Faculty and Staff Recognition 2022
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We are honored to present the 2022 College of Medicine & Life Sciences Faculty and Staff Recognition Awards.
Members of the College of Medicine and Life Sciences Faculty and Staff were honored September 30, 2022, at a special virtual meeting. We will host a dinner to celebrate these exceptional members of our community this fall.
We recognize faculty and staff nominees, honor individuals who have excelled in their careers, as well as recognize those who have made exceptional contributions to teaching, research, clinical care and service, and acknowledge individuals for their commitment to mentoring our students.
Join us in recognizing these faculty and staff members, presented in alphabetical order:
Dean’s Awards 2022
Dean’s Award for Faculty Career Achievement
Ragheb Assaly, M.D.
Professor, Department of Medicine
Nominator Note: "Dr. Assaly has been an exemplar of a medical educator and mentor ever since he began his fellowship at MCO, beginning with multiple Core Curriculum lectures for third- and fourth-year medical students, Internal Medicine residents and residents from Surgery and Anesthesiology. His popularity as a mentor by scores of medical students and residents is evidenced by the 29 publications with them in the past two years. He is recognized throughout the College of Medicine and Life Sciences as an astute and compassionate clinician who can be relied upon for help with complex clinical problems. As Division Chief, he has maintained and expanded a strong cadre of talented physicians bringing advanced technology into his Division and UTMC. This has established UTMC as a premier location to diagnose and treat early lung cancer."
Dean’s Award for New Investigator Research Excellence
Ritu Chakravarti, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology & Pharmacology
Nominator Note: "She has been with us for six years, has published 21 papers, five as senior author, two of which are in PNAS. Her discovery on 14-3-3zeta as a potential vaccine for arthritis has been highlighted by 60 media outlets including BBC. She has obtained funding over $1 million as PI and additional from the NIH and NSF as a collaborative scientist with members of our department, Departments of Medicine and Medical Microbiology and Immunology, as well as with other colleges."
Dean’s Award for ProMedica Faculty Teaching Excellence
George Darah, D.O.
Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Family Medicine
Nominator Note: "George has worked tirelessly to expand the clinical capacity for our M.D. & P.A. student learners at ProMedica sites. This has greatly helped expand the number of clinical placements within the ProMedica footprint. This has also greatly stabilized the P.A. student assignment schedule, which had been erratic for the last several years. Finally, George is one of the most determined and collegial people you could ever meet."
Dean’s Award for Early Career Clinical Excellence
Rajesh Gupta, M.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine
Nominator Note: "Dr. Gupta is actually an outstanding example of the classical triple threat in academic medicine, which some have suggested is no longer possible, but accurately describes Dr. Gupta, who is at once a superlative interventional cardiologist, a highly rated teacher, and productive clinical and laboratory investigator. Dr. Gupta trained in internal medicine and cardiology at top institutions, including Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Harvard, and Columbia. As a clinician, he is a highly sought after consultant by top internists not only in our practice but regionally. He is a skilled interventionalist, with vast experience in both cardiac and peripheral interventions. He is adored by his patients, and consistently received top scores for his informative, caring and nurturing interactions with patients. Students, residents, and fellows seek him out as a mentor. He really is a consummate clinician and an institutional role model."
Dean’s Award for Support Staff Excellence
Lauren Hadeed
Administrative Assistant II, Graduate Medical Education
Nominator Note: "She is a kind, dedicated employee and an excellent example of Outstanding Staff. She gets it to you quickly and without question when you ask for something. She is genuinely supportive in her role and supportive of her colleagues and makes an impact. She is also a joy to work with. I've worked with her on website updates, and she shows exceptional initiative in learning how to make edits and changes herself. She always goes above and beyond."
Dean’s Award for Advising Excellence
Joel Kammeyer, M.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine
Nominator Note: "Dr. Kammeyer is a frequent lecturer to fellows, students and residents on diverse topics in ID, from vaccinations, to common viral and bacterial pathogens, as well as more esoteric infectious diseases. He rounds extensively on the inpatient ID services at ProMedica Toledo and Flower hospitals, working closely and supervising fellows, residents and students on these services. He receives consistently superlative evaluations for his knowledge and teaching skills. He has also had a leadership role in UToledo’s global health program."
Dean’s Award for Staff Impact
Tyrone Layson, M.P.H.
Assistant Director of Student Affairs, College of Medicine and Life Sciences
Nominator Note: "When I think of an Outstanding Staff member, I think of Tyrone Layson, who is dedicated to our students. As Assistant Director for Student Affairs, he meets with students to conduct career plans. He also manages programs for the students, including summer research and more than 65 student organizations."
Dean’s Award for Basic Science Research Excellence
Beata Lecka-Czernik, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Orthopedic Surgery
Nominator Note: "She received 10 extramural grants as Principal Investigator for a total amount exceeding $6.5 million and 11 grants awarded to our faculty with her role as Co-Investigator, Mentor or Collaborator for a total amount of $6.2 million. As a faculty member of the COMLS, she has published 53 publications out of 72 total, has been awarded a patent as a Co-Inventor with The Scripps Research Institute, and gave numerous national and international invited presentations. She is highly recognized as a scientist in the field of diabetic bone disease. According to Google Scholar, her work has been cited over 8,000 times and she scores a competitive h-index of 39. She is listed at the mid-rank of the 100,000 world top-scientist according to Mendeley, an Elsevier academic publisher company."
Dean’s Award for Staff Impact
Blair Mell
Senior Research Associate, Department of Physiology & Pharmacology
Nominator Note: "Her diligence and talent in the nice management of the whole lab could be seen in the research methods she mastered, the rat telemetry surgeries she performed, the overall lab operations she ran, and, most importantly, the 28 publications she possessed."
