LCOM & Department News

Teaching Academy Retreat Events Focus on New Members, Awards, & Assessment

January 18, 2020 by Jennifer Nachbur

​The Teaching Academy at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont held its annual Snow Season Education Retreat on January 15-16, 2020 in the College’s Medical Education Center and UVM Davis Center. Highlights included an Induction Ceremony for 2019 new members and advanced members, the presentation of the annual Teaching and Education Awards, and the first annual Snow Season Debate, moderated by Professor and Chair of Pediatrics Lewis First, M.D.

Larner College of Medicine Dean Richard L. Page, M.D. (right), congratulates Elise Everett, M.D., at the Teaching Academy's Teaching and Education Awards event. (Photo: David Seaver)

The Teaching Academy at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont held its annual Snow Season Education Retreat on January 15-16, 2020 in the College’s Medical Education Center and UVM Davis Center. Highlights included an Induction Ceremony for 2019 new members and advanced members, the presentation of the annual Teaching and Education Awards, and the first annual Snow Season Debate, moderated by Professor and Chair of Pediatrics Lewis First, M.D.

The induction and awards event was led by Teaching Academy Director Kathryn Huggett, Ph.D., who announced that since its establishment in 2014, the Teaching Academy has grown to include 163 members, including 18 at the Distinguished Educator level, 42 at the Master Teacher level, 86 at the Member level, and 17 at the Protégé level. Presenters at the event included Karen Lounsbury, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and Foundations director, Dean Richard L. Page, M.D., and UVM Health Network Medical Group President Claude Deschamps, M.D.

Jan Carney, M.D., M.P.H., associate dean for public health and health policy, received the Frederick C. Morin Educational Leadership Award, which recognizes an individual who has demonstrated an exemplary and sustained record of service in educational leadership, committee service, and/or administration. Elise Everett, M.D., M.S., associate professor and clerkship director for obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences, received both the Innovation in Curriculum Development or Pedagogy Award and the Educational Scholarship Award. William Raszka, M.D., professor of pediatrics and Attacks and Defenses course director, was recognized with the Learner Assessment Award. Garth Garrison, M.D., associate professor of medicine, received the Outstanding Contribution Award.

UVM Health Network Medical Group education award recipients were also recognized at the event. Dr. Deschamps presented the Education Grant to Adam Ulano, M.D., assistant professor of radiology as principal investigator (PI), and co-PIs Ryan Walsh, M.D., and Michael Bazylewicz, M.D., assistant professors of radiology; the Graduate Medical Education Educator of the Year to Joseph Winget, M.D., associate professor of medicine; and the Continuing Medical Education Educator of the Year to Cheung Wong, M.D., Berta Pi-Sunyer Williams Professor and director of gynecologic oncology in obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences.

Following the debate on making the USMLE pass/fail, Snow Season Retreat attendees participated in sessions on the following topics: development of evaluation tools; assessment and program evaluation for interprofessional education; narrative assessment; teaching quality improvement; assessing learners at any level; writing inclusive cases; faculty resilience; teaching for health equity; and planning for continuous quality improvement.

A total of 40 faculty members were recognized during the induction ceremony, including:

Distinguished Educator
Douglas Johnson, Ph.D., Professor, Microbiology & Molecular Genetics
Amanda Kennedy, Pharm.D., Associate Professor, Medicine
Molly Rideout, M.D., Associate Professor, Pediatrics

