Manish Suneja, MD, Clinical Professor of Internal Medicine, will receive the 2017-18 President & Provost Award for Teaching Excellence. This award is the highest recognition awarded at the University of Iowa, only given to the most outstanding faculty each year. Dr. Suneja has directed the Internal Medicine Residency Program since 2014, and was Associate Program Director for more than five years before that. In these roles, and in countless others in his 16 years at the University of Iowa, Dr. Suneja has demonstrated an undying commitment to the medical education of graduate and undergraduates, trainees and fellows. He achieves this both on an individual basis, taking time to meet with and mentor so many students week after week, but also on a large scale, guiding the administration of countless educational programs and initiatives.
Colleagues and current and former students were more than willing to contribute letters of recommendation in support of Dr. Suneja’s nomination for this award. Here are just a few excerpts:
As Internal Medicine physicians, we pride ourselves in our ability to think through problems, and he has truly helped me become a better thinker and a better physician. I hope to teach my students and residents as well as he taught me.
I am very thankful for such a dedicated mentor—his empowering influence has been a pronounced contributing element to not only my decision to pursue a career as an Internist but also to how I continue to mold my career to this day.
Whether he is interspersing his lectures with interactive questions or lecturing in a way that seems conversational, there is never a lecture that Dr. Suneja gives where the audience isn’t engaged. I feel lucky to get to learn from him.
He provides guidance and encouragement to course directors, individual lecturers and teachers, as well as students to incorporate clinical reasoning concepts into their presentations and small groups. As CAPS strand director, Dr. Suneja will no doubt continue implementing innovative teaching and assessment methods that span the course of medical student and PA training.
In his letter of nomination, Department Chair Dr. Dale Abel wrote the following: “Dr. Manish Suneja’s natural curiosity for science and patient care is infectious and radically transforms the lives of everyone who has the great fortune to know and work with him. Our institution’s reputation as an innovator in medical education has been immeasurably improved by his passion and skill.”
Dr. Suneja shares this award with three other winners selected this year by the Council on Teaching: Megan Knight (Rhetoric), Thomas Gruca (Marketing), and Shaun Vecera (Psychological and Brain Sciences).