Dr. Taylor receives award honoring pioneering women in medicine

Regan Taylor, M.D., assistant professor, internal medicine-general medicine, has been selected for the Excellence in Teaching Award honoring the Pioneering Women in Medicine.

The award was created in 2012 by Carol Swarts, M.D., a 1959 graduate of the UNMC College of Medicine. It recognizes the importance of dedicated teaching faculty who enrich the lives of students and shape outstanding health care providers.

It is given to a basic science teaching faculty member in the College of Medicine and includes a $20,000 stipend that may be used as a cash award or to support the recipient’s teaching technology, teaching-related research, or faculty development.

Dr. Taylor has served on the UNMC faculty since 2008. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Northern Iowa in 2001 and her medical degree from UNMC in 2005.

She teaches a course on communication skills to medical students in their first and second years. Students in the class learn such things as how to introduce themselves to patients, how to take a basic health history, and how to break bad news to patients. They also learn the basics of how to document in the medical record.

“I am humbled to receive this award from Dr. Swarts,” Dr. Taylor said. “She is the definition of a pioneering woman in medicine, so to be recognized by her is really an honor. Even more, Dr. Swarts continues to pay it forward by encouraging and rewarding women involved in medical student education – she is an inspiration and a role model.

“Bridging the gap between the basic sciences and clinical sciences, and helping students learn how to translate medical jargon into a language that patients can understand is very rewarding. I hope other clinician educators will be encouraged to participate early on in medical student education. It is a great reminder of where we all started and how instrumental the fundamentals of science are in the care of patients.”

The award recognizes the contributions and lifelong friendships of three 1959 graduates of the College of Medicine — Dr. Swarts, Margaret Hancock Peterson, M.D., and Marilyn Myers, M.D. — as well as Gretchen Glode Berggren, M.D., from the Class of 1958.

Criteria for the award include teaching evaluations, teaching honors, outstanding leadership in advancing learning, and recognition from peers on teaching abilities, innovation and leadership.