Master Teacher
Naiim All, M.D., Assistant Professor, Radiology
Richard Bounds, M.D.,
Associate Professor, Surgery
Keith Curtis, M.D.,
Assistant Professor, Surgery
Nathalie Feldman, M.D., Assistant Professor, Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences
Peter Holoch, M.D.,
Assistant Professor, Surgery
Macaulay Onuigbo, M.D., Professor, Medicine
Mitchell Tsai, M.D., Associate Professor, Anesthesiology
Bei Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Member
Mark Bisanzo, M.D., Associate Professor, Surgery
Eike Blohm, M.D.,
Assistant Professor, Surgery
Carolyn Boscia, M.D.,
Assistant Professor, Family Medicine
Leigh-Anne Cioffredi, M.D., M.P.H., Assistant Professor, Pediatrics
Justin Deangelis, M.D., Assistant Professor, Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences
Katherine Dobec, M.D., Assistant Professor, Surgery
Kelsey Donovan, Sc.D., Assistant Professor, Medicine
Eric Ganguly, M.D., Associate Professor, Medicine
Emily Greenberger, M.D., Assistant Professor, Medicine
Rebecca Guy, Ph.D., Instructor, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
Emily Hadley Strout, M.D., Assistant Professor, Medicine
Victoria Hart, Ph.D, Assistant Professor, Medicine
Naomi Hodde, M.D, Assistant Professor, Medicine
Elizabeth Hunt, M.D., Assistant Professor, Pediatrics
Jennifer Kelly, M.D., Associate Professor, Medicine
Benjamin King, M.D., Assistant Professor, Surgery
Erin Morris, M.D., Assistant Professor, Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences
Katelin Morrissette, M.D., Assistant Professor, Medicine
Mirabelle Sajisevi, M.D., Assistant Professor, Surgery
Marie Sandoval, M.D., Associate Professor, Medicine
Sarah Schlein, M.D., Assistant Professor, Surgery
Alissa Thomas, M.D., Assistant Professor, Neurological Sciences
Tina Thornton, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Medicine

Protégé
Alison Brandeis Johnson, M.D., Clinical Instructor – Resident, Surgery
Sarah Kelso, M.D.,
Clinical Instructor – Resident, Surgery
Adrienne Pahl, M.D., Clinical Instructor –Fellow, Pediatrics
Elly Riser, M.D.,
Clinical Instructor – Resident, Medicine
Benjamin Sanofsky, M.D.,
Clinical Instructor – Resident, Anesthesiology
Elizabeth Wahlberg, M.D., Clinical Instructor – Resident, Medicine

Learn more about the Teaching Academy.

 

Past Department Highlights

Congratulations to Anne Stowman, M.D., assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, on accepting the position as Network Vice Chair for Anatomic Pathology. (3/2024)  

Congratulations to Ashley Volaric, M.D., assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, on receiving a Physician-Scientist Pilot Award through the Translational Global Infectious Disease Research (TGIR Group) for her research on Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) epigenetics of diffuse large B-cell lymphomas in sub-Saharan Africa. (3/2024)

Congratulations to Rebecca Wilcox, M.D., associate dean for faculty affairs, and professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, on receiving The Polaris Award for Outstanding Mentorship, and Dr. Yvonne Janssen-Heininger, Ph.D., on receiving the Gender Equity Outstanding Achievement in Medicine & Science Award at the 5th Annual Celebration of Gender Equity in Medicine and Science Awards. This award honors a Larner College of Medicine faculty or staff member who provides outstanding formal or informal mnetorship for women or gender diverse** college community members. Dr. Wilcox was nominated by Andrea Green, Julie Dumas, Alexandra Kalof, and LE Faricy. (2/2024) **Gender diverse refers to those who identify with a gender outside of the she/her, he/him binary   

Congratulations to Dr. Brian Cunniff, Ph.D., assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, the team in the Cunniff Lab, and industry partner , RS Oncology, on having their novel therapy enter Phase 2 Clinical trials. Read more here Milestone for UVM-developed cancer drug. (2/2024)

During the annual Larner College of Medicine's Foundations Award Celebration, Amer Abu Alfa, M.D., assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine received The Dean Warshaw Integration Award recognizing the faculty member whose teaching best captured the spirit of the Vermont Integrated Curriculum. Congratulations. Christina Wojewoda, M.D., professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and vice chair for education pathology, presented the Ephraim Woll Award for Excellence in General Pathology to John Rustad. (2/2024) 

