New MAGIS Society Members Named, Alongside Faculty Honors and Awards

Posted in GUMC Stories

May 18, 2015—The MAGIS Society of Master Teachers (new window) welcomed its newest inductees, one from clinical science and one from preclinical science, at the annual ceremony on May 14, one of the first of graduation weekend ceremonies occurring campus-wide.

Honoring faculty members since 2003, the MAGIS Society honors Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) physicians and biomedical scientists who have demonstrated excellence in their teaching, patient care and research activities.

Drawn from the Latin motto for the Society of Jesus, MAGIS is a Latin adverb meaning “more greatly” and is a shortened form of the Jesuit motto “ad maiorem Dei gloriam” or “towards the greater glory of God.”

Dean for medical education Stephen Ray Mitchell, MD, MBA (new window), who presided over the awards presentation, put it this way: “They strive for excellence in all their activities and give selflessly to their students, their colleagues and their patients. They exemplify what our medical center intended in the creation of the MAGIS Society.”

GUMC also presented named faculty awards and announced the recipients of the annual CIRCLE grants, competitive annual awards that stimulate creativity and recognize excellence in medical education.

Priscilla Furth, MD (new window), associate dean for faculty development, spoke to the broader import of innovation that’s occurring at the School of Medicine. “We are continuing to drive innovation in education, committed to the belief that doing so will shape a new generation of professionals that is optimally equipped to confront the new challenges in our evolving field. It is not enough to do what we have always done. We must take a hard look at how we are teaching and make the necessary—if difficult—adjustments to stay at the vanguard,” Furth said.

2015 MASTER TEACHERS

Carolyn Hurley, PhD
Professor, Oncology and Microbiology & Immunology

Miriam Toporowicz, MD, MPH
Professor, Pediatrics

OTHER AWARDS AND HONORS

Kaiser Permanente Awards

Aykut Uren, MD
Associate Professor, Oncology

Michael J. Donnelly, MD
Associate Professor, Medicine

The 2015 Leonard Tow Humanism In Medicine Award

Michael Adams, MD
Professor of Medicine

2015 Circle Grants      

Fostering M1 Academic Success: Coaching for Resiliency
Donna Cameron, PhD, MPH

Medical Student Disaster Response Team
Lauren Wiesner, MD, and Eric Glasser, MD

Managing Curricular Change: An Exploration of the Educational Culture at Georgetown University School of Medicine
Jessica Jones, PhD, and William Pluta, PhD

Using Interdisciplinary Learning Circles to Enhance Teaching of Advanced Communication Skills
Stacey Kaltman, PhD, and Joan Riley, MSN, FNP

Mother Of Pearl Award                              

Steven Spitz, MD
Department of Neurosurgery

By Todd Bensten
GUMC Communications