Dean’s Awards
The Dean’s Awards were established by Dean Carolyn C. Meltzer in collaboration with the Keck School Faculty Council and the Office of Faculty Affairs. These awards acknowledge and honor the contributions, talent, and dedication of the Keck School faculty. They are awarded annually at the Keck School Faculty Awards and Recognition Ceremony held during the Fall.
These awards are bestowed for excellence in the following categories. Click on the award name for a description of the award and the nomination criteria.
Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching
This award recognizes excellence in the nominee’s educational contributions during the period of their association with the Keck School. The nominee must have demonstrated the ability to effectively teach in diverse settings, which may or may not cover a variety of academic levels and learners. In addition to being an outstanding course instructor, the nominee should demonstrate excellence in related activities such as advising and/or mentoring learners.
Review Criteria
In your nomination statement, please comment on all six domains described below:
- Excellence: Evidence of outstanding teaching performance.
- Effectiveness: Teaching efforts have fostered personal, intellectual, and professional development of learners.
- Inspirational: Enthuses learners to pursue knowledge or potentially a career in the field.
- Supportive: Creates an open learning environment that promotes curiosity, critical thinking, problem solving, and expression of diverse opinions.
- Innovation: Demonstrates ability to adapt different modes of teaching in different learning situations. This may include creating novel teaching methods or resources.
- Development: Evidence of leadership in devising and developing curricula, including fostering diversity and promoting inter-group/interprofessional education (IPE).
Dean’s Early Career Award for Excellence in Teaching
This award recognizes excellence in the nominee’s educational contributions during the period of their association with the Keck School. The nominee must have demonstrated the ability to effectively teach in diverse settings, which may or may not cover a variety of academic levels and learners. In addition to being an outstanding course instructor, the nominee should demonstrate excellence in related activities such as advising and/or mentoring learners.
Review Criteria
In your nomination statement, please comment on all six domains described below:
- Excellence: Evidence of outstanding teaching performance.
- Effectiveness: Teaching efforts have fostered personal, intellectual, and professional development of learners.
- Inspirational: Enthuses learners to pursue knowledge or potentially a career in the field.
- Supportive: Creates an open learning environment that promotes curiosity, critical thinking, problem solving, and expression of diverse opinions.
- Innovation: Demonstrates ability to adapt different modes of teaching in different learning situations. This may include creating novel teaching methods or resources.
- Development: Evidence of leadership in devising and developing curricula, including fostering diversity and promoting inter-group/interprofessional education (IPE).
Dean’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship
This award recognizes excellence in the nominee’s scholarly activity during the period of their association with the Keck School. The nominee’s scholarship should have demonstrated importance and impact nationally and internationally. Examples of achievement can include grant funding, peer reviewed publications, academic awards, and other forms of scholarly work. The nominee should demonstrate an ability to engage other colleagues in their scholarly pursuits.
Review Criteria
In your nomination statement, please comment on all four domains described below:
- Excellence: Outstanding and sustained achievement in peer-reviewed scientific publications and/or grant funding.
- Impact: Demonstrable influence of candidate’s scholarly activity on advancing their respective field of research both nationally and internationally.
- Translation: Demonstrable broader impact of candidate’s scholarly activity on society-at-large.
- Teamwork: Success in integrating colleagues, either learners or faculty, into the scholarly activity.
Dean’s Early Career Award for Excellence in Scholarship
This award recognizes excellence in the nominee’s scholarly activity during the period of their association with the Keck School. The nominee’s scholarship should have demonstrated importance and impact nationally and internationally. Examples of achievement can include grant funding, peer reviewed publications, academic awards, and other forms of scholarly work. The nominee should demonstrate an ability to engage other colleagues in their scholarly pursuits.
Review Criteria
In your nomination statement, please comment on all four domains described below:
- Excellence: Outstanding and sustained achievement in peer-reviewed scientific publications and/or grant funding.
- Impact: Demonstrable influence of candidate’s scholarly activity on advancing their respective field of research both nationally and internationally.
- Translation: Demonstrable broader impact of candidate’s scholarly activity on society-at-large.
- Teamwork: Success in integrating colleagues, either learners or faculty, into the scholarly activity.
Dean’s Award for Excellence in Service
This award recognizes excellence in the nominee’s service activities during the period of their association with the Keck School. The nominee must have provided service that is consistent with the mission of the Keck School. The service activities should have made demonstrable, substantial, and long-lasting contributions to the campus community, the community at large, and/or to the nominee’s discipline or profession.
Review Criteria
In your nomination statement, please comment on all four domains described below:
- Excellence: Evidence of service that has resulted in significant advancement of the Keck School mission.
- Impact: Demonstrates a sustained effort in community outreach, Keck School, Los Angeles and surrounding communities.
- Translation: Demonstrable broader impact of candidate’s service efforts within these communities.
- Teamwork: Empowers success of colleagues, either learners or peers, through the candidate’s efforts.