Congratulations Dr. Bei Zhang, M.D., M.S., Ph.D., MLS(ASCP)CM, on January 17, 2024, is to receive the Educational Scholarship Award from the Teaching Academy Awards for Teaching and Educational Excellence. This award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated a record of Quality, Quantity, and Engagement in medical education scholarship. Dr. Zhang, M.D., M.S., Ph.D., MLS(ASCP)CM, has been advanced to Distinguished Educator by the Teaching Academy at LCOM. Congratulations also to Bronwyn Bryant, M.D., for advancing to the level of Master Teacher and Agnes Balla, M.D., on being inducted as a Member. (1/2024)

Congratulations to University Scholar Mary Cushman, M.D., M.Sc., professor of medicine and pathology and laboratory medicine, on being ranked #90 in the U.S. and #144 in the world as one of the Best Female Scientists in the World, by Research.com. Also, Dr. Cushman, M.D., M.Sc., recently delivered the Robert Reneman Lecture at the Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht (CARIM)'s 2023 symposium in The Netherlands. The tile of her talk was "Stroke and Cognitive Impairment in a Biracial U.S. Cohort: The REGARDS Study." (1/2024)

In a recent Nature Methods paper, Doug Taatjes, Ph.D., Director of the Microscopy Imaging Center, and the Center for Biomedical Shared Resources at the Larner College of Medicine, together with colleagues from the international consortium QUAREP-LiMi, proposed a set of standardized community-developed checklists to assist researchers, reviewers, and journal editors with the goal of increasing the clarity and reproducibility of image figures and their analyses. The hope is that many journals will adopt these guidelines as part of their “Instructions for Authors”—providing a succinct and easy to use checklist for authors when compiling images for reproduction and descriptions of image analyses performed. (11/2023) (from the LCOM Newsletter)

Congratulations to some of our residents and our fellowship student on having their abstracts accepted for the upcoming 2024 USCAP annual meeting in March. "Unexpected Cardiac Amyloidsis: Demographics, Histology, Distribution and Clinical Significance: A Review of 15 Autopsy Cases." (Jesse Mostoller, Neel Hedge, Nick Taylor). "GATA3 Positive Malignant Spindle Cell Neoplasm Involving the Liver Diagnosed as Metastatic Sarcomatoid Chromophobe Renal Cell Carcinoma at Autopsy." (Rae Nusapan). "Long Term Outcome in a Case of Tetralogy of Fallot Surgically Treated with Palliative Shunts: Findings from an Adult Autopsy." (Dore Guptil, Heather Giguere). (11/2023)

Mark_FungCongratulations to Dr. Mark Fung, M.D., PhD., Professor Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, on receiving the 2023 College of American Pathologists (CAP) Lifetime Achievement Award. Dr. Fung is a nationally recognized expert in transfusion medicine. (10/2023) 

Congratulations to Jessica Crothers, M.D., Assistant Professor Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, on achieving the Notice of Special Interest Team Science award from NIAID for: "Effects of the gut microbiota on oral vaccine response in adults and children." (10/2023)

Nicole BouffardCongratulations to Nicole Bouffard on being awarded the "Scientific Research Staff Award" for 2023. This was presented to Nicole at the September 21, 2023, LCOM Research Excellence Award Ceremony. This is a great honor for Nicole and the Department of Pathology and recognizes her contributions and importance to the department and MIC. (10/2023)

Congratulations to Brian Cunniff, Ph.D., Assistant Professor Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, on being awarded a $1.6 million R01 grant by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to study the role of mitochondrial trafficking in regulating cell migration, a key feature of metastatic tumors. (9/2023)

Congratulations to Yvonne Janssen-Heininger, Ph.D., Professor Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, on becoming a University of Vermont Cancer Center Program Co-Leader, Cancer Cell. (9/2023)

