Academy of Medical Education Scholars

The mission of the Academy of Medical Education Scholars (AMES) at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson is to create and sustain a diverse community of scholars dedicated to excellence and innovation in medical education.

Congratulations

AMES Medical Research Grants

Bhupinder Natt, MD
Department of Medicine
Project: Use of Real-Time Feedback device to improve the technique of Bag-Mask Ventilation

Maxwell Hart, MD, MEd
Department of Medicine 
Project: Utilization of ChatGPT for the Assessment of Medical Student-Written Histories of Present Illness 

Tejal M. Parikh, MD
Department of Family & Community Medicine
Project: Enhancing Pelvic Anatomy and Reproductive Physical Examination Skills through Handheld Endocavitary Ultrasound

Katherine Robbins, MD
Department of Medicine 
Project: Dermoscopy Performance and Educational Phone Application

Julie Armin, PhD
Barbara Eckstein, MD
Colette Scott, MEd
Department of Family & Community Medicine
Project: Developing Patients-as-Educators to Promote Health Equity: Leveraging Patients’ Lived-Experience Expertise to Educate Medical Students

 

AMES Development Travel Grants

Eva Wilson, DO
Department of Emergency Medicine

Katelyn Fellows, MD
Department of Psychiatry

Elaine Situ-LaCasse, MD
Department of Emergency Medicine

Yamne Callejas 
COM-T Office of Financial Aid

Omowunmi Oluwo, MD
Department of Surgery

Anna Alkozei, PhD
Department of Family & Community Medicine

Michelle Abbate, MD
Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology

 

AMES Travel Grants

Claudio Cheuquen
COM-T Office of Student Affairs

David Neiling
COM-T Office of Student Affairs

Vivienne Ng, MD
Department of Emergency Medicine

Rebecca Whitmer 
COM-T Student

Steven Dudick, MD
Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology

Lonnie Lybarger, PhD
Department of Cellular & Molecular Medicine

Katelyn Anderson
COM-T Student

Elaine Situ-LaCasse, MD
Department of Emergency Medicine 

Current Opportunities

Call for AMES Travel Awards to Present Medical Education Research and the AMES Grants to Support Medical Educational Development

 

AMES is offering two grants to support medical education activities:

 

The AMES Grants to Support Medical Educational Development are intended to support the cost of attending educational development activities for College of Medicine-Tucson faculty members, fellows, and residents seeking to improve skills within medical education. 

 

The AMES Travel Awards to Present Medical Education Research offers travel grants for faculty, staff (Appointed Personnel), and trainees (fellows, residents, medical students) of the College of Medicine-Tucson to present their research on medical education at regional and national conferences.

 

Request for applications in October 2024 are due October 31 and will be awarded in November. 

 

Upcoming Opportunities

Check back soon.

Members

Josie Acuna, MD
Department of Emergency Medicine
jacuna1@arizona.edu

Nafees Ahmad, PhD
Immunobiology
nafees@email.arizona.edu

Sommer Aldulaimi, MD
Department of Family and Community Medicine
aldulaim@email.arizona.edu

Helen Amerongen, PhD
Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine
hma@email.arizona.edu

Richard Amini, MD
Department of Emergency Medicine
ramini@aemrc.arizona.edu

David G. Bear, PhD
Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine
dbear@email.arizona.edu

John W. Bloom, MD
Department of Pharmacology
jbloom@deptofmed.arizona.edu

Colleen Cagno, MD
Department of Family and Community Medicine
colleenc@email.arizona.edu

Tara Carr, MD
Department of Medicine
AMES Chair
tcarr@deptofmed.arizona.edu

Lourdes Castanon, MD
Department of Surgery
lourdescastanon@arizona.edu

Nancy Chen, MD
Department of Pediatrics
nychen@arizona.edu

Conrad J. Clemens, MD, MPH
Department of Pediatrics
cclemen1@email.arizona.edu

Zoe Cohen, PhD
Department of Physiology
zcohen@email.arizona.edu

Rachel Cramton, MD
Department of Pediatrics
rcramton@arizona.edu

Rachel Darche, MD
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
rldarche@arizona.edu

Edward D. French, PhD
Department of Pharmacology
efrench@email.arizona.edu

Iman Ghaderi, MD, MSc, FRCSC, FACS
Department of Surgery
ighaderi@surgery.arizona.edu

Paul Gordon, MD, MPH
Family and Community Medicine
pgordon@email.arizona.edu

Herman Gordon, PhD
Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine
gordon@email.arizona.edu

Krisstina Gowin, DO
Department of Medicine
gowink@arizona.edu

Holli A. Horak, MD
Department of Neurology
hhorak@email.arizona.edu

Kate Hughes, DO
Department of Emergency Medicine
hughesk@aemrc.arizona.edu

Olivia Hung, MD, PhD
Department of Medicine
ohung@arizona.edu

Saira Kalia, MD
Department of Psychiatry
skalia@arizona.edu

Amy Klein, MD
Department of Medicine
kleina@arizona.edu

Katie Kowalek, MD
Department of Pediatrics
kkowalek@arizona.edu

Patricia Lebensohn, MD
Department of Family and Community Medicine
plebenso@email.arizona.edu

