Kazi Earns National Recognition for Excellence in Medical Education

Salahuddin "Dino" Kazi, M.D.

Just weeks after being named Program Director of the Year by UT Southwestern’s Graduate Medical Education (GME) office, Salahuddin "Dino" Kazi, M.D., has received one of the most prestigious honors in the field of medical education: the 2026 Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Award from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).

Dr. Kazi, a Professor in the Division of Rheumatic Diseases, Vice Chair of Education, and Program Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program, is among only 10 program directors nationwide selected for this distinction across all medical and surgical specialties. The award celebrates leaders who innovate in teaching, foster excellence in patient care, and remain deeply connected to the calling of medicine.

"I am humbled to be recognized among such leaders in graduate medical education," Dr. Kazi says. "No award in education belongs to an individual. It belongs to the community that sustains the learning – the faculty who model professionalism, the residents who bring energy and insight, the staff who hold the place together, and the patients who trust us with their care."

Dr. Kazi joins a distinguished group of past recipients whose work and contributions to graduate medical education represent the best in the field, including Preston Blomquist, M.D., a Professor of Ophthalmology, who received the award in 2020.

Dr. Kazi became the fifth Residency Program Director in October 2012. He recounts a visit he had from Donald W. Seldin, M.D., the inaugural and lontime Chair of Internal Medicine who also served as the first Program Director.

"Dr. Seldin briefed me on the history of the residency program," Dr. Kazi says. "Unlike those who came before me, I was relatively unknown to him, and I understood his need to check me out. He explained that my role would be critical in maintaining the high standards and strong reputation of the program. As he left, his parting words were, 'Don't ruin my program.'"

Some six years later, as Dr. Seldin, then 97 years old, entered into hospice care, he wrote a note to Dr. Kazi, expressing his belief that Dr. Kazi had "done an excellent job with the house-staff."

The ACGME's announcement of Dr. Kazi as a Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach awardee seems to confirm Dr. Seldin's observation.

"We are fortunate to have Dr. Kazi as an integral member of our leadership team," says Ezra Burstein, M.D., Ph.D., Professor and Interim Chair of Internal Medicine. "In addition to his numerous contributions to the Department, his unwavering dedication to mentoring trainees and faculty alike is of paramount importance for our partner institutions and the communities and the patients they serve."

The 2026 awardees will be formally recognized at the ACGME Annual Educational Conference in San Diego next February.

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