Four University of Nebraska Medical Center faculty members were selected
recently as Outstanding Teachers for 2002. The four teachers are: Michael
Mann, Ph.D., UNMC College of Medicine; Matt Mormino, M.D., UNMC College
of Medicine; Paul Paulman, M.D., UNMC College of Medicine; and Henry St.
Germain, D.M.D., UNMC College of Dentistry.
Dr. Mann, professor of physiology and biophysics, realizes that individual
students process information differently, so he seeks teaching methods
to reach the largest audience. He studies learning theory and constructs
his lessons around the way the brain learns to make them as effective as
possible.
A native of Gold Beach, Ore., Dr. Mann earned his bachelor’s degree
in psychology and mathematics from the University of Southern California
in Los Angeles. He went on to earn his Ph.D. in neurobiology and behavior
from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. After spending a few years at the
University of Washington in Seattle as a post-doctoral trainee, Dr. Mann
joined UNMC in 1973 as an assistant professor of physiology and biophysics.
He achieved the rank of professor of physiology and biophysics in 1992.
While at UNMC, Dr. Mann has also been involved in the community. For
more than 10 years he taught in Omaha Public Schools as a volunteer science
teacher. Today, Dr. Mann is actively involved with the Boy Scouts, where
he is a Scout leader and trains other adults to be leaders.
Dr. Mormino is the orthopaedic residency program coordinator and UNMC’s
first director of orthopaedic trauma service. Because he’s the only orthopaedic
surgeon in Nebraska who specializes in fracture care, he sees it as his
duty to share his knowledge and talent with others — even if it means
leading a weekly fracture conference at 6 a.m.
A native of Alton, Ill., Dr. Mormino earned his undergraduate degree
from the University of Missouri-Columbia and his medical degree from the
University of Illinois Medical School. He came to UNMC in 1995 to complete
an orthopaedic residency.
After his residency, he spent a year at the University of Washington
on a trauma fellowship. He returned to UNMC in 1997 and in the four years
since his return, three residents have continued into orthopaedic trauma.
For Dr. Paulman, predoctoral education director of family medicine,
the best way to teach his students about family medicine is to have them
learn through experience. He works with medical students all four years,
teaching them how to provide comprehensive primary care to patients no
matter their gender, age or illness. With this knowledge, students are
prepared to practice in rural areas, an aspect of medicine he knows firsthand.
A native of Sutherland, Neb., Dr. Paulman attended Kearney State College
and came to UNMC for medical school, graduating in 1977. He spent almost
two years at a small-town practice in Spalding, Neb., with the National
Health Service Corps, before returning to UNMC in 1982 to take a teaching
position.
Dr. Paulman is a faculty adviser to the student-operated SHARING clinic,
and works there one night a month. He has also accompanied students on
the Jamaica Annual Medical Mission for at least five years.
Dr. St. Germain is associate professor and chairman of the adult restorative
dentistry department the largest department in the College of Dentistry.
Instead of cutting back on teaching, he actually increased his class load
since becoming chairman of the department.
Dr. St. Germain is a native of Amesbury, Mass., and received his bachelor’s
degree from the University of New Hampshire. In 1975 he earned his D.M.D.
from Tuft University’s dental school, and went on to earn further master’s
degrees from Indiana State University and George Washington University.
Commissioned as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Dental Corps in 1975,
he served 20 years in the military, retiring as a captain in June 1995.
He served as chairman of the operative dentistry department at the Naval
Dental School in Bethesda, Md., from 1990-95.
Dr. St. Germain joined UNMC’s faculty in 1995. He began as the director
of operative dentistry department and steadily moved up the ranks, being
named chairman of the adult restorative dentistry department in 1997.