|
2016 Penn Vet Teaching Awards |
|
May 24, 2016, Volume 62, No. 35 |
The Zoetis Distinguished Teacher Award
At Penn Vet, this year’s Zoetis Distinguished Teacher Award was presented to Mark Oyama.
This is the most prestigious teaching award in veterinary medicine. It is presented annually to a faculty member at each college of veterinary medicine in the United States “to improve veterinary medicine education by recognizing outstanding instructors who, through their ability, dedication, character and leadership, contribute significantly to the advancement of the profession.” The entire Penn Vet student body votes on the recipient.
Dr. Oyama graduated in 1994 from the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine. After an internship at the Animal Medical Center in New York and a residency at UC Davis, he entered private specialty practice for two years. He then served for five years on the faculty of the University of Illinois before coming to Penn Vet in 2005. He is currently a professor in cardiology. He earned his master of science in clinical epidemiology from Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine in 2015.
A student remarked, “When you leave Dr. Oyama’s lecture, you realize that in that one hour you actually understood something about veterinary medicine, which as a second year student is a rare feeling. Although I haven’t yet had clinical experience with Dr. Oyama, I happen to know that he is just as great a mentor in the hospital as he is in the classroom, because he recently treated my cat with a fourth-year on rotation. I watched him, with Animal Planet cameras literally hovering some inches over his head, juggle the paparazzi, an emotional client (me) and a terrified cat while calmly teaching his fourth-year how to read an ECG. Anyone who can do that is an inspiration.” |
The William B. Boucher Award
The Boucher Award honors a house officer at New Bolton Center for excellent teaching, as was exemplified by William Boucher over four decades at Penn Vet.
This year’s winner is Nicole Scherrer. Dr. Scherrer graduated from the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine in 2010. She is currently a resident in ophthalmology at Penn Vet’s New Bolton Center. She also received the Boucher Award in 2015.
A student remarked, “Dr. Scherrer has shown a consistent commitment to teaching fourth-year students in the clinic. This is the second year in a row that she was selected by the fourth-year class for this award. She goes out of her way to provide extra teaching labs and other learning opportunities despite a busy clinic appointment schedule and emergency caseload.”
|
Class of 2016 and Class of 2017 Philadelphia Campus Teaching Award
JD Foster graduated from Penn Vet in 2007. After practicing in a private small animal clinic, followed by a rotating small animal internship, he completed his small animal internal medicine residency training at the University of Wisconsin. During his residency, he developed an interest in nephrology and received training in nephrology and hemodialysis under the guidance of Larry Cowgill of UC Davis. He returned to Penn Vet as a lecturer within the small animal internal medicine service. He restarted Penn Vet’s hemodialysis service, which quickly grew into one of the busiest veterinary dialysis centers in the US.
A student remarked, “Dr. Foster consistently teaches us complicated topics with enthusiasm and somehow makes us all feel one with the glomerulus.” Another said, “When I was worried about fourth year, this clinician took the time out of his busy schedule to reassure me, share his professional experiences and give me the confidence to pursue my dreams and believe in myself.” |
Class of 2016 New Bolton Center Teaching Award
Jennifer Linton is a Fellow in the sections of reproduction and field service at New Bolton Center. Dr. Linton, a 2012 graduate of Penn Vet, completed a rotating equine internship at Rhinebeck Equine in New York, followed by a residency in reproduction at Penn Vet’s Hofmann Center. She now works primarily in field service, while also covering emergency calls for reproduction after hours at New Bolton Center. Her areas of research interest include pregnancy loss in the mare, poor performance and behavioral changes in horses and small ruminant reproductive neoplasia.
A student remarked, “Our classmates have called Dr. Linton a gem of New Bolton Center. Her willingness and aptitude for teaching make her a stand-out clinician. You can always count on her to be the same energetic and patient instructor and to look out for her students—whether on rotations, picking internships or helping practice clinical skills on her days off.” |
Class of 2017 New Bolton Center Teaching Award
Ray Sweeney earned his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and graduated from Penn Vet in 1982, followed by an internship and residency at New Bolton Center. Dr. Sweeney has spent his entire 30-year career at New Bolton Center, where he is currently a professor of medicine and chief of the section of medicine and ophthalmology. His clinical specialty is internal medicine of large animals and his research is focused on paratuberculosis and other infectious diseases in cattle. He teaches in all four years of the veterinary curriculum, including lectures, hands-on laboratories and clinical instruction of fourth-year students.
