2018 Educator of the Year Awards Announced

Top row, from left: Karen Harnett, PhD; Cullen Carter, MD; Rachel Thompson, MD; R. James Koness, MD; and Katie Lemieux, MD. Bottom row, from left: Jude Deeney, PhD; Tarik Haydar, PhD; Darrell Kotton, MD; and Neil Ganem, PhD.

Nine BUSM faculty members have been honored as Educators of the Year by the Committee on Faculty Affairs (CFA). These awards recognize BUSM educators who provide excellence in teaching and mentoring. Awards are given annually in the areas of pre-clinical sciences, clinical sciences and graduate medical sciences.

This year’s recipients are Karen Harnett, PhD, Educator of the Year in Pre-Clinical Medical Sciences; Cullen Carter, MD, and Rachel Thompson, MD, Educators of the Year in Clinical Sciences at Boston Medical Center (BMC); Katie Lemieux, MD, Educator of the Year in Clinical Sciences at Kaiser Permanente (California); R. James Koness, MD, Educator of the Year in Clinical Affiliates at Roger Williams Medical Center; Jude Deeney, PhD, Educator of the Year in Graduate Medical Sciences (GMS), Master’s Program; Tarik Haydar, PhD, Educator of the Year in Graduate Medical Sciences, Doctoral Program; and Darrell Kotton, MD, and Neil Ganem, PhD, Educators of the Year in Graduate Medical Sciences, Dissertation Advisors.

Dr. Harnett worked for 22 years in the Department of Medicine at Rhode Island Hospital as a co-investigator on National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded studies that led to discoveries of the signaling mechanisms underlying motility changes in gastroesophageal reflux disease. She returned annually to BUSM beginning in 2000 to lead pharmacology discussion sessions for medical students in the second-year curriculum. Recruited to the BUSM faculty, she was appointed assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics in 2013. She joined the Disease and Therapy (DRx) leadership team in 2015 co-directing six modules, and overseeing the teaching of pharmacology throughout the second-year DRx course. Dr. Harnett also serves as the director of the Dental Pharmacology course for second-year dental students (DMDII) and first-year Advanced Standing dental students (ASI) at the Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of School of Dental Medicine.

Dr. Harnett’s nominators remarked that her “enthusiasm and passion for teaching are evident from her lectures. She is engaging and makes the material accessible.”

Dr. Carter attended medical school at the University of Virginia and trained in general surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He completed a one-year fellowship in minimally invasive and bariatric surgery at Wake Forest University. He has been at BMC since 2015 and has been the surgery clerkship director since 2017. An assistant professor of surgery at BUSM, his clinical interests include general surgery and weight loss surgery.

Dr. Carter’s nominators said he “was always available to students and created a very friendly and open environment during didactics so that students can give constructive feedback on the rotation.”

Dr. Thompson is an assistant professor of pediatrics and an attending physician in the division of pediatric emergency medicine in the Department of Pediatrics at BMC. She received her undergraduate degree in American history from Harvard College and her medical degree from Yale School of Medicine. She completed a residency in pediatrics at the Boston Combined Residency Program at Boston Children’s Hospital and BMC and a fellowship in pediatric emergency medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital. Upon joining BMC and BUSM, she ran the Pediatric Emergency Department sub-internship before taking on the role of Clerkship Director for Pediatrics in 2013 and overseeing mentorship and advising for fourth-year students applying in pediatrics.

Dr. Thompson’s nominators commented, “she allowed the residents and students to complete their presentations before offering her suggestions and comments even when stressed with a busy ED. I can’t imagine having a more supportive director as I move forward during third year.”

Dr. Lemieux is the site director of obstetrics & gynecology at Kaiser Permanente – San Jose Medical Center. She received her undergraduate degree within the Clark Honors College at the University of Oregon. After a brief time in Austin, Texas, she returned to Oregon where she earned her medical degree with Alpha Omega Alpha honors at Oregon Health and Science University School of Medicine. She completed a residency at the University of California at San Diego. Her interest in women’s health led to her practicing obstetrics & gynecology, where her interests include minimally invasive surgery, adolescent medicine, family planning and graduate medical education.

