Every year, faculty at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix nominate and recognize their outstanding peers for the following awards.

Early Career Excellence in Research Award

This award is given to a faculty member who demonstrates the potential for research excellence. The goal is to recognize early investigators.

Faculty Excellence in Research Award

This award is given to a faculty member who demonstrates high-quality research and publications throughout their career.

Educational Research Award

This award is given to a faculty member who has undertaken significant educational research. In general, it is anticipated that the recipient of this award will have published peer-reviewed research in education and will be able to demonstrate a commitment to educational research by the documentation of effort in this area. The faculty member may or may not have obtained grant money to carry out this research, but such funding would be considered a significant positive in the selection of this award recipient.

Faculty Community Service Award

This award is given to a faculty member whose contributions to the local, regional or global community exemplify a commitment to improving the welfare of communities.

The primary type of service for which this award is intended includes non-compensated work—for example, volunteering for community health events, disaster relief, international health trips, community education through invited workshops, etc.

Faculty Inclusive Excellence Award

This award is given to a faculty member who demonstrates exemplary leadership and who manifests the ideals of diversity, equity and inclusion through practical action. Recipients may demonstrate this commitment across a range of possibilities: student-centered inclusion initiatives; efforts to support recruitment and retention of underrepresented faculty or students; teaching or research that expands and embraces our understanding of inclusiveness or health equity; multicultural programming or related initiatives; community outreach activities to marginalized or disadvantaged groups; mentoring underrepresented in medicine students, trainees or faculty; or other possibilities.

Outstanding Peer Mentorship Award

This award is given to a faculty member who has served as a faculty mentor, in a formal or informal capacity, to several junior or mid-career faculty over a continuous period and has demonstrated success in the areas they mentor — such as research or teaching. They should have demonstrated commitment to fostering the intellectual, creative, scholarly and professional growth of their mentees so that they may function effectively and with measurable success at the college and the national/international level. The awardee will show evidence of sustained commitment to a professional mentoring relationship that results in career growth or personal development of mentees and an overall track record of mentoring and service to the faculty.

Early Career Excellence in Education Award

This award is given to a faculty member whose activities and accomplishments show potential for significant future contributions to the teaching of medical students, residents, fellows or graduate students.

Excellence in Teaching in Undergraduate Medical Education Award

This award is given to a faculty member who has shown evidence of providing exemplary teaching of students, participation in faculty development activities —local or national — to enhance their teaching skills, development of teaching materials for the student or significant mentorship to one or more student trainees with evidence of tangible outcomes.

Excellence in Teaching in Graduate Medical Education Award

This award is given to a faculty member who has shown excellence in clinical teaching and mentorship of residents or fellows. The faculty should show evidence of providing exemplary teaching, participation in faculty development activities — local or national — to enhance their teaching skills, development of teaching materials for residents or fellows or significant mentorship to one or more resident/fellow trainees with evidence of tangible outcomes.

Excellence in Teaching in Graduate Student Education Award

This award is given to a faculty member who has shown excellence in graduate student education over the past two years. The faculty should show evidence of providing exemplary teaching and participation in faculty development activities — local or national — to enhance their teaching skills, development of teaching materials for graduate students or provide significant mentorship to one or more graduate students with evidence of tangible outcomes.

Excellence in Educational Innovation Award

This award is given to a faculty member who has shown outstanding initiative and ensures that active learning best practices are integrated into their teaching. This person actively pursues ways to improve the content in the following ways:

  • Seeks novel, creative methods to integrate into sessions or clinical experiences.
  • Promotes transfer of knowledge from homework to active learning or to the bedside.
  • Models an open attitude towards innovation.
  • Inspires and encourages curricular improvements in others.
  • Provides an interactive session or clinical experience conducive to learning that engages and receives excellent student evaluation.