A student remarked, “It is a true testament to the unyielding dedication of Dr. Ray Sweeney that he has been a recurring award recipient. This might be due to his refreshing style of teaching—writing on the board and covering topics slowly so we all understand—but it’s more likely because he begins every lecture with an amazing dad joke.”
|
Class of 2018 Philadelphia Campus Teaching Award
Nicole Weinstein is an associate professor of clinical pathology at Penn Vet. She is the course leader and primary instructor in the second-year clinical pathology course and head of the clinical pathology laboratory in Ryan Hospital. She was previously an assistant professor at Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, where she redesigned the clinical pathology course twice, first introducing an emphasis on case/data evaluation and eventually flipping the classroom to facilitate active student learning and problem solving during class. In the course at Penn Vet, she has also used this model. She attended veterinary school at Colorado State University, then completed a small animal rotating internship at Tufts University and a transfusion medicine fellowship and a clinical pathology residency, both at Penn Vet.
A student remarked, “Dr. Nicole Weinstein is a newcomer to our Penn Vet family and we are so thankful that she is here with us. She understands how we learn best and formats her classes to best prepare us for real life as clinicians, not just for a test. This clinician has gone above and beyond what we could ever hope a lecturer could do for us—she even went through our previous courses’ syllabi to see what we had been taught prior.” |
Class of 2018 New Bolton Center Teaching Award
Corinne Sweeney graduated from the University of Georgia’s College of Veterinary Medicine in 1978. Prior to her appointment as associate dean of New Bolton Center in 2005, she had served for 27 years at Penn Vet as an equine internal medicine specialist with clinical and research interests in respiratory and neurological problems of the horse. She has received the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, the Norden Distinguished Teaching Award and the Executive Board of Alumni’s Excellence in Teaching Award.
A student remarked, “As we all know, vet school is quite a challenging and stressful feat. But, individuals like [Dr. Sweeney] remind us that it is in fact possible to maintain a balanced, healthy lifestyle and simultaneously be super, awesome vets. When we needed it most, she reached out to us to tell us, ‘It’s going to be okay.’ She supports us in all of our endeavors and is the much-needed cheerleader to our class.”
|
Class of 2019 Lecture Teaching Award
Rose Nolen-Walston grew up on a farm in England and dropped out of high school at 15 to become a professional dressage rider. She spent several years working at many top international dressage facilities in Germany, Holland and the US. At 18, she moved to the US, and after a two-year stint teaching riding to severely emotionally disturbed children at a residential treatment center in rural Georgia, she went back to school. In 2001, she graduated with her DVM from the University of Georgia, then did an internship and residency in large animal internal medicine at Tufts. She spent a subsequent year there doing research in adult stem cell biology in mice, then joined the faculty at Penn Vet, where she has been teaching and practicing internal medicine for eight years.
A student remarked, “Dr. Nolen-Walston is just known by the class to have just the right mix of humor, engagement, education and passion in her lectures, and every lecture captivates V’19 into the study of lung histology, physiology and equine medicine.”
|
Class of 2018 Laboratory Teaching Award
Chelsey Davey graduated from the Ontario Veterinary College in 2011. She worked in general practice for a year and a half before completing a one-year small animal internship at Veterinary Specialty Center of Delaware. She received her Rehabilitation certification through the University of Tennessee in 2015. Since then, she has been teaching gross anatomy at Penn Vet and started the Rehabilitation Service at Ryan Hospital.
A student remarked, “Dr. Davey is an academic clinician at Penn Vet who is known best by the class of V’19 for always providing valuable review information in Gross Anatomy lab. Dr. Davey is always willing to go above and beyond when trying to help us learn and understand, whether it is going over different radiographs for two hours or grabbing a blunt probe and dissecting alongside you. V’19 appreciates her commitment to our class in arguably the most challenging course in veterinary school.”
|
|
Almanac -
May 24, 2016, Volume 62, No. 35
|
|
|