Recap: Top moments from the 2025 Leaders in Clinical Excellence Awards ceremony

Published on: November 20, 2025 By: Staff Reports

Audience member holds sign that reads, Contrats Susan. — Several hundred UT Southwestern community members and guests gathered for the eighth annual Leaders in Clinical Excellence (LCE) Awards inside the Tom and Lula Gooch Auditorium on Wednesday, Nov. 5. Audience members react to a sign celebrating Susan Matulevicius, M.D., one of the evening’s awardees. The sign was held aloft by her husband, Anand Rohatgi, M.D., a 2023 LCE recipient.

On Nov. 5, the Tom and Lula Gooch Auditorium on South Campus came alive with the sound of applause, laughter, tears, and heartfelt speeches as 10 UT Southwestern physicians appeared on stage and accepted the 2025 Leaders in Clinical Excellence Awards. During the reception that followed, friends, families, and colleagues spilled across the Eugene McDermott Plaza and expressed their sincerest congratulations to the honorees.

The awards ceremony recognized clinical faculty members who were selected from a pool of more than 200 nominations. Nine faculty members received individual awards for their exemplary skills and stellar records of service, and one recipient was honored as the leader and architect of an outstanding clinical program. The event was a celebration of their professional excellence, compassion, and unwavering commitment to patient care and institutional improvement. Among those in attendance were some of the people whose lives were directly impacted by their diligent care.

“These awards remind us of what brings us to campus each day. … It also reminds us of the various dimensions there are to clinical excellence,” said UT Southwestern President Daniel K. Podolsky, M.D., who, along with Jonathan Efron, M.D., Executive Vice President for Health System Affairs, and W. P. Andrew Lee, M.D., Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Provost, and Dean of UT Southwestern Medical School, presented the awards to the recipients. “They really embody the constellation of all of the values that we are going to be celebrating in the course of these various awards.”

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The LCE Awards feature seven categories: Rising Star Award, Mentoring Award, Patient and Family Recognition Award, Program Development Award, Institutional Service Award, The President’s Award for Humanism in Clinical Care, and the Patricia and William L. Watson Jr., M.D. Award for Excellence in Clinical Medicine.

W. P. Andrew Lee, M.D., Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Provost, and Dean of UT Southwestern Medical School, presents the Rising Star Award to Nick Hendren, M.D., Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Cardiology. “My work has really focused on advancing the cardiovascular care of patients, who oftentimes face significant financial and socioeconomic barriers to care. Over the years, it’s been a true privilege to work together with so many talented clinicians, nurses, and other health scholars to help advance and share that mission,” Dr. Hendren said in his acceptance speech.

The second Rising Star Award went to Caroline Park, M.D., M.P.H., FACS, Associate Professor of Surgery at UTSW and Trauma Medical Director at Parkland Memorial Hospital. “This award is a representation of someone’s belief in me and my mission and the continuous support to achieve that goal, so I have to thank my mentors: Dr. Podolsky, Dean Lee, Dr. [Benjamin] Levi, and Dr. [Herbert] Zeh for this,” Dr. Park said. “And just like any of the other outstanding UT Southwestern colleagues who are sitting right here and in this group who are either nominated or have been recognized, this award is a combination of community efforts. We do not stand alone.”

Guests applaud the award recipients as they walk across the stage to accept their awards. The event was also livestreamed so others could watch the ceremony virtually.

Benjamin N. Nguyen, M.D. (center), Professor of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, received a Mentoring Award. Kim Barker, M.D. (left), Associate Professor and the Vice Chair of Faculty and Academic Affairs in the Department of PM&R, and Alejandro Rodriguez, M.D., PM&R resident, showed their support for Dr. Nguyen. During his acceptance speech, he called mentorship a team sport, thanking his family and his work family. “I will try to impress upon my mentees the importance of paying it forward, because you get a lot more out of the experience than you put into it.”

Dr. Lee extends a handshake to Gilberto A. Salazar, M.D., FACEP, Professor of Emergency Medicine, who also received a Mentoring Award. “I’m deeply grateful to UT Southwestern for giving me the opportunity to do something that not a lot of people in the world get to do, which is inspire others,” Dr. Salazar told the crowd. “I’m overcome.”

Yu-Guang He, M.D., Professor of Ophthalmology, received a Patient and Family Recognition Award. “This award is so meaningful because it comes from my patients, from their families, and from the people who matter the most to me. I’m very grateful,” Dr. He said.

James F. Thornton, M.D., Director of Facial Reconstruction and Professor of Plastic Surgery, also received a Patient and Family Recognition Award. “This commitment to patient care runs through the entire institution [at UTSW] to every doctor, and for this reason, I’m very humbled and honored to receive this award,” Dr. Thornton said. “I’m also very, very grateful to Dr. Podolsky for maintaining the standards of this [organization] and for setting the bar so high for all of us in the expectations for patient care.”

