2022 STAR Educator Recipient: Margarita Vasquez, MD
Margarita M. Vasquez, MD
Professor
Department of Pediatrics
Division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine
Nomination Submission:
I am delighted to nominate Dr. Margarita Vasquez, Professor of Pediatrics, with tenure, for the LSOM Stars on Education Award. Dr. Vasquez’ passion and unique vision as an educator is evidenced by her many roles addressing trainee’s education. Due to her scholarly approach and consistent efforts to improve medical education as the Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine fellowship director, she was recently elected as an Executive Council member for the Organization of Neonatal Training Program Directors to lead, develop and implement the most innovative curriculum for fellowship programs. This is a nationwide, high-quality, peer-reviewed, standardized core curriculum based on the American Board of Pediatrics content outline. Dr. Vasquez addresses not only the overall group learning but individual learning. She is well published in the field of adult learning theory to improve knowledge retention and application via flipped classroom. Because of her commitment to learners she helped implement a collaborative shared virtual platform for Neonatal-Perinatal fellows with the goal to meet with experts in the field of neonatology and increase access to individuals in smaller programs. Dr. Vasquez has presented her scholarship work at international meetings and is a well-known mentor for junior fellowship neonatology program directors nationwide. Most recently, by encouraging curiosity of our learners, they undertook a new endeavor in developing a mobile application to help train transport team members through mobile based competencies. She motivates our trainees and staff daily and promotes equity of care through her well-established neonatal simulation program. Because of her long-term commitment to education, Dr. Vasquez has been selected as a faculty fellow at the UTHealth LSOM Academy of Educational Scholars. Through her efforts, hundreds of learners have been trained to become proficient in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine in the most compassionate, humble and nurturing environment and therefore she is most deserving of the LSOM Stars on Education Award.