UC Davis Health School of Medicine
Dean's Excellence Awards
Recognizing School of Medicine faculty and interdisciplinary teams who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in a particular area.
Awards and Criteria
The Dean's Award for Excellence recognizes outstanding faculty contributions, both for early-career faculty (Assistant Level) and established faculty (Associate Level or above), in the areas of education, research, clinical care, and community engagement. The nominee’s dedication to one of the mission areas is a focused and compelling example that exemplifies and aligns our community with our mission of providing excellent patient care, conducting groundbreaking research, fostering innovative, inter-professional education, and creating dynamic, productive partnerships with the community. The nominee’s efforts must clearly contribute to UC Davis Health being a destination of choice to all those we serve.
The award categories and their criteria are:
Education:
- Provides outstanding learning opportunities
- Utilizes teaching skills to provide a dynamic and integrated curriculum to train the next generation of physicians and health researchers
- Encourages life-long learning
- Integrates technologies to enhance educational programs and expand teaching setting
- Advances educational mission by applying creative innovation
- Exemplifies transformative leadership in education
Research:
- Makes high-impact discoveries
- Guides innovative research program(s)
- Exemplifies and emphasizes collaboration, a team-based approach
- Dedication to being an outstanding research mentor
- Advances research mission by applying creative innovation
- Exemplifies transformative leadership in research
Clinical Care:
- Provides high-quality patient-oriented services
- Offers consistent, culturally competent, compassionate care to all patients
- Optimizes clinical services through academic environment and research
- Delivers patient-oriented services that respond to the compelling needs of our community
- Advances clinical care mission by applying creative innovation
- Exemplifies transformative leadership in clinical care
Community Engagement:
- Enhances the quality of life of our local and regional communities
- Participates in community organizations and volunteerism
- Enhances relations with community partners by encouraging involvement and support of UC Davis Health programs
- Promote community health through advocacy and impact on healthcare public policy
- Advances community engagement mission by applying creative innovation
- Exemplifies transformative leadership in community engagement
The Dean's Award for Inclusive Excellence recognizes the outstanding performance of a faculty member and acknowledges their contribution as a transformative leader in fostering inclusive excellence in our collegial community. The nominee’s dedication to one of the mission areas is a focused and compelling example that exemplifies and aligns our community with our mission of providing excellent patient care, conducting groundbreaking research, fostering innovative, inter-professional education, and creating dynamic, productive partnerships with the community.
The award categories and their criteria are:
Education:
- Provides outstanding learning opportunities by utilizing innovative teaching methods that integrate inclusion into their curriculum development and teaching
- Utilizes teaching skills to provide a dynamic and integrated curriculum to train the next generation of culturally competent physicians, nurses and medical researchers
- Encourages life-long learning in cultural competency, social determinants of health, and health inequities
- Integrates technologies to enhance educational programs and expand teaching setting
- Integrates community engagement and service to enhance educational programs and expand teaching setting
- Incorporates innovative teaching methods that emphasize the value of inclusion
- Demonstrates inclusive leadership (e.g. faculty liaison for our minority medical student organizations, faculty liaison for student-run clinic boards, etc.)
