2007-2008 Academic Senate Distinction in Teaching Awards
Distinction In Teaching Awarded to Bradley A. Sharpe, MD & Brain L. Schmidt, DDS, MD, PhD
The Academic Senate is pleased to announce this year’s recipients of the Distinction In Teaching Awards.
Recipients of the Academic Senate Distinction In Teaching Awards will be honored at the Academic Senate Distinction In Teaching Awards Ceremony to be held Wednesday, April 16, 2008 at 12:00 noon in Cole Hall.
Distinction in Teaching
Category 1 (UCSF Faculty Less Than 5 Years): The 2008 Academic Senate Distinction in Teaching Award for faculty at UCSF five years or fewer goes to Bradley A. Sharpe, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Medicine, School of Medicine.
Dr. Bradley Sharpe came to UCSF for his residency training in Internal Medicine in 1999. Subsequently, he was unanimously selected as Chief Medical Resident for 2002-03. In July 2003, Dr. Sharpe was appointed as an Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine and Hospitalist in the UCSF Department of Medicine.
Dr. Sharpe serves in several roles at the UCSF School of Medicine where he is committed to the welfare of the community and to upholding UCSF’s reputation as one of the nation’s premiere teaching facilities. Dr. Sharpe serves as the Site Director for the medical residents at Moffitt-Long Hospital and in addition to his own teaching responsibilities, for which he consistently earns perhaps the most impressive student-evaluations of all Department faculty, Dr. Sharpe is also responsible for ensuring the quality of Medical Service teaching and is recognized by the Chief of the Medical Service for “constantly seeking ways to improve the educational experience of our trainees.”
Dr. Sharpe’s dedication to teaching is appreciated by his residents, whose evaluations and comments are consistently superlative with regards to his skills in clinical instruction, patient care, inspiration to learning, and overall dedication to both patient and student. Dr. Sharpe’s primary teaching role has been as an inpatient ward attending, and in that capacity has worked with approximately 150 residents and 60 students in the last 5 years. Dr. Sharpe was awarded the UCSF Internal Medicine Residency Housestaff Teaching Award in 2006, and various UCSF School of Medicine teaching awards from the classes of 2005, 2007, and 2010; and the Best Workshop Award from the 30th annual meeting of the Society of General Internal Medicine.
Talmadge King, Chair of the Department of Medicine, writes, “Dr. Sharpe has become one of our most outstanding and exceptional educators in his five years on faculty. He is intelligent, dedicated, and amazingly enthusiastic about teaching and helping his learners to be the best physicians they can be.” One student remarked that Dr. Sharpe has transformed the daily attending rounds a “into a treasured space for teaching and learning.”
In addition to his involvement on campus as a diligent physician and educator, Dr. Sharpe is actively involved with the Society for Hospital Medicine and the Society of General Internal Medicine, and serves on the editorial board of Today’s Hospitalist.
Category 2 (UCSF Faculty More Than 5 Years): The 2008 Academic Senate Distinction in Teaching Award for faculty at UCSF more than five years goes to Brian L. Schmidt, DDS, MD, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, School of Dentistry.
After earning his BS in Biochemistry at UC Davis, Dr. Brian Schmidt earned his DDS, MD, and PhD at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Schmidt joined the faculty of UCSF in 2002 and is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in the School of Dentistry. Since then, Dr. Schmidt has also been named the Director of the Oral and Maxillofacial Oncology Fellowship (beginning in 2003), Director of the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Residency Training Program (beginning in 2004), and Vice Chair of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (beginning in 2007).
Dr. Brian Schmidt is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in oral cancer. In addition to his particular clinical responsibilities in his own department, Dr. Schmidt participates weekly in the multidisciplinary UCSF Head and Neck Tumor Board. Dr. Schmidt is the principal investigator of an NIH funded laboratory with two post docs, two PhD candidates and four predoctoral students. His research interests include neurologic mechanisms in oral cancer pain and discovery of biomarkers for the detection of oral cancer. In addition to his exemplary skill as both researcher and clinician, Dr. Schmidt excels as a clinician educator and mentor. Dr. Schmidt has designed a closely integrated patient-centric approach to teaching, research, and clinical programs.
According to Interim Department Chair of Cell and Tissue Biology Peter Sargent, Dr. Schmidt’s “lectures are outstanding. He has the ability to condense mounds of information into neatly-formed, crystalline gems that the students can grasp and remember. I have never seen an individual with a clinical perspective make basic science come alive as well as Dr. Schmidt. The word that comes to mind is ‘spellbinding’.”
Dr. Schmidt’s skill as an educator is lauded by his students and his mentors, and one resident has gone as far as to say that “to watch him lecture is to see someone [who] has mastered the art of transferring information.” Dr. Schmidt is legendary in his School for making himself available to his students, and is regarded by his students not only as a teacher and mentor, but as leader. One student wrote that Dr. Schmidt “carries a mystique among the students in the School of Dentistry.”
Remarks from current students include:
“[Dr. Schmidt] is a rare individual not only because he blends the roles of clinician, researcher, and educator and is tremendously successful in all three roles, but because he is serious, calm, inspirational, and hardworking. He leads and teaches by example.” “What bears repeating is that despite all of his tremendous responsibilities, he devotes the time to be an exceptional mentor for his students. He has a gift for producing talented student researchers, all of which go on to win research competitions at the local, state, and national level.” And “More than simply being an excellent educator, [Dr. Schmidt] sets an example that inspires his students to set far reaching goals for themselves that utilize the skills they have learned from him.”
Dr. Schmidt has recently served on the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee (2006-2007), currently serves on the UCSF Academic Senate Committee on Courses of Instruction and the UC Systemwide Academic Senate Committee on Clinical Affairs. Dr. Schmidt has been recognized by the American College of Dentists with the Distinguished Faculty Award (2005) and received a UCSF/CORO Foundational Leadership Fellowship (2006).
Date/Location: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 at 12:00 noon in Cole Hall.
To select each year’s recipients the Academic Senate Committee on Academic Personnel designates a selection committee comprised of faculty and student representatives from all four schools. Student representatives are assigned by Associate Deans from each of the respective Schools. This award honors teaching efforts with both students and residents.