MCW professor to receive American Association of Anatomists' Basmajian Award

The American Association of Anatomists' 2012 Basmajian Award will be presented on April 24 to Todd Hoagland, associate professor in the department of cell biology, neurobiology and anatomy at the Medical College of Wisconsin. The awards ceremony will take place at the AAA Annual Meeting at EB 2012 (Tuesday, April 24, San Diego Marriott Marquis & Marina, San Diego, CA).

This award recognizes health science faculty who are in the formative stages of their career, teach human or veterinary gross anatomy, can document excellence in their contribution to the teaching of gross anatomy, and have outstanding accomplishments in biomedical research or scholarship in education.

According to Joseph C. Besharse, Marvin Wagner Professor and chair of cell biology, neurobiology and anatomy at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Hoagland "is a true academic in that he believes in and participates in medical education research. He also has extensive administrative experience as a long-term course Director at BU and now at MCW." Besharse goes on to say that in a short time Hoagland "has become an important and respected member of the MCW medical education community."

Besharse also notes the quality of Hoagland's character, explaining he has an "inherent ability to see and seek common ground among competing interests while keeping the interests of our students in the foreground. This has become obvious in the respect he has gained from more research-intensive faculty in the Department -those faculty see him as a leader and valued colleague, and his recruitment has gone a long way toward bridging the gap between research intensive faculty and their responsibilities to medical education."

In addition to collaborating with clinicians and basic scientists on clinically applicable anatomic science research and medical education studies, Hoagland has shown he believes improving the academic training of the next generation is a priority by developing, with Chair Mark Moss, the Vesalius program at Boston University School of Medicine. Hoagland explains "One of our goals of this teacher training program was to ensure every graduate from the department was a competent steward of anatomical science knowledge and some could go on to be master educators. We believed that doctoral students shouldn't just be chained to a lab bench, but instead get experiences that replicate those of junior faculty."