Congratulations to the following pathology members on receiving research support funds in April 2023. Recipients were: John Kennedy, M.D., $6520 for morphologic and immunohistochemical re-evaluation of renal cell carcinomas exhibiting papillary architecture, with emphasis on tumors demonstrating "type 2" morphology. Yvonne Janssen-Heininger, Ph.D., $15,000 for a joint initiative between RBP, UVM Cancer Center, and faculty in the Department of Chemistry. Megan Tarte $745 for Stem Cells, Cell Therapies, and Bioengineering in Lung Biology and Disease ConferenceAlbert van der Vliet, Ph.D., $14,400 for Redox processes in macrophage activation in IPF. (9/2023)

Congratulations to the following faculty members on their promotions: Vikas Anathy, Ph.D., to Professor with tenure, Bronwyn Bryant, M.D., to Associate Professor, John DeWitt, M.D., Ph.D., to Associate Professor, Sarah Nowak Ph.D., to Associate Professor, and Christi Wojewoda, M.D., to Professor. (6/2023)

Bei Zhang, M.D., M.S., Ph.D., MLS(ASCP), associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, did an educational scholarship session titled "Activate Students Learning Outside Classroom." at the 8th International meeting of the Association of Biochemistry Educators. Dr. Zhang also conducted two additional workshops with other ABE members titled "Linking Clinical Presentations to Their Biochemistry: A novel ABE Clinical-Biochemistry Curricular Treat Mapping Educational Tool.", and "Getting to Clerkship and Beyond: Crafting Biochemistry Learning Objectives that Connect and Integrate Basic Science Concepts with Clinical Application." (5/2023)

Congratulations to Dr. Maureen Harmon, M.D., associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, and Dr. Amer Abu Alfa, M.D., assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine for being recognized by medical students for their professionalism. Dr. Harmon was recognized for social responsibility and Dr. Abu Alfa was recognized for compassion. (5/2023)

Congratulations to Mary Cushman, Ph.D., M.Sc., professor of medicine and pathology and laboratory medicine, on being named a University Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Hematology/Oncology Division, and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. (5/2023)

View the story Mammograms of a study by Sarah Nowak, Ph.D., assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, and researchers at the UVM Cancer Center showing data that fewer women being screened for breast cancer. (4/2023)

vandervliet-habibovic420x280A new study by Albert van der Vliet, Ph.D., professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, and a team of University of Vermont (UVM) researchers is honing in on why people with asthma often have worse symptoms if they are obese. This new research demonstrates that the gene DUOX1 likely contributes to the connection between obesity and asthma.  The research was published ahead of print in the American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology and was highlighted as an APSselect article for March 2023. Albert van der Vliet, Ph.D., was the senior author on the paper, along with department of pathology and laboratory medicine coauthors Aida Habibovic, lab research technician;Litiele Cruz, Ph.D., visiting scholar; Vikas Anathy, Ph.D., associate professor; University Distinguished Professor Yvonne Janssen-Heininger, Ph.D.; and additional team members and authors from UVM. Read the full LCOM News story LCOM News (4/2023)

Congratulations to Bronwyn Bryant, M.D., Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, for having your proposal, Consequential Validity of Entrustable Professional Activities in Pathology Residency Training selected to receive a Frymoyer Scholars Program project of $48,000 to be funded July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2025. (4/2023)

Congratulations to Martin Chang, M.D., Ph.D., on accepting the new role as Vice Chair for Faculty Affairs. (4/2023)

Congratulations to Joanna Conant, M.D., on becoming the new Pathology Student Fellowship Director starting July 1, 2023. (4/2023)

Congratulations to The Cunniff Lab, on receiving funding to support research focused on malignant mesothelioma. The funding was from The Butler Family Foundation Fund for Cancer Research at the University of Vermont Cancer Center. The Butler Fund was established by the Butler family in memory of two loved ones lost to mesothelioma. (03/2023)