Distinguished Faculty Recognition Awards

The Distinguished Educator Award recognizes an established faculty member whose sustained dedication to education has had an exceptional and enduring impact on learners and the educational mission of the School of Medicine.

This award honors faculty for whom being an educator has been a defining component of their career. Recipients are recognized for the quality, consistency, breadth, depth, and lasting impact of their contributions as educators rather than for holding a particular educational title or position.

What This Award Recognizes

A distinguished educator may demonstrate:

• Sustained excellence in teaching across clinical, classroom, laboratory, simulation, bedside, small-group, community-based, or other educational settings
• Meaningful and sustained impact on learners
• Commitment to mentorship and the development of learners and/or other educators
• Contributions that strengthen teaching and learning
• Continued growth and improvement as an educator
• An enduring impact through the learners, educators, educational experiences, or practices they have influenced

Nominees are evaluated on their body of educational contributions across their career, rather than a single course, teaching evaluation, innovation, or recent accomplishment.

Nomination Questions

Nominators will be asked to address the following areas:

1. Sustained Excellence as an Educator

Describe the nominee's sustained excellence as an educator throughout their career and provide specific examples demonstrating the quality and effectiveness of their teaching.

2. Impact on Learners and Development of Others

Describe how the nominee has contributed to the growth and development of students, trainees, faculty, colleagues, or other learners.

3. Contributions to Teaching and Learning

Describe meaningful contributions the nominee has made to strengthening educational experiences, practices, resources, curricula, assessment, or other aspects of teaching and learning.

4. Enduring Impact as an Educator

Looking across the nominee's career, describe what distinguishes their impact as an educator and the lasting difference their contributions have made.

Response Length: 250–350 words per question

The Distinguished Leadership Award recognizes an established faculty member whose sustained leadership has significantly advanced the people, programs, and missions of the School of Medicine.

This award recognizes faculty whose leadership influence extends beyond a single role, position, or accomplishment. Recipients are distinguished not simply by the leadership positions they have held, but by how they have led and the lasting difference their leadership has made.

What This Award Recognizes

A distinguished leader may demonstrate:

• Vision and the ability to translate strategic direction into meaningful action
• Effective development and support of people and teams
• Ability to bring people together around shared goals and purpose
• Meaningful mentorship, sponsorship, and development of others
• Ability to navigate complexity and advance meaningful change
• Collaboration and relationship-building across roles, programs, departments, or missions
• Sustained institutional impact
• An enduring influence through the people, programs, teams, or systems strengthened by their leadership

Nominees are evaluated on their sustained record and impact of leadership across their career, rather than a leadership title, individual position, or single accomplishment.

Nomination Questions

Nominators will be asked to describe the nominee's:

1. Sustained Leadership and Impact

Describe the nominee's sustained leadership contributions throughout their career and the impact of their leadership.

2. Leadership of People and Development of Others

Describe how the nominee has developed, supported, mentored, sponsored, or empowered others and strengthened teams.

3. Leadership in Action

Provide examples demonstrating how the nominee has brought people together, navigated complexity, advanced change, addressed challenges, or strengthened programs and systems.

4. Enduring Leadership Impact

Describe what is stronger, different, or better because of the nominee's leadership and how their influence has endured beyond individual roles or accomplishments.

Response Length: 250–350 words per question

The Distinguished Clinician Award recognizes School of Medicine faculty who have demonstrated sustained excellence and an exceptional commitment to clinical care throughout their careers.

This award honors accomplished clinicians whose careers reflect outstanding clinical practice and meaningful contributions to patients, colleagues, and the clinical mission of the School of Medicine.

What This Award Recognizes

Distinguished clinicians demonstrate a sustained record of:

• Excellence in clinical practice
• Exceptional commitment to high-quality patient care
• Professional excellence and clinical expertise
• Meaningful impact on patients and the clinical environment
• Positive influence on colleagues and clinical teams
• Sustained contributions to the clinical mission of the School of Medicine

Award Criteria

1) Clinical Expertise

• Demonstrates exceptional mastery within their clinical specialty.
• Frequently sought out by peers for their clinical expertise.
• Recognized and respected by colleagues who provide clinical care.
• Consistently delivers excellent clinical care and achieves outstanding clinical outcomes.

