Dr. Angela Collins: Vanatta, Hesser, Schmalstieg Excellence in Tutoring Award
By Harriet L. Blake
Sports is in her DNA, so it’s no surprise that orthopaedic surgery was a slam dunk choice as a medical specialty for Dr. Angela Collins.
She is, in her words, “a huge basketball and hockey fan.” She played basketball and volleyball at Richardson High School, and basketball at Austin College from 2002 to 2006. She was a ball kid for the Dallas Mavericks, has worked for the Dallas Mavericks Street Team since 2006, and the Dallas Stars promotions staff since 2008. The 2011 NBA championship remains one of her favorite memories and she was “lucky enough” to be in the championship parade in the Mavs Excursion, pulling the float that included Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry, and Jason Kidd.
Dr. Collins says teaching became a personal passion during her junior year at Austin College. She was a student teacher for one of the freshman courses and the experience “helped me realize how much I enjoy teaching and working with students. After I started medical school, I taught MCAT courses and provided tutoring to pre-medical students.”
During her graduate training, she said she had the opportunity to begin working with first- and second-year medical students. She has continued to teach both small and large group immunology and microbiology reviews ever since.
It is because of this dedication to teaching that Dr. Collins, who will graduate in June with an M.D. and a Ph.D., has been recognized with the 2016 Vanatta, Hesser, Schmalstieg Excellence in Tutoring Award.
Carol Wortham, Student Academic Support Services manager, said, “It is a long-anticipated pleasure to recognize Angela Collins with this award. As a student in the M.D./Ph.D. program, she has been a dedicated member of our tutoring team for the past seven years while completing both degrees. Her expert knowledge and natural gift for teaching combined to make Angela’s session highly popular and effective. In fact, Angela was so valuable to the immunology course that they made her pre-exam tutorials part of the scheduled curriculum.”
Dr. Collins, in turn, said she is “so thankful for Carol Wortham. She has given me such wonderful teaching opportunities over the years and has always been so supportive and encouraging. UT Southwestern is lucky to have such an amazing woman in student education.”
Other faculty members Dr. Collins praised included Dr. Iwona Stroynowski, Professor of Immunology, and Microbiology, who involved her in the immunology curriculum each year and gave her the chance to work with students in the immunology course; Dr. Ellen Vitetta, Professor of Immunology and Microbiology, for teaching her immunology and helping her learn how to talk about and explain the complicated subject to others; Dr. Michael Shiloh, Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine, and of Microbiology, for providing invaluable scientific training; and Dr. Lawson Copley, Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, for providing her with an example of how to be a successful surgeon scientist.
An only child, Dr. Collins grew up in Richardson and majored in biology at Austin College. In the prestigious Medical Scientist Training Program, she has completed doctorate work in immunology. Her thesis, done in Dr. Shiloh’s lab, investigated how the immune system controls tuberculosis.
Her mother retired from teaching in 2015; her father is an accountant for an oil and gas company in Dallas. Her fiancé works in graphic design.
Dr. Collins will begin an orthopaedic surgery residency in July at McLaren Regional Medical Center in Michigan. Eventually she hopes to be an orthopaedic surgeon at an academic institution where she can instruct medical students and residents as well as continue her research interests as a surgeon scientist.
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Dr. Vitetta holds the Scheryle Simmons Patigian Distinguished Chair in Cancer Immunobiology.