Research:
- Makes high-impact discoveries that focus on reducing/eliminating health inequities
- Guides innovative research program(s) in addressing health inequities
- Exemplifies and emphasizes collaboration, a team-based approach, and community engagement (e.g. racial/ethnic minorities, other vulnerable population groups)
- Dedication to being an outstanding research mentor with special emphasis on mentoring researchers from recognized underrepresented groups in the biomedical sciences
- Advances research mission by applying innovative models that enhance science with researchers from diverse backgrounds
- Exemplifies transformative leadership in research (e.g. organizations dedicated to enhancing diversity in the biomedical research workforce)
Clinical Care:
- Provides high-quality patient-oriented, culturally-responsive care services
- Offers consistent, compassionate, cultural and linguistic competent care to all patients
- Optimizes clinical services through academic environment and research
- Delivers patient-oriented services that respond to the compelling societal needs of our underserved communities
- Volunteers in the care of our indigent population groups either directly, or by serving as a preceptor in one of the student-run clinics
- Demonstrates innovative patient care delivery or health education program(s) that address the needs of our underserved communities
- Exemplifies servant leadership in clinical care (e.g. serves committees of local agencies/organizations that serve our racial/ethnic communities and other vulnerable population groups)
Community Engagement:
- Enhances the quality of life of our local and regional communities by demonstrating a drive to reduce/eliminate health inequities
- Participates in community organizations and volunteerism within our local community, especially those population groups that are underserved
- Enhances relations with community partners by encouraging involvement and support of health system programs
- Promotes community health through advocacy and impact on health care inequities and public policy
- Participates in innovative community-engagement program(s) that address the needs of our underserved communities
- Exemplifies transformative leadership in community engagement
The purpose of this award is to recognize individuals who play a special role in the academic development of junior faculty and help them attain their full academic potential.
Nomination of faculty for mentoring awards should address the candidate's contribution, through mentoring, to the success and progress of the mentee's career in each of the following categories. Our ability to assess the merits of each nominee depends on the level of documentation provided. Please provide at least three concrete and specific examples of how the mentor exhibited or enhanced the following:
Creativity and Feedback:
- Listens and stimulates creativity, provides constructive feedback, and encourages broader thinking in creative work, teaching and/or clinical practice (nominators can provide examples of mentoring related to review of your manuscripts, feedback on how to improve your teaching and presentation skills, insights relative to your clinical practice)
Career Advancement:
- Encourages making priorities in career advancement and leadership development, and provides guidance on UC advancement policies (nominators can provide examples of mentoring to improve CV, review of professional materials, discussion of career goals)
Professional Relationships:
- Supports networking and professional contacts, and gives mentee appropriate credit whenever possible (nominators can provide examples of mentoring related to attendance at key conferences, introduction to influential colleagues, opportunities for national exposure, or any other aspect of professional support)
Work/Life Balance:
- Provides a supportive and positive professional relationship and helps strike a balance between work and personal life (nominators can provide examples of mentoring related to personal life, family life, or any other aspect of work/life balance)
Role Modeling:
- Serves as a role model and demonstrates integrity in professional and personal interactions (nominators can provide examples of mentoring as a role model in teaching, patient care, research, personal qualities, leadership, or any other aspects of role modeling)
The purpose of the Dean's Team Award for Excellence is to acknowledge outstanding, high-performing, multidisciplinary team efforts and approaches that contribute to advancing our mission. The multidisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary team model should embody and exemplify a sustainable collaborative approach that aligns our collegial community with our mission of providing excellent patient care, conducting groundbreaking research, fostering innovative, inter-professional education, and creating dynamic, productive partnerships within the community. The team's efforts must clearly contribute to UC Davis Health being a destination of choice to all those we serve.
The award categories and their criteria are:
Education:
- Team provides outstanding learning opportunities for students
- Team utilizes creative and multidisciplinary teaching styles to provide a dynamic and integrated curriculum to train the next generation of physicians and health researchers
- Team encourages life-long learning through interactive, interdisciplinary, evidenced-based interactions and problem-solving
- Team integrates technologies to enhance educational programs and expand teaching setting
- Teamwork is evident in collaborative teaching styles and team value is transmitted to students
Research:
- Team provides outstanding learning opportunities for students
- Team guides innovative research program(s)
- Team exemplifies and emphasizes multidisciplinary, collaborative team-based approach
- Team environment exemplifies team approach and includes peer mentoring opportunities
- Team seeks out innovative, interdisciplinary approaches that utilize collaborative-based team models to study issues
Clinical Care:
- Team provides high-quality patient-oriented services
- Team offers consistent, culturally competent, compassionate care to all patients
- Team efforts optimize clinical services through leveraging academic environment and research resources
- Team collaboratively identifies and delivers patient-oriented services that respond to the compelling needs of our community
- Team exemplifies collaborative, innovative multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary approach to complex clinical care issues
Community Engagement:
- Team enhances the quality of life of our local and regional communities
- Team participates in community organizations and volunteerism
- Team enhances relations with community partners by encouraging involvement and support of UC Davis Health programs and being present for community as a UC Davis Health team
- Team promotes community health through advocacy and impact on healthcare public policy
- Innovative teamwork and partnership mark the community outreach efforts of the team and the community shares the success of the work effort and is a collaborative partner of the team
The purpose of this award is to acknowledge outstanding, high-performing, multidisciplinary team efforts and approaches that contribute to advancing inclusive excellence. The multidisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary team model should embody and exemplify a sustainable, collaborative and inclusive approach that aligns our collegial community with our mission. In the spirit of inclusive excellence, the nominee’s efforts must clearly contribute to UC Davis Health being a destination of choice to all those we serve. In addition, the team must meet at a minimum 85% of the 12 elements from the Inclusion Excellence Framework¹.