This year’s Program Development Award went to the Parkland Burn Reconstruction Program. Samuel P. Mandell, M.D., M.P.H., FACS, FABA, Associate Professor of Surgery and Burn Section Chief at UTSW and Medical Director of Parkland Burn Center, accepted the award. “I’d definitely like to say thank you to Dr. Zeh and Dr. Levi in the Department of Surgery for their unwavering support of the Burn Program since I got here. It’s really fitting that this is a program award because … the [Burn Center] is the ultimate team sport,” Dr. Mandell said. “You really can’t do it alone. There are hundreds of people every day who touch each one of our patients. And each one of them, I am enormously personally grateful to.”

Susan Matulevicius, M.D., M.S.C.S., Associate Dean of Faculty Wellness and Engagement and Professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Cardiology, accepts the Institutional Service Award. “I really have been inspired by everyone that I get to lead and everyone I get to represent,” Dr. Matulevicius said. “And that’s what I think of every single time I come to a meeting: How can I make this place support you so that you can achieve your full potential and achieve the missions of clinical research and educational excellence here at UT Southwestern?”

Melanie S. Sulistio, M.D., FACC, FAHA, Professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Cardiology, thanks her team and loved ones as well as her patients and their families upon accepting The President’s Award for Humanism in Clinical Care. “I truly believe that medicine is the perfect marriage between science, which is incredible here at UT Southwestern, and humanity,” Dr. Sulistio said. “I believe that we are better together. We are better taking care of one another. We’re more similar than we are different. And if we just stand by one another and give each other kindness and compassion and love – truly, we can do great things.”

Sidarth Wakhlu, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry and interim Chief of the Division of Addiction Psychiatry, was presented with the evening’s top honor, the Patricia and William L. Watson Jr., M.D. Award for Excellence in Clinical Medicine, which recognizes a faculty member who has had a profound impact on patients, students, trainees, and colleagues through the quality of their clinical work.

Dr. Podolsky presents Dr. Wakhlu with the Watson Award on stage.

“I am deeply honored to be the recipient of the Watson Award, the recognition, and the celebration,” Dr. Wakhlu said. “And I would like to dedicate this recognition primarily to my patients, whose complex presentations consistently challenge me and whose immense courage and strength in the face of adversity and emotional pain always leave me humbled.”

Dr. Park celebrates her win with her husband, Matthew Cahalane, and their son, Julian.

From left: Dr. Hendren and his wife, Sarah Hendren, are all smiles as they pose with Vlad Zaha, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Cardiology, and Amit Khera, M.D., Professor of Internal Medicine, Clinical Chief of Cardiology and Director of the Preventive Cardiology Program.

Dr. Salazar stands with his daughter, Gabby Salazar (left), and his wife, Leticia Salazar, outside Gooch Auditorium.

Dr. Sulistio shares a moment with Ebony Smith, the daughter of a patient whose diagnosis and treatment laid the foundation for much of Dr. Sulistio’s research and quality improvement projects.

Dr. Thornton poses with his wife, Katina Thornton, M.D., whom he met in the library at UT Southwestern Medical School when they were both students. Dr. Katina Thornton graduated in 1990.

Colleagues gather around Dr. Wakhlu to congratulate him on his win.

Dr. Wakhlu laughs and celebrates his award with his daughters, Shereen Wakhlu (center) and Nausheen Wakhlu, M.D. His wife, Renuka Chowdhury, M.D., was also in attendance.

From left, colleagues Deborah Diercks, M.D., Chair and Professor of Emergency Medicine; Mark Courtney, M.D., Professor of Emergency Medicine; Dr. Salazar; and Larissa Velez, M.D., Professor of Emergency Medicine, celebrate the LCE honor.

Dr. He attends the post-ceremony reception with wife, Biren and son, HaoWei.

During the reception that took place on the Eugene McDermott Plaza, caterers from the Auxiliary Restaurant Group dish out delicious bites.

Food and drink were in abundance as guests mingled on the plaza.

Colleagues of Dr. He attended the award ceremony and the reception that followed to show their support. Front row, from left: Abby Thomas, Barbara Stampley, Norma Ortegon, Amanda Winters, Merida Valle, and Juan Mo. Back row, from left: Lilah Myers, Valerie Medina, Consuelo Vizcaino, Judy Kim, M.D., and Heliana Vargas.

Members of the Leaders in Clinical Excellence Awards Program committee pose on the plaza during the reception. From left: Heather Svokos, Evan Thomas, Jenny Doren, and selection committee co-Chairs Maeve Sheehan, M.D., and John Mansour, M.D.

Dr. Matulevicius converses with another guest while enjoying the reception.