The International Association of Medical Science Educations (IAMSE) would like to congratulate the winner of the 2017 Master Scholar award.

William B. Jeffries, Ph.D.
Professor of Pharmacology and Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education
University of Vermont
Burlington, Vermont

William B. (Bill) Jeffries, Ph.D. is a Professor of Pharmacology and the Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education at the Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine at the University of Vermont. Dr. Jeffries earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in pharmacology from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science. While in graduate school he began his 37-year education career as a graduate assistant, teaching freshman biology labs. He did his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas in the Department of Pharmacology.

After his fellowship, Dr. Jeffries joined the faculty at Creighton University. There he was elected Fellow of the Council for High Blood Pressure Research of the American Heart Association and spent two decades as a successful research investigator in hypertension and molecular pharmacology. At Creighton he became very active in health sciences education, teaching and directing courses for medical, nursing, pharmacy, dental and graduate students. He assumed a leadership role in graduate education as director of the Pharmacology Graduate Program for 7 years. He also developed an NIH-funded program to help prepare underrepresented minority students for research and medical careers. This program continued at Creighton for 15 years. He was also a driving force in medical curricular reform, overseeing the integration of Pharmacology content in a major curricular change at Creighton.

These early experiences led to Dr. Jeffries’ scholarly efforts in education, including effective teaching through active learning, curriculum design, strategic institutional planning and technological innovation. Dr. Jeffries served on the IAMSE Board of Directors for 7 years and is a past chair of the Division for Pharmacology Education of the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. He has also served on several national groups and committees of the Association for American Medical Colleges and as a faculty member in its LEAD mentorship program. He has been a long term contributor to IAMSE and its programming, contributing numerous workshops and seminars. He has authored over 100 scholarly works.

Dr. Jeffries primary scholarly interest today is faculty development. He has made over 70 education presentations, seminars, and workshops regionally, nationally and internationally with the goal of improving medical teaching. Jeffries is coeditor (with Dr. Kathryn Huggett) of two editions of An Introduction to Medical Teaching, a faculty development manual for medical educators. He is a contributing author to many other medical teaching works, including IAMSE’s How-To Guide for Active Learning, A Practical Guide for Medical Teachers, Knowledge Objectives in Medical Pharmacology, the Guidebook for Clerkship Directors, 4th and 5th Editions, and The Eight Roles of the Excellent Medical Teacher. He is an outspoken proponent of active learning, and his advocacy for its use in medical education has been featured in many medical education meetings, the New York Times, Boston Globe, the AAMC Reporter, the Chronicle of Higher Education and the US News and World Report.

The Master Scholar Award recognizes an IAMSE member who has a distinguished record of educational scholarship, including educational research and/or dissemination of excellent and scholarly approaches to teaching and education. This could include development of multimedia medical educational programs, research in the areas of curriculum design and evaluation, student assessment, or innovative programs and methods.

The International Association of Medical Science Educations (IAMSE) would like to congratulate the winner of the 2017 Master Teacher award.

Tracy B. Fulton, Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics
University of California, San Francisco
San Francisco, California

Tracy Fulton has spent the last 23 years at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where she earned her PhD and is professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics. As a grad student, while studying telomerase in yeast, she explored her love for teaching as an adult literacy tutor, an animal museum docent, a K-5 classroom helper, and a TA for dental school biochemistry. She settled on professional school education as her target path and since joining the faculty in 2000 has directed and taught in courses in the Schools of Medicine, Pharmacy, and Dentistry, earning many teaching awards from her students and peers. In the inaugural Bridges medical curriculum, Tracy directs the REGulatioN (Renal, Endocrine, GI, Nutrition) block, and chaired two working groups to establish an assessment system that emphasizes open-ended questions. Tracy is active in IAMSE, past secretary for the Association of Biochemistry Educators (ABE), and co-chairs the NBME Test Material Development Committee for pharmacology and biochemistry. Tracy is on the leadership team for MedU Science, a project involving many IAMSE members focused on use of basic science concepts in clerkship clinical decision-making. She is working with IAMSE/ABE colleagues Janet Lindsley and Tina Cowan on an NBME task force to implement a nationally supported metabolic map as a reference on Step exams. Tracy’s involvement in IAMSE has been pivotal in her professional development; she thanks the organization’s leadership and membership for many of her most rewarding experiences, collaborations, and friendships in education.

The Master Teacher Award honors an IAMSE member who, over the course of many years, has consistently demonstrated extraordinary excellence in teaching, both at his/her institution and within IAMSE. Any teaching can be recognized, but nominations of members who have been active teachers at the annual IAMSE meetings or web seminars are particularly encouraged.