Impact in Education: Teresa Cochran, DPT

Teresa Cochran, DPT, is the recipient of the Interprofessional Education Scholar Award. The award recognizes an individual or team who has demonstrated excellence in IPE, including teaching in an interprofessional learning environment, disseminating IPE results and best practices and contributing to IPE advancement.

• Name: Teresa Cochran, DPT
• Title: Associate professor in the UNMC Department of Health and Rehabilitation Science
• Joined UNMC: May 2017
• Hometown: Glenwood, Iowa

You are the recipient of the Interprofessional Education Scholar Award. Why is interprofessional education important in today’s health care fields?

Team expertise and vigilance are needed to optimize care, especially for people who are vulnerable, or who experience complex or chronic conditions. Health practitioners regularly encounter several different types of teams, so they must demonstrate fundamental respect enabling collaboration, as well as the adaptive behavioral capacity to effectively negotiate team variations and needs. Addressing complex and chronic health conditions requires more resources and care than any one profession can reasonably provide.

Describe your proudest moment as an educator.

A mentor once told me that her proudest moments occurred watching former students “grow and go.” I appreciate this now that I’ve taught long enough to see my students eventually accomplish things that I never will, and they do it better than I would ever be able.

What advice would you give other faculty members who want to have an impact in education?

Advice that has resonated with me over the years includes:

• Evaluate yourself first and then your students.
• Remember that you teach students, not a subject.
• Start and end each day with hope.

Do you have a favorite quote or philosophy on teaching?

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.

Learn about the UNMC Impact in Education Awards.