Dr. Laura J Russell, MD, FACMG, was bestowed the Department of Human Genetics Teaching Award on Friday, September 30, during the Academic Half Day. This award serves to recognize faculty members for their contributions to the teaching, supervision and/or mentorship of learners.
Here is an excerpt of the nomination letter written by Dr. Simon-Pierre Guay, Chief Resident, on behalf of the residents, fellows and genetic counselling students:
“Dr. Russell has been the Program Director of the McGill Medical Genetics and Genomics Residency Program for the past 12 years. She has helped many trainees succeed in their career objectives by guiding them and offering support in their learning odyssey. She is a very passionate program director and has residents' wellness at heart. She offers diverse opportunities to teach us how to be mindful of our own wellness. She also puts a lot of work into the organization of the Academic Half Day every Friday morning. She helped to create a 3-year curriculum that will allow trainees to be exposed to all aspect of medical genetics and genomics. She also gave several lectures over the years and encouraged trainees to increase our exposure to dysmorphic features and genodermatoses. She provides interesting dysmorphic cases throughout the program that trainees can use to build on their knowledge. In the past few years, she was also the leader in the development of the new residency program following the competence by design (CBD) model of competency-based medical education (CBME). Her hard work in the implementation of CBD for the McGill Medical Genetics and Genomics Residency programs was, by itself, an outstanding investment in the future of our program. Although she was recently supposed to step down from her role as Program Director, Dr. Russell has generously accepted to stay for one more year. This clearly showed that she has our learning at heart. Her enthusiasm for teaching and commitment to the trainees of this department deserve recognition.”
Congratulations, Laura!
