Teaching Excellence and Innovation Award

Spring 2023 Recipient: Zachary Elkins

Fall 2023 Recipient: Wendy Wang

 

The Government Department Teaching Excellence and Innovation Award, made possible through a generous donation from Dr. Charles Seidel, recognizes intentional teaching investments that improve student success in our department. 

Charles Seidel received his doctoral degree from the University of Michigan in a department that valued teaching, requiring all graduate students to take part in an instructional skills course. In the process, he discovered a life-long passion for teaching.

After graduation he was awarded a Fulbright-Hays lectureship grant to instruct medical students in Afghanistan.

Upon returning to the United States and after several years of postgraduate research training, he joined the faculty of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston where he rose in the ranks becoming a full professor.

At Baylor he directed a cardiovascular research laboratory; aided the medical school deans in transforming a preclinical curriculum centered on academic departments to an integrated curriculum centered on human organ systems; and taught aspects of physiology to graduate, medical and allied health students. The integrated curriculum became the norm among top medical schools.

He was recognized for his educational contributions by being selected Best Basic Science Teacher, awarded the Fulbright Jaworski LLP Faculty Excellence Award in Educational Leadership, and the Barbara and Corbin J Robertson, Jr. Presidential Award for Excellence in Education. He was a member of Baylor’s Academy of Distinguished Educators and served as their president.

After hearing a Team Based Learning presentation by Dr. Larry Michaelsen, Dr. Seidel and two Baylor colleagues explored its use in medical education. With four years of financial support from the Department of Education, they organized two-day TBL workshops at Baylor to train interested faculty, led workshops nationally and internationally, and published on the effectiveness of TBL in medical education. In the twenty years since their work began over 90% of the top fifty US medical schools have incorporated aspects of TBL into their curriculum. This spread of TBL led to the formation of the Team-Based Learning Collaborative which connects, across disciplines, those interested in TBL to an international network of people knowledgeable about TBL.

After almost 30 years at Baylor, he joined the faculty of Ross University School of Medicine as chair of Physiology and eventually Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs. He incorporated TBL into the curriculum and set up the Master Educator Training Program, a one-year fellowship for basic science doctoral graduates who wanted training in education in order to pursue a career in academia.

In 2013 he retired to enjoy more completely a life-long hobby of nature photography and to more fully  experience the maturation of his twin granddaughters.

Because of Dr Seidel’s long interest in quality education, he is excited to be able to support the Government Department’s Teaching Excellence and Innovation Award.