Dean’s Award for Excellence in Clinical Practice
This award recognizes excellence in the nominee’s clinical care during the period of their association with the Keck School. The nominee should have a substantial clinical practice and serve as a role model for peers, residents, and students in (i) the provision of quality clinical care and (ii) interaction with patients and all members of the health care team.
Review Criteria
In your nomination statement, please comment on all five domains described below:
- Excellence: Career commitment and demonstration of outstanding clinical practice in evaluations by team members.
- Impact: Demonstrates positive influence in their clinical practice across team members and patients.
- Translation: Demonstrates broader impact of candidate’s or team’s practice in the community and abroad.
- Teamwork: Success in integrating colleagues in promoting interprofessional education and practice.
- Innovation: Demonstrates an effort to collaborate with interdisciplinary groups in their clinical practice.
Dean’s Award for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging
This award recognizes excellence in contributions and commitment to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and cultural competency development among the Keck School community and/or communities that the Keck School serves.
Review Criteria
In your nomination statement, please comment on all five domains described below:
- Excellence: Shows a career commitment to prioritizing diversity in key areas such as teaching, service, scholarship, clinical practice, and/or mentoring.
- Impact: Leads initiatives in capturing outcomes of increased awareness, understanding or promoting diversity at the Keck School and/or surrounding communities.
- Translation: Implements steps toward fostering diversity in the workplace with programs that maximize the potential of the entire Keck School community.
- Teamwork: Actively creates partnerships between team members to resolve diversity workplace issues.
- Innovation: Promotes diversity workplace education and communication ideas; and/or improving cultural competency through educational initiatives.
Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring
This award recognizes excellence in the nominee’s mentoring and advising contributions during the period of their association with the Keck School. The nominee must have demonstrated excellence in mentoring learners, faculty and/or staff in achieving their career objectives.
Review Criteria
In your nomination statement, please comment on all eight domains described below:
- Goal Setting: Assisting mentees in defining their academic, professional, and/or personal goals.
- Support: Encouraging growth and achievement by providing a supportive environment where challenges, successes, and failures can be openly shared and examined.
- Information and Advice: Carving out regular time to share knowledge and experiences to guide mentees in reaching their academic, professional, and/or personal goals.
- Feedback: Making themselves available to provide regular and constructive feedback on mentees’ work, when requested.
- Professional Exposure: Involving mentees in publications, grants, presentations, expositions, or professional/leadership opportunities, and readily sharing knowledge of other such opportunities with mentees.
- Networking: Providing valuable access and opportunities by facilitating academic, professional, and personal contacts.
- Inclusion: Working with mentees from underrepresented, first-generation, or marginalized groups within the discipline is a priority, with attention paid to developing skills and support networks for overcoming institutional barriers they may face in the field.
- Role Modeling: Maintaining high standards for excellence within their own field and as an engaged member of the Keck School. Engaging in respectful relationships with colleagues, junior colleagues, and students. Acknowledging power differentials in professional relationships and behaving with integrity, in line with the Keck School Code of Professional Conduct. Encouraging mentees to adopt similar principles of professional behavior.
Eligibility Criteria for Nominees
- Must be in good standing according to the Keck School Faculty Code of Conduct.
- Has held faculty appointment at the Keck School (part-time or full-time; any track) for at least three years by September 15, 2023.
- For Excellence in Clinical Practice, DEIB, Mentoring, Scholarship, Service, or Teaching:
- Rank of Assistant Professor, Associate Professor or Professor (any track).
- For Early Career Award for Excellence in Scholarship or Teaching:
- Within 10 years of first academic appointment at the Keck School (any track)
Nomination Process
Nominations for a Dean’s Award may be submitted by any faculty member of the Keck School (part-time or full-time, any track). Self-nominations are not allowed.
To nominate a colleague:
- Complete this form by August 25, 2023, and
- Please be prepared to upload a one- to two-page nomination statement (maximum of two pages) at the end of the form.
Eligible nominees will receive a notification that they have been nominated and be asked to submit their CV to support the nomination.
A committee of faculty will review nominations and make recommendations to the Dean.
2023 Dean’s Awards for Excellence
Keck School of Medicine of USC
Awarded: October 24, 2023
Dean’s Award for Excellence in Clinical Practice
Laila Al-Marayati, MD
Assistant Professor of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology
Dean’s Award for Excellence in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging
Joyce M. Richey, PhD
Associate Professor of Clinical Physiology & Neuroscience
Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring
Yves A. DeClerck, MD
Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine
Dean’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship
Omid Akbari, PhD
Professor of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology
Dean’s Early Career Award for Excellence in Scholarship
Kimberly K. Gokoffski, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Clinical Ophthalmology
Dean’s Award for Excellence in Service
Josh Neman-Ebrahim, PhD
Associate Professor of Neurological Surgery and Physiology & Neuroscience
Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching
Joseph G. Hacia, PhD
Associate Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Medicine
Dean’s Early Career Award for Excellence in Teaching
Jessica L. Barrington-Trimis, PhD
Associate Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences