2024 Fall STAR Educator Recipient: Jessica Bergden, PhD
Jessica Bergden, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Cell Systems & Anatomy
Nomination Submission:
Dr. Jessica Bergden is an enthusiastic educator with a broad range of educational experiences ranging from undergraduate to medical students. Upon her arrival at UT Health San Antonio in August 2023, she immediately became director for multiple courses (Neuroanatomy, Anatomy Practicum, Clinical Seminars) and began teaching in both medical and dental gross anatomy. Jessica’s teaching is ranked highly in anonymous student course evaluations. She strives to further improve by seeking additional student feedback for course improvements through requesting open-ended questions to her course evaluations. In addition to teaching, Jessica took on the role of Program Director for the Pre-Professional Graduate Certificate Program in July, a time-intensive service to the department. She recently became the primary mentor for an MS Anatomy Track student pursuing a medical education research project. Jessica has organized educational workshops and developed a year-long, community-based MCAT preparatory course for the LD Britt Premedical Scholar Program at her previous institution, all of which have been presented at national meetings. Additionally, she has extensive experience in creating innovative teaching methods such as interactive, web-based neuroanatomy eLearning tools. She developed novel scales to measure the effectiveness of these eLearning modules which were validated through a factor analysis from data collected. She was invited to present the process of scale development and data analysis at the International Association of Medical Science Educators Annual Meeting in 2022. Recently, Jessica collaborated with colleagues to develop and evaluate a novel brachial plexus active learning project which won an award at the American Association of Clinical Anatomists Conference in June 2024. Jessica supports both students and colleagues by attending optional meetings, substituting for faculty when needed, and providing additional help sessions for students. These examples demonstrate Jessica’s excellence in the criteria for the AES Star Educator Award.