Dr. Lemieux’s nominators say “she always answered my questions thoroughly and provided me with a variety of resources to help my learning. I was given good opportunity to get involved and get hands on experience, but was never in a position where I felt uncomfortable doing something.”

Dr. Koness is a graduate of Boston College and SUNY-Buffalo School of Medicine. He completed his internship and residency in general surgery at Rhode Island Hospital/Brown University and fellowship in complex surgical oncology at Roger Williams Medical Center/Brown University. A fellow in the American College of Surgeons, he is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery at Brown University School of Medicine with a pending academic appointment at BUSM.

Dr. Koness’ nominators said, “he does a great job in being proactive about teaching in between each case and clinical visit. He’s also very helpful in providing feedback on presentations and equally as enthusiastic about receiving feedback.”

Dr. Deeney is an assistant professor and member of the Department of Medicine in the section of endocrinology, diabetes, nutrition and weight management. His research is designed to discern the nutrient-derived metabolic signals leading to glucose and fatty acid (FA) induced insulin secretion from the pancreatic ß-cell and how excess nutrients can lead to impaired ß-cell function and type 2 diabetes (T2D). Deciphering the effects of high glucose and FA on insulin secretion will lead to the possible development of therapies that would prevent T2D. In addition to his research, Deeney is a course director for the first-year curriculum in the Nutrition and Metabolism Program.

Dr. Deeney’s supporters said, “he genuinely cares about the success of each of his students, not only in the course but in achieving their goals in academia.”

Dr. Haydar leads the Laboratory of Neural Development and Intellectual Disorders at BUSM, a cellular/molecular lab studying the mechanisms of cerebral cortical development and the causes of intellectual disability in Down Syndrome. Along with mentoring graduate students, postdocs and faculty members in his lab and throughout the medical school, he directs a course in GMS and lectures in several other medical student and graduate courses.

Dr. Haydar’s nominators said, “he inspires professionalism and critical thinking and always has a smile on his face. His dedication to his students is evident in his passion for teaching and using innovative teaching methods to convey material.”

Dr. Kotton is the David C. Seldin Professor of Medicine. He conducts basic stem cell research as an NIH-funded principal investigator and is the founding director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine of Boston University and Boston Medical Center. His research focuses on stem cell biology and gene therapy related to lung injury and repair. His laboratory has pioneered induced pluripotent stem cell models of lung development and disease, and a major focus of his team is the engineering of reparative cells, tissues and drugs for lung regeneration. Kotton currently serves as principal investigator of BU’s NIH-funded Regenerative Medicine Training Program. His success as a mentor and his selfless approach to Open Source sharing of knowledge and reagents has been recognized through the Senior Research Mentor Award by the Department of Medicine as well as the American Association of Medical Colleges Inaugural National Research Resource Sharing Award in 2017.

Dr. Kotton nominators said, “he made me the best version of myself and that having worked with him will set me up for a successful career as a physician scientist. With a dwindling pool of trainees interested in this path, we need more people like Darrell to inspire us to continue on.”

Dr. Ganem received his PhD in biochemistry from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth where he studied mechanisms of mitotic spindle assembly and chromosome movement in the lab of Duane Compton. His laboratory uses a combination of high-resolution microscopy, genome-wide RNAi screening, cell biology, and bioinformatics to study the causes and consequences of genome instability in human cancer. Dr. Ganem is seeking to define the tumor suppression mechanisms that limit the proliferation of highly abnormal cells, as well as to identify the common genetic adaptations made by cancer cells to overcome these growth barriers.

Dr. Ganem is described by a nominator as a very adaptive mentor. “Depending on the needs of the students in his lab he can be very hands-on and helpful or very hands-off and let the student chart his/her own course.”

Medical students and Division of Graduate Medical Sciences students nominate faculty in each category. The awards committee and student representatives work together to select the winners from the nominees.