The award categories and their criteria are:
Education:
- Team provides equitable access to outstanding learning opportunities for personal and professional growth that integrate inclusive and health equity principles
- Team utilizes creative, inclusive, multidisciplinary teaching styles to provide a dynamic and integrated curriculum to train the next generation of culturally and linguistically competent health care providers and researchers
- Team encourages life-long learning through interactive, interdisciplinary, culturally competent, evidence-based interactions and problem-solving
- Team integrates technologies to enhance educational programs and expand teaching setting
- Team integrates community engagement and service to enhance educational programs and expand teaching setting
- Team utilizes innovative teaching methods that emphasize the value of inclusiveness
- Teamwork is evident in collaborative, cross-cultural teaching styles and team value is transmitted to students
Research:
- Team makes high-impact discoveries that focus on reducing/eliminating health inequities for the communities we serve
- Multidisciplinary team guides innovative research program(s) in addressing health inequities
- Team exemplifies a diverse team that emphasizes multidisciplinary, collaborative team-based approach and includes peer mentoring opportunities
- Research unit exemplifies an inclusive workplace environment in which all team members are viewed and respected as whole persons with multiple identities and are free to behave truthfully
- Research team seeks out innovative, interdisciplinary approaches that utilize collaborative-based team models (including community-based participatory research model) to study issues
Clinical Care:
- Provides high-quality, patient-oriented, culturally-responsive care services
- Multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary team offers consistent, cultural and linguistic competent, compassionate care to all patients
- Inter-disciplinary team efforts optimize clinical services through leveraging academic environment and research resources
- Team collaboratively identifies and delivers patient-oriented services that respond to the compelling societal needs of our underserved communities
- Team exemplifies collaborative, innovative multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary approach to complex clinical care issues
- Team volunteers in the care of our indigent population groups either directly, or by serving as a volunteer/preceptor in one of the student-run clinics
- Team demonstrates innovative patient care delivery or health education program(s) that address the needs of our underserved communities (either within or outside of UC Davis Health)
- Team participates in servant leadership (e.g. serves committees of local agencies/organizations that serve our racial/ethnic communities and other vulnerable population groups)
Community Engagement:
- Team enhances the quality of life of our local and regional communities by demonstrating a drive to reduce/eliminate health inequities
- Multidisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary team participates in diverse community organizations and volunteerism within our local community, especially those population groups that are underserved and marginalized
- Team enhances and expands relations with diverse community partners by encouraging involvement and support of health system programs and being present for community as a UC Davis Health team
- Interdisciplinary team promotes community health through advocacy and impact on healthcare inequities and public policy
- Innovative teamwork and partnership mark the community outreach efforts of the team and the community, shares the success of the work effort and is a collaborative partner of the team (in the local diverse communities that have the most need)
- Team exemplifies transformative leadership in community engagement
¹The Netter Principles: A Framework for Building Organizational Inclusion, 2000, The Workplace Diversity Network
Nominations
The nomination period for the 2026 Dean's Awards will open in early 2027.
