By Deborah Wormser

Dr. Maia VanDyke

Dr. Maia VanDyke says being the youngest of four children shaped her competitive spirit. Did it also impact her considerable skills in time management?

The daughter of physicians, she grew up in Ohio and arrived in Dallas as a Southern Methodist University President’s Scholar who went on to letter on the school’s equestrian team and achieve Phi Beta Kappa status in her junior year.

Starting with her first year at UT Southwestern Medical School, she performed with the Lymph Notes, an a cappella singing group, and ran her own baking business. As an MS2, she created color-coded course material outlines that she distributed freely, for which her classmates bestowed an “Outstanding Teacher Award,” usually reserved for faculty.

Dr. VanDyke, who will serve her urology residency at UT Southwestern, has now added two more honors: the 2017 John D. McConnell Award for Excellence in Urology and the 2017 Rolland C. Reynolds Pathology Award, the latter presented to a graduating Medical Student whose actions demonstrate care and giving. The Reynolds Award, which includes $1,500, honors the late UT Southwestern alumnus and faculty member remembered as a gifted pathologist and a generous person.

“Maia VanDyke is an extremely hardworking, multitalented Medical Student. She has always demonstrated energy and enthusiasm in everything she does – whether it is her commitment to urology or her passion for baking,” said Dr. Gary Lemack, Professor of Urology and of Neurology and Neurotherapeutics.

The McConnell Award honors the clinician whom many in the Department credit for the continued success of Urology at UT Southwestern. Dr. McConnell recently became Executive Director of Wake Forest Healthcare Ventures in North Carolina. At UT Southwestern, he was the third leader of what was then a Division. He oversaw the elevation of Urology to Department status, greatly improved the grant support for basic urological research, and grew both the clinical and basic science research faculty through a nationwide recruiting effort. After leaving UT Southwestern in 2008, Dr. McConnell served as CEO at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center until retiring earlier this year.

“I am deeply honored to receive these awards, and grateful to the faculty at UT Southwestern, who have believed in me and challenged me to do the most with my time during Medical School,” Dr. VanDyke said. “I feel incredibly lucky to have Dr. Allen Morey [Professor of Urology] as a mentor. Within minutes of meeting him – in the middle of a case in the operating room – he had welcomed me into the world of urology. By the time I walked out, I was already plugged in to multiple research projects. He is a prolific researcher and an incredible surgeon, but somehow regularly finds the time to provide mentorship over a cup of coffee.”

Despite her parents’ examples, there was no single moment that made Dr. VanDyke choose medicine as her career. But she can point to the moment when she knew she had made the right choice. She was on an overnight trauma surgery rotation and standing next to Dr. Kareem Abdelfattah, Assistant Professor of Surgery, on an exploratory laparotomy. “There is something about being awake at 3 a.m. working hard to save the life of a patient while the rest of the city is sleeping – it makes you feel like a superhero,” she said. “It was that moment I knew I was going to be a surgeon.”

Dr. Lemack holds the Rose Mary Haggar Professorship in Urology.

Dr. Morey holds the Distinguished Chair in Urology for Urologic Reconstruction, in Honor of Allen F. Morey, M.D. and the Paul C. Peters, M.D., Chair in Urology.