2022 Awards Ceremony Honors Excellence

Burnett School College of Medicine Faculty News Student Affairs Students

By Wendy Sarubbi | December 12, 2022 11:20 am

Faculty, staff and students received honors for their teaching, research, service and academic excellence at the College of Medicine’s 2022 Awards Celebration Dec. 8.

“We will honor a few very deserving people tonight. But before we begin, I want to honor and thank each one of you,” said Dr. Deborah German, vice president for health affairs and dean. “You are the heart and soul of this medical school, this university and this community.”

UCF Board of Trustees member Joseph Conte received the Dean’s Award for outstanding support of the College of Medicine. A charter class scholarship donor, Trustee Conte “has been a steady, guiding hand – in the development of our curriculum, the expansion of our GME program, our partnerships that created our cancer center and teaching hospital. He actually serves on the UCF Lake Nona Hospital board. And as experienced leader in the healthcare sector, he has been a strong asset as we develop UCF Health, our faculty practice,” Dr. German said.

He was not able to attend the Awards Celebration, and will receive his award at an upcoming medical school event.

The College of Medicine Team Award went to the Graduate Medical Education Department’s Mary Beth Harris, Dr. Stephanie Rivera-Velazquez and Laura Patterson. The team, described as“small in number but mighty in impact,” has helped guide UCF’s residency and fellowship programs, which have grown from training 17 physicians in 2014 to almost 600 this year and is one of the fastest-growing GME efforts in Florida. Dr. Rivera-Velazquez, the program’s GME coordinator, was also honored as the A&P Staff member of the year.As the received their awards, Dr. German invited to the stage the program’s leaders – Drs. Diane Davey and Stephen Cico. As associate dean for graduate medical education, Dr. Davey has overseen much of the program’s growth and will be retiring in January.

Dr. Vania Zayat, associate professor of pathology, received the Richard D. Peppler Student Advocacy Award. Students choose the awardee who has “embodied student advocacy and goes above and beyond to enrich the medical school experience for students.” The award is named after the college’s founding associate dean for faculty and academic affairs who dedicated himself to advising, teaching and student advocacy.

Here are the other awardees: For photos of the event, please visit https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAitXn

FACULTY AWARDS

Innovative Teaching — Shayne Gue, Kersten Schroeder

GME Clinical Teaching & Mentorship — Mustafa Kinaan

Educational Leadership — Kyle Riding

Early Career Investigator — Mehdi Razavi

Outstanding Peer Mentorship — Latha Ganti

Faculty Service — Manish Gupta

M1 Golden Apple — Stephen Lambert

M2 Golden Apple — Shiva Kalidindi

M3 Resident Golden Apple — Sera Chun

M3 Educator Golden Apple — Naziha Slimani

Clerkship Director Golden Apple — Colleen Moran-Bano

Practice of Medicine Golden Apple — Minh Ho, Jacqueline Kaiser

Outstanding Undergraduate Educator — Tina Chiarelli

Outstanding Graduate Educator — Steven Ebert

Contributions to the FIRE Module — Adalberto Torres, Cassidy Foley

Contributions to Clinical Skills — Gary Miller

Contributions to Admissions — Steven Lee and Adrian Burrowes

Contributions to Medical Laboratory Sciences Program — Jacquelyn Walter, Frederick Moses Jr.

Contributions to the Anatomy Lab — John Kirkpatrick

Excellence in Teaching Surgery Clerkship — Educator: Harold Neyra, Resident: Valerie Vazquez

Excellence in Teaching Psychiatry Clerkship — Educator: Jose Torres-Miranda, Resident: Sera Chun

Excellence in Teaching Internal Medicine Clerkship — Educator: Mark Johnson, Resident: Keegan Plowman

Excellence in Teaching Family Medicine Clerkship — Educator: Naziha Slimani

Excellence in Teaching Pediatric Clerkship — Educator: Nicole Brunner, Resident: Tryphina Mikhail

Excellence in Teaching Neurology Clerkship — Educator: Bennett Rosenthal, Resident: Avi Landman

Excellence in Teaching Obstetrics and Gynecology Clerkship — Educator: Oak Medical Clinic Faculty, Resident: Sarah Law

Preceptor Excellence — Nicole Brenner, Devendra Kahlon, Tracy MacIntosh

STAFF AWARDS

USPS Employee of the Year, Staff Diversity Award — Kerri Drylie

Kerri Drylie (above left) received the USPS Employee of the Year and Staff Diversity Award.

STUDENT AWARDS (given to M.D. students who have completed their first two years of the curriculum)

Academic Excellence — Yasmine Ghattas, Leeann Hu, Thomas Knapp, Cynthia Kyin, Emily Littman, Hannah Sage

Excellence in Clinical Skills — Lucille Anzia, Emily Littman

Faculty Choice — Mario Abels

Distinguished Service — Carolyn Rapp, Diane Tran

Excellence in Promoting Diversity and Inclusion in Medicine — Priscilla Francois International Medical Service — Thomas Knapp

Service and Humanity in Medicine — Asanka Ekanayake

FIRE (Focused Inquiry and Research Experience) Student AWARDS

Faculty Choice for Oral Presentations:

1^st Place – Dylan Shaw
2^nd Place — Pierce Ciccone
- 3^rd Place — Samuel Mikhail

Peer Choice – Oral Presentations

1^st Place — Dylan Shaw
2^nd Place — Pierce Ciccone
- 3^rd Place — Samuel Mikhail

Faculty Choice – Poster

1^st Place — Kristen Ibanez
2^nd Place — Yamilet Gonzalez
3rd Place — Derek Zhang

Peer Choice – Poster

1^st Place — Ezat El-Said
2^nd Place — Rachen Pan
3^rd Place — Lauren Aronson