Osheroff wins prestigious MILES Award
By Leah Mann
Neil Osheroff, John G. Coniglio Chair in Biochemistry and professor of biochemistry and medicine, received the Mentoring, Innovation, and Leadership in Educational Scholarship Award at the annual Asia Pacific Medical Education Conference that took place in May.
In the two decades since its inception, APMEC has flourished into one of the most notable medical education conferences in Asia. APMEC brings together over 1,200 participants from close to 40 countries to share their expertise and experiences in teaching the next generation of healthcare professionals.
Although Osheroff has been an attendee and speaker at APMEC since 2017, this year he was honored by an invitation to present the opening keynote address at the 20th anniversary of APMEC in Singapore. He discussed lessons he has learned while revising medical school curricula and how those lessons can be applied to create better educators.
“We need to examine ourselves as educators from a holistic lens, work to integrate the different aspects of our educational roles, and learn to understand our strengths and weaknesses,” Osheroff said.
Osheroff was presented with the MILES Award prior to his keynote address. The award was established in 2006 to recognize international and local scholars of distinction in medical and health professions education. Since its inception, the leadership of APMEC has bestowed the award on nineteen highly regarded educators.
Osheroff joined Vanderbilt’s Department of Biochemistry in 1983 and has been committed not only to medical education, but also to directing his laboratory and training the next generation of researchers. The Osheroff laboratory group focuses on type II topoisomerases, eukaryotic and prokaryotic enzymes crucial for modulating the topological structure of DNA.
Osheroff currently serves as the longest-tenured course director in the School of Medicine. He is a past director of the Academy for Excellence in Education at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center and was one of four faculty members tasked with developing and implementing the pre-clerkship medical school curriculum as part of a major curricular revision in 2013. Outside of Vanderbilt, he is part of the International Association of Medical Science Educators and served as President of the Association for two years during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this leadership role, Osheroff started new programs to “enhance relationships with other international medical education associations, kept the members connected, and addressed issues of inclusion, equity, diversity, and justice.”
Osheroff’s receipt of the MILES award typifies his contributions to medical education. “It is always an honor to find that you are held in esteem by your colleagues,” Osheroff said.