was a Fulbright Scholar and Canon National Parks Science Scholar. Along with public speaking nationally and internationally, writing, media engagements, consulting, and teaching at such institutions as Wellesley College, the University of California–Berkeley, and the University of Kentucky, she served on the U.S. National Parks Advisory Board for eight years.

Learn more about Dr. Finney.

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