Shine Academy selects Ph.D. Track for Award
The UT Kenneth I. Shine, M.D., Academy of Health Science Education recently selected UT Southwestern’s program in translational science for its 2015 Innovations in Health Science Education Award. The translational science program was created and led by Dr. Helen Yin, UT Associate Dean for the Office of Women’s Careers (OWC) and Vice Chair of Physiology.
The academy’s mission is “to serve the University of Texas System through the support and promotion of excellence in all aspects of health science education, educational scholarship and leadership.” A highlight of the academy’s annual "Innovations in Health Science Education" conference is the session in which the three innovations award finalists give formal presentations on their projects. Those presentations are then ranked and the winning project, which receives a $5,000 award, is announced. Two of this year’s three finalists were UT Southwestern faculty members, who recently presented their work at the academy’s annual conference in Austin.
The Innovations Award recognizes “an individual or individuals who have implemented a project or program with a documented record of innovation and achievement in the last five years in undergraduate or graduate health science education, encompassing all of the health science disciplines, including educational programs for medical students, medical residents, undergraduate and graduate nursing students, dental students, public health professionals, and allied health professionals.”
Dr. Yin’s conference talk, “Mechanism of Disease and Translational Science,” outlined the history of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute-sponsored, National Institutes of Health-funded Ph.D. track. The rigorous curriculum trains graduate students to become the next generation of leaders in translational research, the high-profile field that takes biomedical discoveries from the laboratory to the population with the goal of benefitting patients.
“This is a great honor and a culmination of a Capstone Project that was started as part of my Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine training in 2007,” said Dr. Yin.
UT Southwestern’s other 2015 finalist was Dr. Laurette Dekat , Clinical Assistant Professor and Medical Director, Department of Physician Assistant Studies in the UT Southwestern School of Health Professions, was titled “Enhancing competence through an integrated diabetes management curriculum.”
###
Dr. Yin holds the Margaret Yin Chair for the Advancement of Women Faculty, and the Peter and Jean D. Dehlinger Professorship in Biomedical Science.
