October 2021 Exceptional Teachers
We are interested in collecting your stories about faculty members, residents, nurses, or anyone else, who have impacted or influenced you in a significant way. Please tell us about what those teachers did that resulted in an exceptional educational experience and how it changed you.
Spill the TEA - October 2021
The TEACH Educator Appreciation (TEA) program was developed to allow peers and learners to send notes of appreciation and thanks to faculty members who have impacted their education, careers, and lives.
Kristen Eden, Basic Science Education: Thank you Dr. Eden for making histology engaging for medical students. The iBook and videos you created made learning the content much more manageable for us. Your patience and engagement as we stumbled through the world of cells, stains, and slides digitally during our first year was greatly appreciated. I know I speak for many students in saying that we have a much greater appreciation for, and interest in, histopathology thanks to your engagement and investment in our learning.
Mahtab Foroozesh, Internal Medicine: Dr. Foroozesh is truly interested in our learning. Day to day operations of pulmonary & critical care is very dynamic as it ranges from critically ill patients to stable pulmonary clinic patients. With this, Dr. Foroozesh remains versatile making adjustments needed to provide the best for our patients without jeopardizing fellows training. She has managed to keep training and patient care her main goal throughout a pandemic which has hit the core of this field the hardest. When COVID-19 patients over-filled our ICU, she made the adjustments needed so that our team travelled to other units to care for the COVID-19 patients. When we were short staffed she made use of the staff we already had to provide the best possible care, and prevent burn out. If not for her and her relentless dedication to this program, one would wonder about the future of this program and its goals to make exemplary pulmonary and critical care physicians.
Vydia Permashwar, Pediatrics: A big thank you to Dr. Permashwar for all her teaching contributions. Dr. Permashwar is an incredible educator and demonstrates passion in her teaching. She has created a wonderful space for learning and provides support for all learners.
October 2021 Submissions
Below are the exceptional teacher recognitions shared with the Learning Environment Advocacy Committee this month. Thank you to these faculty for providing a great experience for our students.
Family and Community Medicine
- Dr. Hank Ivey - “Dr Ivey trusted and challenged me with patient care, decision making, was extremely approachable and reviewed images with me, took time to answer questions and created an extremely comfortable learning environment. His patients really love him, and it shows!”
- Dr. Jeremy Llavore - “Dr. Llavore was an incredible preceptor! I highly recommend him to any others rotating on family medicine. He was very informative in clinical decision making and extremely kind.”
Internal Medicine
- Mahtab Foroozesh - “Dr. Foroozesh is truly interested in our learning. Day to day operations of pulmonary & critical care is very dynamic as it ranges from critically ill patients to stable pulmonary clinic patients. With this, Dr. Foroozesh remains versatile making adjustments needed to provide the best for our patients without jeopardizing fellows training. She has managed to keep training and patient care her main goal throughout a pandemic which has hit the core of this field the hardest. When COVID-19 patients over-filled our ICU, she made the adjustments needed so that our team travelled to other units to care for the COVID-19 patients. When we were short staffed she made use of the staff we already had to provide the best possible care, and prevent burn out. If not for her and her relentless dedication to this program, one would wonder about the future of this program and its goals to make exemplary pulmonary and critical care physicians.”
- Dr. James Franko - “Dr. Franko went above and beyond to provide a great IM experience for me. He took time out of his day to send articles he felt would help me and pushed me to always ask deeper, questions. Additionally, his bed side interactions with patients are something I strive to emulate and will take with me into future rotations and my career beyond medical school. He always stressed the importance of taking the time to sit with patients and learn their stories, never rushing onto the next patient.”
