Bernstein Rewarded with Papageorge Distinguished Teaching Award
June 01
"Doing What I Love"
Lisa Bernstein, 2009 recipient of the School of Medicine's (SOM) Papageorge Distinguished Teaching Award, planned to enter private practice after completing her medical training. During her residency at Emory, she realized that she loved to teach, and her instructors encouraged her to follow that path. Now, after 11 years on the Department of Medicine faculty, Bernstein has earned multiple teaching awards and honors, including this year's selection as the youngest faculty member and only the second woman to earn the prestigious Papageorge Award from the Emory Medical Alumni Association (EMAA).
"The recognition is wonderful, but the reality is I'm just doing what I love," Bernstein says. "I enjoy helping students develop from lay people to capable, caring physicians." Inspired by her father's impact on residents and patients as the former chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology and OB-GYN Residency Director at Georgia Baptist Hospital (now Atlanta Medical Center), Bernstein attended the University of Pennsylvania and then the Medical College of Georgia.
William Branch, director of the Division of General Medicine, was one of the first to assess Bernstein's love of teaching. "During our interview he asked me to get involved with the Clinical Methods course," says Bernstein. "I have to thank him for that. It gave me a career focus in teaching clinical skills and the opportunity to work with medical students."
After a stint as course director of Clinical Methods, Bernstein became a key player in SOM's new "Becoming a Doctor" curriculum, now in its third year. She looks forward to developing the clinical curriculum for all four years of medical school.
Joyce Doyle, her mentor, also urged Bernstein to stay at Emory. "Lisa demonstrates a true passion for patient care and teaching every day," says Doyle. "Her tireless enthusiasm for medicine is based on her genuine concern for the welfare of others. This altruism, combined with excellent medical knowledge and clinical skills inspires others to do their best. It is no wonder that she is loved and respected by her patients, students, and colleagues."
The Evangeline Papageorge Distinguished Teaching Award, established in 1993, recognizes excellence in medical education and honors the legacy of Evangeline Papageorge, '29 G, and ‘37 M. It is one of the highest awards in the School of Medicine, chosen by the senior class and honoring a medical faculty member "whose intellectual luminosity has generated the greatest excitement about learning among students and colleagues." Dr. Papageorge was the first woman on the full-time medical school faculty and the first female administrator when she became SOM's first Dean of Students.
Max White, president of the EMAA, presented the award during 2009 Commencement exercises. Quoting those students who nominated her, he proclaimed that this year's winner is "in essence, exactly what the award stands for" and that she possesses "energy and enthusiasm that are instantly contagious." A close associate of Dr. Papageorge, White predicted that Bernstein's work will have "a positive lifelong influence on generations of students...what you have done in your 11 years on the faculty would make [Papageorge] beam with pride. She would probably look at you and predict that the best is yet to come."
Bernstein lives in Dunwoody with her architect husband, Jay Silverman, and their two small sons.