2022 STAR Educator Recipient: Ramaswamy Sharma, PhD
Ramaswamy Sharma, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Cell Systems & Anatomy
Nomination Submission:
I am truly delighted to nominate Dr. Ramaswamy Sharma, Associate Professor/Clinical in Cell Systems & Anatomy (CSA) for a LSOM Stars of Education Award. It is hard to find another colleague in CSA with the same commitment to teaching and breadth of contributions to the institution’s education mission. Rama serves as Discipline Coordinator of Histopathology in the pre-clinical medical curriculum and teaches in most modules. In addition, he directs and teaches multiple courses in the graduate school. As former Director of Education and Deputy Chair for Education & Training in CSA, I can attest that student evaluations of his courses and innovative teaching have been outstanding; CSA master’s students consistently rated his courses as “most beneficial courses in their curriculum.”
Rama single-handedly developed 6 new courses for the CSA M.S., Pre-Professional (post-baccalaureate) Graduate Certificate and NIH-funded PREP programs in the last 4 years – a phenomenal accomplishment! He also co-developed a new course for incoming Pathology residents. His commitment to education scholarship has been no less amazing; he has developed novel anatomy models, published articles and has been PI on multiple internal and extramural education-related grants.
Rama is currently Director of a new post-baccalaureate program and he served for many years as an effective COGS Chair for our master’s program. He co-founded a STEM Scholars program that brought together students from all 5 schools at UT Health as part of the institutional initiative on interprofessional education (IPE). This incredible work was cited in Social Work Today, “Interprofessional Practice in Community Outreach- Health Crisis Creates New Challenge”.
Given all the above, it is not surprising that Rama received a 2019 Presidential Emerging Excellence in Teaching Award and is an inaugural Fellow in the Academy of Educational Scholars. I can think of no one more deserving to be a Star of Education!