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Densen given national award for his role in developing CCOM learning communities

Peter Densen, MD, was honored with the 2017 Ron Arky Award from the Learning Communities Institute (LCI). He was presented the award at the LCI annual meeting, held Sept. 15 to 17, in Birmingham, Alabama. Densen is a professor of internal medicine—infectious diseases at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine and the current faculty director of the Bean Learning Community.

A team effort: planning

With the help of many colleagues, he spearheaded the formation of the learning communities (LCs) at the Carver College of Medicine in 1998. He also helped initiate the national LCI meetings, the first of which was held at the Carver College of Medicine in 2005.

“The formation of the LCs was a great team effort,” says Densen. “I am thrilled to have been selected for this award, and I am doing so on behalf of many, many colleagues who were instrumental in launching our LCs and in initiating the national LCI meetings.”

Instrumental in these efforts was Jane Rowat, who along with Associate Dean Densen, spent hours brainstorming and planning the learning communities as the nexus between curriculum and student affairs. After some adjustments and approval from Robert Kelch, MD, then dean of the Carver College of Medicine, the LCs were formed, and funding was arranged for more staff and faculty.

Read the complete story on The Loop.