2) Sustained Exceptional Clinical Service to University of Colorado School of Medicine

• Provides long-standing outstanding clinical service that strengthens the mission of the School of Medicine.

3) Demonstrated Patient-Centered Behaviors

• Sees additional patients in an already busy practice.
• Delivers patient care with compassion, empathy, and respect for each individual.
• Receives excellent patient feedback and satisfaction scores.

4) High Standard of Professionalism

• Assists and readily shares expertise with other clinicians, staff, and learners.
• Seeks opportunities to help others in patient care settings.
• Displays high standards of personal integrity.
• Models a humanistic approach to patient care and to interactions with colleagues.
• Embodies the core values of the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Nominations

Eligible nominators include learners/trainees, peers, staff, division/section heads or department chairs. With this nomination form, please include one consolidated letter of support. This letter may incorporate statements from multiple contributors, provided their signatures are included. The letter must also contain the signature of the nominee’s department chair to confirm departmental support of the nomination. The letter must clearly and explicitly address, with examples, each of the four criteria areas outlined.

The Distinguished Faculty Professionalism Award celebrates established faculty whose sustained contributions exemplify the School of Medicine’s PATH values: Professional excellence, Accountability, Trust, and Humanism.

Each year, up to four faculty members may be recognized for demonstrating these interconnected PATH values throughout their careers.

Recognition reflects a sustained pattern of professional excellence, positive contribution, and meaningful impact, not a single action, role, or accomplishment.

The PATH Values

What This Award Recognizes

Distinguished nominees demonstrate the PATH values as interconnected characteristics of their professional careers and contributions to the School of Medicine.

Professional Excellence – Advancing Excellence

Demonstrates sustained high standards, continuous growth, collaboration, and meaningful contributions to the missions of the School of Medicine. Distinguished nominees strengthen their own work while contributing to environments, teams, and systems that support the success of others.

Accountability – Honoring Our Commitments

Demonstrates integrity, responsibility, reflection, and follow-through. Distinguished nominees honor their commitments, engage constructively with feedback and challenges, and contribute to shared learning, continuous improvement, and success.

Trust – Strengthening Relationships

Builds and sustains relationships through integrity, respect, openness, reliability, and collaboration. Distinguished nominees strengthen professional relationships and contribute to environments where people feel respected, supported, and able to contribute meaningfully.

Humanism – Creating Meaningful Connection

Demonstrates empathy, dignity, compassion, respect, and a person-centered approach. Distinguished nominees value the perspectives and contributions of others and foster meaningful connections with colleagues, learners, patients, staff, and the broader School of Medicine community.

Bringing PATH to Life Through PROMISE

The PROMISE Framework provides a shared approach for translating the PATH values into how we work, learn, lead, and serve across the School of Medicine.

Nominators may use PROMISE to identify examples of how a nominee has demonstrated Professional Excellence, Accountability, Trust, and Humanism throughout their career. Nominees are not expected to demonstrate every PROMISE principle individually.

PATH defines the values we recognize. PROMISE helps us see those values in action.

Explore the PROMISE Framework

Nomination Questions

Nominators will be asked to address all five questions. Responses should provide specific examples from across the nominee’s career whenever possible.

1. Professional Excellence – Advancing Excellence

Describe how the nominee has advanced Professional Excellence throughout their career. Provide specific examples of how they have grown, collaborated, contributed, and strengthened their area of work and/or the missions of the School of Medicine.

2. Accountability – Honoring Our Commitments

Describe how the nominee has demonstrated Accountability throughout their career. Provide specific examples of how they have honored commitments, acted with integrity, engaged in reflection and growth, and contributed to shared success.

3. Trust – Strengthening Relationships

Describe how the nominee has built and sustained Trust throughout their career. Provide specific examples of how they have strengthened relationships through integrity, respect, openness, reliability, and collaboration, and how these relationships have positively influenced others.

4. Humanism – Creating Meaningful Connection:

Describe how the nominee has demonstrated Humanism throughout their career. Provide specific examples of how they have fostered meaningful connection through empathy, dignity, compassion, care, and a person-centered approach, and how these qualities have positively influenced others.

5. Sustained Impact and Influence:

Looking across the nominee's career, how have their contributions strengthened people, relationships, teams, programs, practices, systems, or the culture of the School of Medicine? How is their influence likely to continue?

Response Length: 250–350 words per question