Merlin Lowe, MD
Department of Pediatrics
lowe@arizona.edu

James McClenathan, MD
Department of Surgery
mcclenat@arizona.edu

Alice Min, MD
Department of Emergency Medicine
amin@aemrc.arizona.edu

Kevin Moynahan, MD
Department of Medicine
moynahan@email.arizona.edu

Vivienne Ng, MD
Department of Emergency Medicine
vng@aemrc.arizona.edu

Tejal Parikh, MD
Department of Family and Community Medicine
tparikh@email.arizona.edu

Indu Partha, MD
Department of Medicine
AMES Vice Chair
ipartha@arizona.edu

Jennifer Plitt, MD
Department of Emergency Medicine
jplitt@aemrc.arizona.edu

William Rappaport, MD
Surgery
rappaport@surgery.arizona.edu

Mari Ricker, MD
Department of Family and Community Medicine
rickerm@email.arizona.edu

Catherine Riley, MD
Department of Pediatrics
csriley@arizona.edu

Jared Robbins, MD
Department of Radiation Oncology
jrobbins@arizona.edu

Patrick Ronaldson, PhD
Department of Pharmacology
pronald@arizona.edu

Art Sanders, MD
Department of Emergency Medicine
art@aemrc.arizona.edu

Valerie Schaibley, PhD
Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine
vschaibley@arizona.edu

Serena Scott, MD
Department of Medicine
serenascott@arizona.edu

Kareem Shehab, MD
Department of Pediatrics
kareem@arizona.edu

Puneet Shroff, MD
Department of Medicine
pshroff@deptofmed.arizona.edu

Elaine Situ-LaCasse, MD
Department of Emergency Medicine
esitu@aemrc.arizona.edu

Brian Smith, MD
Department of Psychiatry
bcsmith3@arizona.edu

Kathy W. Smith, MD
Department of Psychiatry
kwsmith@psychiatry.arizona.edu

Claudia Stanescu, PhD
Department of Physiology
stanescu@arizona.edu

Lisa R. Stoneking, MD
Department of Emergency Medicine
lstoneking@aemrc.arizona.edu

Amy Sussman, MD
Department of Medicine
asussman@deptofmed.arizona.edu

Todd Vanderah, PhD
Department of Pharmacology
vanderah@email.arizona.edu

History

Based upon the recommendations of an advisory committee chaired by Dr. Joseph Alpert in 2007, Dean Keith Joiner approved the formation of an Academy of Excellence in Education at the University of Arizona College of Medicine (COM-T). That organization, now called the Academy of Medical Education Scholars (AMES), was created in 2008 based on a concept originating at UCSF and Harvard and becoming widespread among American medical schools. The idea was to recognize and support the most accomplished teachers and educators at COM-T and, in return, draw on those faculty members for advice and service to the college’s education programs. It was recommended initially that the Academy would:

  • Recognize excellent teachers and educators at COM-T
  • Work to provide financial support for the recruitment, recognition and retention of outstanding teachers
  • Create a body of educationally oriented faculty who would assist the college with activities such as
    • faculty development for teaching
    • mentoring junior faculty with an interest in education
    • peer review of faculty teaching
  • Foster research in medical education
  • Heighten recognition of the educational mission of the college.

Initial members of AMES were identified by nominations from all departments at COM-T, based on demonstration of educational expertise, educational scholarship and outstanding record of professionalism. Today, those leading medical educators at COM-T continue in their efforts to recruit, mentor and retain outstanding educators and promote excellence in teaching and educational scholarship at all COM-T teaching sites. The Academy also is responsible for selecting the Vernon and Virginia Furrow Awards and awarding annual research grants for educational scholarship. An exciting new effort by the Academy is the creation of an Educators’ Fellowship program, promoting academic faculty development at both the College of Medicine – Tucson and College of Medicine – Phoenix.

Publications

2018 

Waterbrook AL, Ellinwood KCSpear, T Pritchard G, et al. Shadowing emergency medicine residents by medical education specialists to provide feedback on non-medical knowledge-based ACGME sub-competencies. Adv Med Educ Pract. 2018;9:307-315. PMCID: PMC5942177 PMID: 29765259 

2015 

Nematollahi S, St John PA, Adamas-Rappaport WJ. Lessons learned with a flipped classroom. Med Educ. 2015;49(11):1143. PMID: 26494072

Resources

The Academy of Medical Education Scholars supports the scholarship of education in several ways, including mentorship, funding and providing resources for those wishing to conduct scholarship in education. Such resources include links to funding groups and a bibliography of journals with a focus on academic education topics, which can be accessed here. This annotated bibliography was created by a group of scholars from the AAMC Research in Medical Education Section.

A key source of resources for faculty development is the College of Medicine – Tucson Office of Faculty Affairs.
 

Historical documents