Institute for Medical Education

Excellence in Teaching Awards

The Excellence in Teaching Awards are held each year to honor outstanding educators across the Mount Sinai Health System. These awards acknowledge exceptional faculty, trainees, students and staff who embody the principles of excellence in teaching. Past honorees have been recognized for going above and beyond in their teaching, development of curricula, and ways to evaluate our success.

Education is a critical mission of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the Institute for Medical Education (IME) supports institutional activities related to promoting and advancing innovative medical education and scholarship as well as educator recognition, mentorship, reward and development.

The Institute administers several awards intended to honor, support and reward educators for their efforts. Awards include:

This award is named in honor of Dr. Arthur H. Aufses, Jr., a dedicated teacher at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai for over 50 years, a passionate advocate for life-long learning and a beloved member of the Mount Sinai teaching and learning family. Faculty who have demonstrated exceptional teaching ability and a long-standing commitment to advancing the teaching mission of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai are eligible for this award. Applicants are generally senior faculty who are viewed by all as having dedicated much of their career to becoming a leader in the field of education and mentoring others to achieve the same.

This award is named in honor of Dr. Nathan Kase, a forward-thinking innovator in his design of the Humanities and Medicine Program over 25 years ago, an inspirational voice encouraging new educational approaches and a committed supporter of educators and education here at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Students, residents, faculty or staff who have developed creative and innovative programs in curriculum and assessment to enhance the educational experiences of their learners are eligible for this award.

This award honors faculty who have demonstrated exceptional acumen as clinicians and clinical teachers. These are generally senior clinical faculty who are viewed by peers as invaluable bedside teachers and mentors. These faculty have dedicated much of their careers to teaching clinical skills and patient care.

This award honors faculty who are exceptionally dedicated to their teaching roles and have demonstrated excellence as teachers and role models.

This award honors Residents and Clinical Fellows who are exceptionally dedicated to their teaching roles and have demonstrated excellence as teachers and role models.

This award honors medical students at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai who have dedicated a considerable amount of time to teaching other medical students and who have demonstrated excellence as teachers and role models.

This award honors graduate students at the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Icahn Mount Sinai who have dedicated a considerable amount of time to teaching other graduate students and demonstrated excellence as teachers and role models.

This award honors staff who may not be directly teaching our students and trainees, but who make outstanding contributions to their educational experiences.

Nominations

The call for nominations is open from February through March of each year and a committee of faculty and IME members selects the winners. In recent years, the number of nominations has increased drastically. We hope those numbers continue to rise so that we may adequately recognize the talent and dedication of our finest educators.

Please note that previous recipients of the Career Achievement, Innovations, and Master Clinician awards are not eligible for further nomination in any IME award category. Previous recipients of other IME awards are only eligible for nomination after a three-year waiting period AND only in a different category. 

The Excellence in Teaching Awards Ceremony is held annually in June. Please contact InstituteMedEd@mssm.edu if you have any questions or are interested in nominating a colleague.