Bev Kotowske is this year’s UI Community-Based Medical Education Coordinator Award winner, the Carver College of Medicine’s Office of Statewide Clinical Education Programs announced recently. Kotowske is the medical education coordinator with the Cedar Rapids Medical Education Foundation and works to support the joint education activities of the College and the foundation. “Bev is truly our coordination ‘partner’ within her organization,” said Roger Tracy, assistant dean of medicine and director of OSCEP. “She is always reliable, gracious and thorough.” Kotowske will be honored at a reception Thursday, June 26, from 2:30 to 4 p.m. in the MERF atrium. Posted June 9, 2008.

M1 Micheil Cannsitra received a $3,000 UI Center for Human Rights Kenneth J. Cmiel Human Rights Funded Internship Program award to participate in an eight-week clinical and research internship at the Tuba City, Ariz., Medical Center. Cannistra will work with Indian Health Service physicians, assisting with patient care and clinical research designed to assess and improve care for the center’s mostly Navajo patient population. Posted June 9, 2008.

M2 Efrem Cox received the UI Office of Student Life’s Diversity Leadership Award for outstanding leadership in support of diversity activities and commitment to ongoing promotion of the UI’s cultural centers; the award carries a cash prize of $1,000. Cox served as president of the Iowa chapter of the Student National Medical Association during the 2007-08 academic year, and will spend the next year as a fellow of the Department of Pathology’s Emory D. Warner Medical Student Research Fellowship program. Posted May 21, 2008.

The UI Carver College of Medicine’s four learning communities recognized members for their contributions at the 2007-2008 All Communities Leadership Banquet April 16. The Medical Student Government also bestowed five leadership awards at the event. The William Bean community recognized M3s Jonathon Heath, Roya Ijadi-Maghsoodi, Kevin Orcutt, Thomas Staley and Lyndsey Wilkinson. The Lois Boulware community recognized M3s Lindsey Koele, Thomas Pietras, Amanda Reck and Erica Savage. The Rubin Flocks community recognized M3s Jeff Beck, Sara Martin del Campo, Leah Moellers, Jaren Rickers and Johanna Savage. The Jenny McCowen community recognized M3s Jessica Crawford, Dan Givens, Gina Shook and Jamie Wallace, and M4 Lisa Kramer. The Medical Student Government recognized: M2 Grant Peterson, M1 tutor award; M3G Jacob Elkins, M2/PA tutor award; M4G Adam Case, community service award; M5G Matthew Dickson, student leader award; and Medical Students for Choice, student organization award. The banquet also feature keynote speaker George Weiner, M.D., professor of internal medicine and C.E. Block Chair of Cancer Research in the UI Carver College of Medicine and director of the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at the UI. Posted May 5, 2008.

Jerald Bybee, M.D., and Craig Gurney are the UI Carver College of Medicine’s 2008 recipients of the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Awards, which are sponsored by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation. The awards recognize a faculty member and medical student whose interactions with patients exemplify the highest standards of compassion and sensitivity. Bybee is adjunct assistant professor of family medicine; he practices in Maquoketa, Iowa, and serves as a preceptor for UI medical students during their family medicine clerkships. Gurney is a fourth-year UI medical student and will begin residency training in medicine and pediatrics at University Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio, after graduation. Posted May 5, 2008.

Kristi Ferguson, Ph.D., received the Association of American Medical Colleges Central Group on Educational Affairs’ Medical Education Laureate award at the organization’s annual meeting in April. The award recognizes an individual for significant contributions to medical education and active involvement in the organization. Ferguson is an associate professor of internal medicine and director of the Office of Consultation and Research in Medical Education. Posted May 5, 2008.

Joel Gordon, M.D, is one of three UI faculty members to win this year’s President and Provost Award for Teaching Excellence, the UI Council on Teaching announced recently. Gordon is a professor of internal medicine and Sahai Family Professor of Medical Education. He also directs the UI Carver College of Medicine’s Lois Boulware learning community and chairs the College’s Continuing Education Committee. His nomination for the award cites Gordon’s “amazing passion for teaching” and “tremendous enthusiasm and dedication to students.” The award carries a $3,000 stipend. Posted March 21, 2008.

Third-year UI medical students Kamesha Fair, Daniel Haase, Lauren Hughes and Emily Petersen have won scholarships to spend part of next year studying medicine abroad. Fair will spend at least four weeks at England’s Oxford University sometime during her M4 year, thanks to a $1,700 scholarship sponsored by the UI Carver College of Medicine. Haase and Hughes each won $1,700 to study for at least four weeks at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden; this award also is sponsored by the Carver College of Medicine. Petersen will spend four weeks studying obstetrics and gynecology at Cambridge University in Cambridge, England, on a $1,700 scholarship sponsored by the UI Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The College’s Global Programs office coordinates applications and selection of recipients for all three scholarships. Posted March 21, 2008.

Vincent Liu, MD, clinical assistant professor of dermatology and director of the McCowen learning community, won one of four Innovations in Instructional Computing Awards from the UI Academic Technologies Advisory Council. The grant, announced Jan. 14, is worth $17,000 and will support development of interactive online teaching tools for medical students and resident physicians in dermatology and dermatopathology. Liu’s co-investigators on the project are Theodore Alkousakis, MD, and Joshua Wilson, MD, both resident physicians in dermatology at UI Hospitals and Clinics. Posted Feb. 22, 2008.

M4 Christopher Hogrefe won the American College of Emergency Physicians’ 2007 Medical Student Professionalism and Service Award. The award recognizes students for compassionate patient care, professional behavior and service to the community and specialty. Hogrefe currently serves as president of the UI’s Medical Student Government. Posted Feb. 8, 2008.