Recognizing Teaching Excellence

Learners in the Carver College of Medicine are invited to provide examples of effective teaching at the end of each rotation. Read what our trainees recently had to say about Internal Medicine educators below. The first two were submitted in June, at the end of the previous academic year. Read previous submissions.


Jonathan Day, MD, Second-Year Resident*, Internal Medicine
Submitted by Katy Pham

  • Excited to teach
  • Always checked up on students and made sure they were learning enough, getting enough patients
  • Made antibiotics and complicated topics like liver decompensation easier
  • Always kind and thoughtful!

*Dr. Day is currently a third-year resident in Internal Medicine.


Paul Mester, MD, Third-Year Resident*, Internal Medicine
Submitted by Yifan He

  • created an interactive environment and engaged students in discussions
  • provided constructive feedback

*Dr. Mester is currently an Associate in the Division of General Internal Medicine.


Kevin Glenn, MD, MS, Clinical Professor, General Internal Medicine
Submitted by Erin Sullivan

Dr. Glenn encourages students to read up on a single, well-defined question related to our patients, which he knows will result in finding interesting research articles to present and discuss as a team. During my time on the team, I answered questions regarding oxygen use in severe vs moderate COPD, transfusion threshold in upper GI bleeding, and whether mental stress causes cardiac ischemia. He engages students in medicine in a way that I haven’t seen any other educators do. I actually enjoyed searching for answers to his questions and presenting the findings, when normally I find this practice tedious. And he always gives you multiple choice questions so as not to practice “toxic quizzing,” and he goes around the room and had all the students say their answer before the reveal, so we are all engaged and invested in the answer. I hope more staff physicians employ Dr. Glenn’s highly engaging teaching methods because I have never found medicine so interesting. I chose to go into radiology, but if I had worked with him during my core-year rotation, I might have actually chosen IM because of how fascinating medicine is when seen through his eyes.


Katherine Harris, MD, Clinical Professor, General Internal Medicine
Submitted by Ioannis Kournoutas

It was a pleasure to work with Dr. Harris on 6RC, and I would be happy to do so again. A few examples of things that stood out about Dr. Harris:

  • Regularly taking time to have brief chalk talks before rounds
  • Always eager to teach and fostered an atmosphere that was conducive to asking questions, open discussion, and collegiality
  • Making time to give personalized feedback both at the midpoint of the rotation and at the end
  • Would share articles or other relevant literature with the team on pertinent topics or diagnoses we experienced during that day
  • Was proactive in making sure students/residents are able to get to noon conference on time

Masaaki Yamada, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor, Nephrology
Submitted by Grace Lee

  • Incorporated boards-relevant teaching into table rounds, and emailed students relevant scientific literature afterwards
  • Always encouraged questions
  • Wrote sometimes detailed follow-up emails to provide landmark trials that have informed our clinical decisions

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