2024 Spring STAR Educator Recipient: Sujani Bandela, MD
Sujani Bandela, MD
Assistant Professor
Department of Neurology
Nomination Submission:
“Dr. Bandela has excelled as a mentor and as an educational leader in the Neurology department. Since joining our department after completing her fellowship, she quickly became an Associate Program Director. She also began mentoring both residents and medical students, a role in which she has been highly effective. In addition, her passion for education has led her to assume oversight of our resident didactics. In this role she has mentored and assisted our Academic Chief Residents in utilizing resident feedback and examination scores to refine and improve our curriculum. Her efforts have resulted in a significant increase in didactic attendance and in resident satisfaction.
In addition, she has been highly innovative in creating new educational programs for our residents. She spearheaded our efforts to develop a unique training track for residents – our Neurohospitalist Track. Her work on this included developing the curriculum and goals, recruiting faculty and residents, and obtaining funding (an educational grant from the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology). This track has been one of our most popular amongst the residents, and it has served as a recruiting tool for our program. She has been asked to present nationally on her work with this track.
In addition, she is now working with another faculty member to develop an outpatient Procedure Track for residents. She is helping to develop the curriculum and to secure administrative and financial support. We anticipate that this will not only creatively supply important training for our residents, but it might inspire more residents to pursue general neurology, an area in which we are in short supply, both nationally and locally.
In conclusion, I feel that Dr. Bandela is an excellent example of an educational scholars and a clinician educator. I believe she is highly deserving of this award.