Dr. Charles Bardes Wins National Teaching Award from AAMC
Dr. Charles L. Bardes, associate dean of admissions at Weill Cornell Medical College and a professor of clinical medicine, has won the Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Award from the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Dr. Charles L. Bardes. Photo credit: Amelia Panico
The annual award, which was established in 1988, provides national recognition to distinguished faculty members for excellence in medical student education. Dr. Bardes is the most decorated teacher in Weill Cornell’s history, earning 27 teaching awards during his 25-year career at the medical college. He has helped design Weill Cornell’s new curriculum and is a theme leader for physicianship, ensuring that the concept is integrated into the four-year course of study.
Dr. Bardes will receive the award on Nov. 9 during AAMC’s annual meeting in Chicago. Alpha Omega Alpha is the nation’s medical honor society. There are 123 chapters across the United States and more than 150,000 members have been elected since its founding in 1902.
"When I learned that I had won the Glaser Award, after getting over my surprise, I recalled that the nomination had come from the medical college, and this led me to reflect on my path at Weill Cornell," Dr. Bardes said. "In fact, Weill Cornell has been remarkably hospitable to my career, despite a number of unconventionalities."
During his residency in internal medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Dr. Bardes asked the chair of medicine at the time if he could join Weill Cornell’s full-time faculty to practice general medicine in an office setting, rather than in a clinic. The chairman created a position for Dr. Bardes, which soon led to increasing educational responsibilities despite being a junior faculty member without subspecialty training.
In the years since, Dr. Bardes has won the Siegel Family Faculty Award, Weill Cornell’s highest teaching honor, and received the medical college’s Elliot Hochstein Teaching Award three times. He has also received the Senior List Award, voted on by the graduating class and presented during convocation, annually from 2003 to 2013. His writings on medicine and medical education have been published in numerous journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine, Agni, Literary Imagination, and Academic Medicine: Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges.
"Weill Cornell agreed to take a chance with me, and this combination of patient care, education and administration, growing over the years, remains the core of my work life," Dr. Bardes said. "A one-time English major was encouraged to teach, to create curriculum and to oversee the Admissions process, imbued with the experience of daily patient care and the spirit of the humanities. Weill Cornell has supported this unusual path at every step of the way, and I am profoundly grateful."
Additional Awards and Honors
Dr. Thomas A. Imahiyerobo, Jr., a chief resident in the Department of Surgery's Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Residency Program, received the Resident of the Month Award from NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in April. The award recognizes a resident who exemplifies the hospital's values of empathy, respect, responsibility, teamwork and excellence. Dr. Imahiyerobo was selected for his dedicated service in providing the highest quality, most compassionate patient care.
Dr. Fabrizio Michelassi, chairman of the Department of Surgery, the Lewis Atterbury Stimson Professor of Surgery and a professor of surgery, was elected president of the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract during its 55th annual meeting, hosted May 2 – 6 in Chicago. He previously served as the society's president-elect.
Dr. Parul Shukla, an associate professor of surgery, was appointed associate editor of the Indian Journal of Surgery, the official publication of the Association of Surgeons of India. The association is dedicated to taking complete health care to the rural areas of India.