WCMC-Q Celebrates Outstanding Teachers

Members of WCMC-Q leadership and the award recipients at the Faculty
Teaching Awards ceremony.

The WCMC-Q community gathered recently to celebrate faculty who were voted the most influential in their students’ lives over the past year. Members of WCMC-Q leadership—Dean Javaid Sheikh, associate dean for medical education, Dr. Lyuba Konopasek, and associate dean for pre-medical education, Dr. Michael Johnson—hosted this year’s annual Faculty Teaching Awards ceremony, to honor the professors.

“At their core, faculty members are trying to teach in the best way possible,” said Dean Sheikh. “We take the voting and impressions of our students very seriously and the fact that you recognize our teachers is extremely important.”

Awards were given based on votes by students. They were asked to consider the teacher’s impact as an instructor, mentor and role model in their lives and were encouraged to write specific comments about how the teacher affected their educational career.

“This is actually more than just an award for someone who stands up and gives an adequate lecture,” said Dr. Johnson. “It’s about how we exhibit passion for what we do, it’s about how we show curiosity and how we mentor students as they grow under our guidance.”

To set the mood, Dr. Konopasek and Dr. Johnson read famous quotes about the art of teaching and the impact good teachers can have on humanity.

“Josef Albers wrote that ‘good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers,’” Dr. Konopasek said. “I think one of the things we strive for here is to have our students articulate their own questions.”

The winners of this year’s Faculty Teaching Awards follow:

•Foundation Program: Renee Richer, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology; (and a shared award between) Rachid Bendriss, Ed.D., lecturer, ESL; Daniel Renzi, Ph.D., assistant professor of mathematics;

•First-Year Pre-med: James Roach, Jr., Ph.D., assistant professor of chemistry; Rodney Sharkey, Ph.D., assistant professor of writing;

•Second-Year Pre-med: Kevin Smith, Ph.D., associate professor of organic chemistry; (and shared award between) Dr. Laith Abu Radadd, Ph.D., assistant professor of public health; Moncef Ladjimi, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry;

•First-Year Medical: Molecules, Genes and Cells: (award shared between) Dr. Ali Sultan, associate professor of microbiology and immunology, and Dr. Gerardo Guiter, assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine; Human, Structure and Function: Dr. Rachel Koshi, professor of anatomy in surgery; Host Defenses: Dr. Ali Sultan, associate professor of microbiology and immunology; Medicine, Patients and Society I: Dr. Ziyad Mahfoud, associate professor of public health;

•Second-Year Medical: Brain and Mind: Dr. Leopold Streletz, associate professor of neurology; Basis of Disease: Dr. Gerardo Guiter, assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine; Medicine, Patients and Society II: Dr. Pablo Rodriguez del Pozo, associate professor of public health;

•Clinical Curriculum: Medicine Clerkship and ABS: Dr. Thurayya Arayssi, associate professor of medicine and associate dean for graduate medical education; Surgery Clerkship: Dr. Bakr Nour, professor of surgery and associate dean of clinical affairs; Psychiatry Clerkship: Dr. Ziad Kronfol, professor of psychiatry;

•Visiting Faculty: 1st year Medical Program, HSF: Dr. Fayez Safadi, adjunct assistant professor of cell and developmental biology; Second-Year Medical Program, BOD: Dr. Mark Pochapin, associate professor of clinical medicine.

By Emily Alp