- Dr. Kyle Pfaff - “Incredible fantastic, wonderful resident!!! I cannot say enough good things about Kyle. He is the best resident I've ever worked with. He welcomed me to the team and made me feel valued and like my role was important / I could contribute meaningfully. He fostered a great dynamic amongst the members of our team, and we all worked cohesively well together, and I attribute that to Kyle's leadership. He is an amazing teacher, explains difficult concepts exceptionally well. I really appreciated the time and effort he dedicated to teaching. He never made me feel like any question was a silly/dumb question, and this really helped me learn and grow because I felt like I could ask any question without judgement. His knowledge base is impressive and vast, and if he did not know the answer to something, he would find it and explain it to me and the team. His passion for teaching was very clear, and he's exceptional at it! He is also very clearly passionate about patients and providing the best care possible. You can tell his drive for medicine and learning, and teaching is rooted in his passion for patient care. He always sought feedback and made an effort to give me constructive, meaningful feedback for ways I could improve. I felt like he really wanted me and everyone on the team to succeed and do well. He was so positive, uplifting, and encouraging. Always frequently checked in with the team to see if anyone needed anything. Never made it feel like he was too busy or unavailable, even when so much was going on! I wish all medical students had the opportunity to work with Kyle, and I feel very lucky that I did. I hope he sticks around Carilion for as long as possible-- he would be an incredible chief and faculty.”
Neurology
- Dr. Della Williams - “I learned so much working with Dr. Williams! She perfectly walked the line between challenging me as a learner and encouraging me to push myself all while creating a safe learning environment. I deeply appreciated how direct she was regarding her expectations and thought process. I especially valued her emphasis on transparency with patient families, and always trusting your gut to "slow down and think things through" even on stressful call days.”
- Dr. Selina Pahlavanzadeh - “I greatly enjoyed working with Selina! I appreciated how involved she allowed me to be in patient interviews and formulation and was excited to work with her and discuss patient cases. She was very organized, approachable, and a great teacher!”
OB-GYN
- Dr. James Casey - “Great teacher, readily provided hands-on learning opportunities to students.”
- Dr. Shian McLeish - “Shian was an absolutely wonderful resident to work with. I looked up to her professional, amicable, and knowledgeable behavior and was able to learn a lot from her in a short amount of time. She made a clear effort to engage with medical students and make them feel part of the team and I can see her being an amazing attending.”
Pediatrics
- Dr. Christina Warwick-Hulgan - “I really enjoyed my time working with Dr. Hulgan. From the start, she made me feel welcome and set expectations for the newborn nursery. I came into the rotation nervous to work with newborns, but she quickly helped me to become much more comfortable, and I found myself really enjoying the experience. I most appreciated her spending a lot of time teaching me about different aspects of newborn care including congenital infections, rashes, and common newborn illnesses. I felt like she was very passionate about teaching, and I took away a lot from our conversations. Overall, I highly recommend her as a teacher/mentor.”
- Vydia Permashwar - “A big thank you to Dr. Permashwar for all her teaching contributions. Dr. Permashwar is an incredible educator and demonstrates passion in her teaching. She has created a wonderful space for learning and provides support for all learners.”
- Dr. Jill Price - “Jill was excellent to work with. I enjoy how enthusiastic she is with patients and how she instantly makes them comfortable. Her interview style is relaxed, but engaging and thorough.”
Psychiatry & Behavioral Medicine
- Dr. Xavier Preud’homme - “Was a great teacher and very easy to approach. Admire his wealth of knowledge and ability to interact with patients effectively. Also provided useful feedback that was much appreciated.”
- Dr. Hajra Ahmad - “Passionate about patient care and more than willing to share her knowledge and experience. 10/10. Would have as a resident again.”
Radiology
- Dr. Michael Brooks - “I learned a lot during the session and felt very comfortable asking questions. The immediate feedback was very appreciated. Overall wonderful experience.”
- Dr. Eileen Kenny - “Dr. Kenny was an effective, thoughtful teacher. Overall, I had a great experience with Dr. Kenny and appreciated her ability to explain complex topics.”
Surgery
- Dr. Ashley Gerrish - “I thought Dr. Gerrish was an enthusiastic and excellent teacher. She set me up for success when interviewing her patients in clinic and made the most of learning opportunities when scrubbed into the OR. She also offered her time outside of the clinic/OR in case I had questions or wanted advice.”
- Dr. Guy Katz - “Excellent teacher. Went out of his way to spend time teaching me and give me opportunities to practice clinical skills.”