Dean’s Award for Master Clinician
Ali Nawras, M.D.
Professor, Department of Medicine
Nominator Note: "He is a standout resource for endoscopic procedures and nonendoscopic care of patients with gastrointestinal disorders. He is always available to patients, physicians, fellows, residents and colleagues. He is aspirational for other physicians. His mastery of complicated endoscopic procedures is second to none. He is a referral resource for advanced endoscopic cases and cases in which other experienced physicians have been unable to complete."
Dean’s Award for Outstanding Staff Career Achievement
Nikki Russell
Director of Administrative Operations, College of Medicine and Life Sciences
Nominator Note: "She is a kind, dedicated employee and an excellent example of Outstanding Staff. When you ask for something, she is responsive and gets back to you quickly and without question. She is a dedicated leader for the Dean's Office and our college. I honestly don't know if I would still be in my position if it weren't for Nikki's advocacy for me and her supervision."
Dean’s Award for Master Clinician ProMedica Faculty
John Stengle, M.D.
Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Surgery
Nominator Note: "I have worked with him as a practice partner for over 20 years and can confidently state that he rarely has surgical complications. He is appropriately conservative in his recommendations to patients, for or against surgery. He takes no pride in doing the most cases or the more complicated cases compared to his peers, yet he is one of the busiest surgeons in the combined faculty. I estimate that Dr. Stengle has done well over 10,000 operations in his career and has had a learner on over 90% of those cases."
Dean’s Award for Faculty Diversity and Inclusion
Sharon Thomas, M.D.
Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics
Nominator Note: "She is an advocate for underserved populations and has led workshops and lectures for students in our Stars and REACH pipeline programs. She has also served as keynote speaker for our Language of Diversity series on several occasions throughout the last few years. She has led in-person workshops for our Bridge Week students on important DEI topics. Additionally, she has volunteered as a much-needed faculty mentor for students from underrepresented, first-generation and low socioeconomic backgrounds."
Dean’s Award for AHEC Faculty Teaching Excellence
Jodi Tinkel, M.D.
Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Medicine
Nominator Note: "A former student said, 'My rotation with Dr. Tinkel is my favorite rotation thus far. I cannot say enough positive things about Dr. Tinkel. She is just phenomenal! If you were ever curious to learn about EKG, you will definitely learn it from Dr. Tinkel. She's not only a great physician and teacher, but she's also incredibly funny, approachable and incredibly welcoming. She set realistic expectations based on where you are in your education and really sets out to make sure that you have an exceptional experience. She afforded plenty of autonomy and guidance to make sure to succeed in your patient encounter. I noticed my presentation and ability to deduce a plan improved during my time there. She provided plenty of support when needed but also challenged me to think critically. She made sure that I was able to experience the full gamut of cardiology; I was able to scrub in on Cath procedures, saw stress tests and learn to interpret the results, saw TEE, cardioversions and learned to identify various heart murmurs.'"
Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence
Catherine Van Hook, M.D.
Professor, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology
Nominator Note: "Dr. C. Van Hook is also very well regarded by the residents. She regularly spends significant time working with underserved patients and is consequently the regular teaching fixture for residents, nursing students, physician assistant students and other learners. Furthermore and because of Dr. C Van Hook, the involvement and commitment paradigm relating to the provision of undergraduate OBGYN medical education at ProMedica completely changed for the better. Additionally, her work ethic is amazing. Our residents observe her working long hours on weekends in her academic office at the hospital specifically for the purpose of administratively supporting the medical students. It is common for her to electronically meet with students at night or on weekends."
Dean’s Award for Staff Rising Star
Emily Vascik
Assistant to the Chair, Department of Cell and Cancer Biology
Nominator Note: "Her biggest daily focus is increasing the grant funding by assisting our faculty identify grant funding, assist with submissions, maintaining grant budgets, reconciliation, progress reports, and grant close out reports. With her help, the department has had a record number of submissions the past two fiscal years. She makes financial projections and recommendations that give the faculty options for the best use of their funding. She is professional in her daily communications with faculty, staff and students and clearly reflects the mission statements of the University."
Dean’s Award for Leadership Staff Excellence
Mary Youngs, M.S.E.
Director of Student Affairs, College of Medicine and Life Sciences
Nominator Note: "She was charged with overhauling the system of career advising for students in the M.D. program and integrating the system within the new curriculum. Mary developed a comprehensive advising program based on successful programs at other institutions and AAMC guidance. She developed a continuous quality improvement process, including surveys and reviews to monitor student satisfaction with individual components of the program. Since implementation, Mary established a network of individuals in OSA, Academic Enrichment Center, and Department of Medical Education to support the mission. According to the AAMC GQ, student satisfaction with career advising increased from below the 10th percentile in 2017 to the 50th percentile in 2021 in Career Preference Activities, Information about specialties, alternative careers, and career planning services."
Dean’s Award for ProMedica Faculty Teaching Excellence
Steven Zook, M.D.
Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine
Nominator Note: "He had significant contributions and was instrumental in implementing the transition of the residency program to ProMedica Toledo Hospital, and he continues to work with residents and the IM residency program leadership on evaluation of the program and identifying opportunities to improve the residents educational experience at Toledo Hospital. He is viewed as an excellent educator by residents, students and the residency program leadership. This is evident by the students and residents' evaluations of Dr. Zook."
Watch the Virtual Reception
We honored faculty and staff members on Sept. 30, 2022, at a virtual reception for their dedication and commitment to the mission and goals of the College of Medicine and Life Sciences and the University.