ACGME | Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education

ACGME honors ten program directors with the 2007-08 Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Award

CHICAGO , February 2008 – Their specialties vary, but the ten residency program directors selected for the ACGME's Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Award share the same qualities: a dedication to teaching new doctors and a talent for creating innovative and effective residency programs.

The award, given annually since 2001, is named after Parker J. Palmer, PhD, a sociologist and educator who wrote The Courage to Teach, a book of reflections on the intellectual, emotional and spiritual aspects of teaching.

The 2007 Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Award recipients are:

Steve Galetta, MD, neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Kalpalatha Guntupalli, MD, pulmonary/critical care, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
Karen Horvath, MD, general surgery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Richard Lackman, MD, orthopaedic surgery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
John Jane, MD, neurosurgery, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
Mukta Panda, MD, transitional year, University of Tennessee College of Medicine, Chattanooga, TN
Susan Promes, MD, emergency medicine, Duke University, Durham, NC
Richard Shugerman, MD, pediatrics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
William Sonis, MD, child and adolescent psychiatry, Drexel University College of Medicine, Friends Hospital, Philadelphia, PA
Robert Brown, MD, nephrology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA	Dr. Brown was unable to attend the Award Ceremony.

The program directors were honored February 11, 2008 at an awards dinner held during the ACGME's winter Board of Directors meeting in Rosemont, Illinois. Award recipients will also attend an educational retreat in the spring at the Fetzer Institute in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

For information on nominating a program director for Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Award or to view a list of recipients from previous years, visit the ACGME Website, www.acgme.org, and click on “ACGME Awards.”