Review Awards and CriteriaAward for Excellence
Kurt Schaberg, M.D. (Dean's Award for Excellence in Education)
Kurt Schaberg is an associate health sciences clinical professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. Schaberg is an anatomic pathologist with a special clinical interest in inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, particularly ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.
When medical student education was interrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Schaberg created virtual courses, including “Diagnostic Medicine: Pathology in Practice,” to fill unanticipated gaps in training and ensure continued medical education.
For the past five years, he has continued to serve as the instructor of record for the course, which has enrolled almost 500 students. He also developed a large collection of popular educational notes and templates, with more than 740 pages of detailed illustrated guides updated weekly.
Diana Miglioretti, Ph.D., ScM (Dean's Award for Excellence in Research)
Diana Miglioretti is a professor and division chief of biostatistics in the Department of Public Health Sciences. She is co-leader of the Population Sciences and Cancer Control Program at the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Miglioretti co-leads the U.S. Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium, a national network of breast-imaging registries with data on 15 million breast imaging examinations since 1994. Her work quantifies the benefits and consequences of breast cancer screening across age, risk, interval and modality, and translates evidence into practice and policy.
She has developed risk-prediction models that move screening from age-based to risk-based paradigms, quantified modality performance overall and by patient factors, identified and addressed disparities and compared long-term outcomes of tailored screening strategies using simulation modeling.
Rachel Whitmer, Ph.D. (Dean's Award for Excellence in Research)
Rachel Whitmer is the co-director of the UC Davis Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, chief of the division of epidemiology and a professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences and the Department of Neurology.
For the third year in a row, Whitmer is the principal investigator with the largest NIH funding at UC Davis and in public health sciences nationwide.
Her high‑impact discoveries, including pioneering dementia risk scores and establishing long‑term links between midlife cardiometabolic factors and later cognitive decline, have reshaped scientific understanding and expanded knowledge of dementia in historically understudied populations.
Whitmer leads the U.S. POINTER Study at UC Davis Health, a large clinical trial demonstrating how lifestyle programs can improve cognition in older adults. UC Davis Health is one of only six U.S. academic and health care systems that conducted the study in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Association.
Award for Inclusive Excellence
Melody Tran-Reina, M.D.
Melody Tran-Reina is a health sciences associate clinical professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and the executive director of the School of Medicine Community Health Scholars (CHS) pathway programs.
Tran-Reina created a four-year longitudinal CHS curriculum emphasizing health equity, cultural humility, community engagement, leadership training, professional development, mentorship, and scholarship.
Tran-Reina also led the School of Medicine’s efforts to explore establishing the first regional medical campus in collaboration with UC Santa Cruz. She developed Programs in Medical Education Central Coast (PRIME Central Coast), the first program of its kind to collaborate with another UC campus, to recruit and train future physicians from and for the region.
Award for Excellence in Mentoring
Xiao-Jing Wang, M.D., Ph.D.
Xiao-Jing Wang is the chief science officer and associate director for basic science of the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center. She is also a professor and the Robert E. Stowell Endowed Chair in Experimental Pathology in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine.
Wang’s laboratory has made significant contributions to cancer research. Her work has led to a new clinical trial at the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center that combines immunotherapy with radiation to treat patients with recurrent head and neck cancers.
Wang was recognized for her commitment to mentoring early-stage investigators, providing guidance on prioritizing projects, shaping research directions and navigating academic advancement. She leads large interdisciplinary programs while fostering high-impact collaborations, ensures recognition of her trainees and creates a collaborative and respectful environment.
Team Award for Excellence
Parkinson’s Disease Multidisciplinary Team (Dean's Team Award for Excellence in Clinical Care)
The Parkinson’s Disease Multidisciplinary Team achieved outstanding results in education, research, clinical care and community engagement, leading to the opening of a Parkinson’s Disease Multidisciplinary clinic and the designation as the region’s first Parkinson’s Foundation Center of Excellence.
