Educational Recognition Awards honor teachers at UMass Medical School

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The UMass Medical School community celebrated the 21stEducational Recognition Awards on Thursday, April 25, honoring Peter Metz, MD, with the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring and lauding 19 faculty and postdocs for high achievements. The ceremony was followed by the Last Lecture from Janet Hale, PhD, RN, FNP.

"This award appropriately celebrates mentoring as a foundational element of our academic community and the broader nursing, science and medical professions," said Chancellor Michael F. Collins, recognizing Dr. Metz. "If mentoring is one of those rarest of gifts—both given and received—then the career of this year’s award recipient only can be considered a most cherished gift."

Metz, professor of psychiatry and pediatrics, has served on the faculty since 1983. He directed the child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship program for 17 years and the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry for 15 years. The recipient of numerous honors, Metz was awarded the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Assembly Catchers in the Rye Award last year. It recognizes an individual for his or her outstanding advocacy efforts on behalf of children and adolescents.

"Since 1983, you have enriched our academic community as an expert clinician, a celebrated educator, a renowned child psychiatrist and a tireless community advocate. You view mentoring less as a professional obligation and more as a personal privilege. Numerous medical students have pursued careers in child psychiatry, a high-shortage medical specialty, because of your example," said Chancellor Collins. "Over the course of your long and distinguished career here at UMass Medical School and despite your myriad clinical, teaching and administrative responsibilities, your fidelity to a central tenet of the medical profession—to educate and mentor those that follow you—has been exemplary."

Dean’s and faculty awards were presented by Joan Vitello, PhD, dean of the Graduate School of Nursing; Mary Ellen Lane, PhD, dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences; and Terence R. Flotte, MD, dean of the School of Medicine. Erin McMaster, MD, associate professor of pediatrics and co-chair of the Educational Policy Committee, presented the Educational Achievement (Star) Awards for outstanding individual achievements in medical student education. Student Body Committee co-presidents and SOM ’21 classmates Katherine Sadaniantz and Ryan Barrette presented the student-selected Outstanding Medical Educator awards. Read the full list of award winners here.

Following the awards presentations, Dr. Hale, the 2018 Chancellor’s Medal for Excellence in Teaching recipient, delivered the Last Lecture.

Hale, professor of nursing and family medicine & community health and associate dean for interprofessional and community partnerships in the Graduate School of Nursing, is retired from the U.S. Army Reserves. Throughout her career, she has focused on developing interprofessional education initiatives in which medical and graduate nursing students work side by side caring for medically underserved patients and populations in primary care and community health settings, including correctional health.

Hale recounted her journey to UMMS and highlights of her 18 years on campus. She shared the triumphs and tribulations of her military career including multiple deployments, her civilian careers in clinical practice and academia, and her most important accomplishment of building supportive and rewarding family and professional relationships along the way.

"The expression ‘bloom where you're planted’ means a person should take advantage of the opportunities they have in their life and be grateful for the present situation," she said. "Even if you find yourself planted under some concrete at the moment, look for the crack in the concrete to find your way out. And despite all odds, choose to bloom anyways."

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