The best of teaching

The outstanding contribution made by faculty to the teaching of the next generation of doctors was recognized at Weill Cornell Medicine – Qatar’s 2018 Excellence in Teaching Awards ceremony.

The annual event was held at Chef’s Garden restaurant at Al Shaqab, and saw winning teachers presented with their awards in front of an audience of their peers, students and WCM-Q staff members. Hosted by associate professor of English Dr. Rodney Sharkey - himself the recipient of the English Writing Award - the ceremony saw pre-medical teaching faculty in numerous categories honored, with the winners being voted for students.

The Teaching Specialist Award was chosen by a jury after nominations from students, and was won by Dr. Dalia Zakaria. Comments from students included: “[Dr. Dalia] encourages you to seek her help. It is as if it is this teacher’s own duty and that she has failed if we do not understand and have not visited her office,” and “Dr. Dalia is caring, compassionate, hardworking, and determined to make sure that all of the students succeed.”

The other pre-medical faculty to win awards were Dr. Rachid Bendriss, Dr. Kuei-Chiu Chen, Dr. James Roach, Dr. Sean Holroyd and Dr. Moncef Ladjimi. Teaching specialists Dr. Ali Chaari, Melanie Fernandes, Christine Jenkins and Sarah Roach also received honorable mentions.

New for this year was a restructuring of the Medical Education Awards, with awards presented for the Foundational Sciences Curriculum and the Clinical Curriculum, rather than individual courses. There were also leadership awards that were voted on by students, faculty members and staff, and a new award - Excellence in Educational Innovation – the winner of which was chosen by an independent jury selected from staff and faculty within the college.

This year, that prize went to Dr. Grigory Ostrovskiy, assistant professor of emergency medicine in medicine, for “enhancing experiential learning through point of care ultrasound and simulation technology”.

The other medical faculty to be presented with awards were: Dr. Ameed Raoof, Dr. Bakr Nour and Dr. Amine Rakab, Dr. Avelin Malyango, Dr. Amal Khidir, Dr. Amir Soumekh, Dr. Anthony Ogedegbe and Dr. Joseph Safideh.

Full details of all the awards can be found in the table below.

Former directors of courses and clerkships on the old curriculum that have been phased out were also specifically honored, with Drs. Naim Haddad, Gerardo Guiter, Stella Major and Mai Mahmoud taking the plaudits.

Dr. Javaid Sheikh, dean of WCM-Q, said: “We are incredibly fortunate to have faculty and staff at WCM-Q who are so dedicated to their students and who strive to ensure that they achieve academic success. Our faculty are, without exception, gifted educators, and it is because of their commitment, professionalism and concern for the welfare of our young future doctors, that WCM-Q has been so successful in graduating physicians and attaining the reputation it has.”

* Teaching Specialists Dr. Ali Chaari, Melanie Fernandes, Christine Jenkins and Sarah Roach also received honorable mentions at the awards ceremony