Led by Norika Malhado-Chang, a health sciences clinical professor in the Department of Neurology, and Lin Zhang, a professor in the Department of Neurology, this designation acknowledges the expertise of specialized interdisciplinary healthcare teams providing the most current clinical care for patients with Parkinson's Disease. The Parkinson’s Disease Team includes clinicians and researchers in multiple School of Medicine departments and engages a wide network of community members and affiliate organizations.
The team provides education, resources and support to patients and caregivers on disease management and progression.
Team Award for Inclusive Excellence
California Reducing Disparities Project Team (Dean's Team Award for Inclusive Excellence in Community Engagement)
The California Reducing Disparities Project (CRDP) is a statewide initiative to reduce mental health disparities by supporting community-based organizations in delivering culturally and linguistically responsive services.
Led by project manager Katherine Ferry, the CRDP team exemplifies inclusive excellence through sustained, community-centered engagement. The CRDP advances health equity, strengthens trust with underserved communities and has helped establish UC Davis Health as a trusted partner and destination of choice for those it serves.
As part of this initiative, the UC Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities serves as the Latino Technical Assistance Provider, offering capacity building, training and implementation support to seven community-based organizations serving Latino communities across multiple counties, while contributing to a broader statewide network of 33 organizations.
Award for Excellence
Aijun Wang, Ph.D. (Research - 2024)
Matthew Bobinski, M.D., Ph.D. (Clinical Care - 2024)
Kwan Ng, M.D., Ph.D. (Clinical Care - 2023)
Andreas Bäumler, Ph.D. (Research - 2023)
Luis Fernando Santana, Ph.D. (2022)
Stuart H. Cohen, M.D. (2021)
Yu-Jui Yvonne Wan, Ph.D. (2020)
Emily Andrada, M.D. (Education - 2019)
Niroop Ravula, M.D. (Education - 2019)
Award for Inclusive Excellence
Luis Carvajal-Carmona, Ph.D. (2024)
Erin Stephany Sanchez, M.D. (2023)
Javier López , M.D. (2022)
Verónica Martínez Cerdeño, Ph.D. (2021)
Janice F. Bell, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.N., F.A.A.N. (2020)
Jill G. Joseph, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H. (2020)
Kupiri Ackerman-Barger, Ph.D., R.N. (Education - 2019)
David Cooke, M.D., F.A.C.S. (Community Engagement - 2019)
Jorge Garcia, M.D. (Education - 2019)
Award for Excellence in Mentoring
Joshua J. Fenton, M.D., M.P.H. (2024)
Julie Beth Schweitzer, Ph.D. (2024)
Crystal Ripplinger, Ph.D. (2023)
Garen Wintemute, M.D., M.P.H. (2022)
Kent Leach, Ph.D. (2021)
Ruth Shim, M.D., M.P.H. (2020)
Lavjay Butani, M.D. (Education - 2019)
Clara Paik, M.D. (Clinical Care - 2019)
Team Award for Excellence
Neuroprosthetics Lab Team (Research - 2024)
Children’s Hospital Pediatric Endocrine Team (Clinical Care - 2023)
Lung Cancer Integrated Service Line (Clinical Care - 2023)
Rare Dermatologic Diseases Team (2022)
The Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) Program (2021)
Wraparound Project (2021)
UC Davis Department of Emergency Medicine’s Public Health Screening (PHASE) program and Bridge program (2020)
Center for a Diverse Healthcare Workforce (CDHW) Team (Community Engagement - 2019)
Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (CEDD) Team (Community Engagement - 2019)
Central Valley Road Trip Team (Education - 2019)
Emergency Department and Psychiatric Consult Team (Clinical Care - 2019)
Surgical Bioengineering Laboratory Research Program Team (Research - 2019)
Team Award for Inclusive Excellence
Heart Plus Clinic – Cardiology (2024)
GI Quality Improvement Program Team (2023)
Elimination of Race Based Reference Ranges (2022)
Behavioral Escalation Support Team (BEST) (2021)
Pandemic-Response Student-run Clinics Program Pilot Clinic (2020)
Supporting Educational Excellence in Diversity (SEED) Team (Education - 2019)