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Members of the UMass Medical School community gathered on Thursday, April 26, to honor the recipients of the 20th annual Educational Recognition Awards, and to hear a respected colleague, Anne Gilroy, MA, present the Last Lecture.
"We are here to celebrate our singular academic community and our cherished faculty, the heart of our special institution,” said Chancellor Michael F. Collins.
Chancellor Collins presented the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring to Carol A. Bova, PhD, RN, ANP, professor of nursing and medicine, and director of the Graduate School of Nursing’s PhD program.
“Much of mentoring takes place in one-to-one encounters, the many small meetings that over time gain momentum and launch a student or a colleague onto a new and exciting pathway,” Collins said. “Dr. Bova, you have done this many times. But you have also done something else, something especially noteworthy, and that is through your consistent and generous work, you have been a role model for those you have mentored, such that they find themselves quoting you, remembering your words, channeling your approach, as they help others find a path.”
Faculty members’ outstanding contribution to medical, biomedical science and nursing education and professional development was a recurrent theme throughout the event. The deans and students of each school singled out exceptional faculty for their excellence in teaching, research and service. In total, 33 members of the UMMS faculty were recognized. The full list of award winners can be found here.
Prior to the start of her lecture, Gilroy, professor emeritus of radiology in the Division of Translational Anatomy, took a moment to acknowledge her peers’ contributions, thank the students in attendance and encourage those in the audience to remember that opportunity surrounds them. She also confirmed that it truly would be her last lecture at UMMS; Gilroy retired in January and is moving back West by the end of May.
The honor of presenting the Last Lecture, in which an esteemed faculty member shares wisdom gleaned from his or her own professional journey, is conferred upon the holder of the Chancellor’s Medal for Distinguished Teaching, which Gilroy received at Convocation 2017. She is also a recipient of the Manning Award, which honors one outstanding faculty member with exceptional skills at each of the five University of Massachusetts campuses.
Now at a crossroads, Gilroy said she is prepared for whatever is to come because despite her lifelong love of learning and education, she never had a grand plan; she always lived in the present with a nod to the future.
She shared details of what she referred to as her convoluted career path, including her early career as a wildlife biologist in California. In that job, she helped track and monitor creatures in their natural habitat from mice in the salt marshes in the San Francisco Bay area to mountain lions in New Mexico. She said each research setback and success led to each next step.
Gilroy said her relocation to Massachusetts for a position as a biology professor at Worcester State afforded her the opportunity, as a state employee, to take classes at UMMS, where she eventually became a full professor of clinical anatomy.
This happened, she said, because she remembered to look up from what she was doing to see what opportunities could be in front of her.
“So often we close our minds to it; we simply don’t see it. If I have any advice to offer to the next generation I would say every once in a while put down your computers, turn away from your future plans and just be aware of the opportunities that are right there, right in front of you because so many times that opportunity is what is going to help you achieve those goals, those dreams. It may actually, in fact, be what offers you the best experiences you ever have in your life. Don’t ignore that,” she said.
Related story on UMassMedNow:
Educational Recognition Awards on April 26 to honor teaching excellence
