We lost an icon of the Department of Internal Medicine recently with the passing of former Chairman Dr. Michael Sorrell. Dr. Sorrell had a vision of growing the academic mission of the department and made his vision a reality. He was Chair when I came to UNMC as a pulmonary research fellow and helped give me an opportunity to become faculty. He guided me to have a VA connection and that provided me much of my research funding through the years. I have much gratitude for how he helped me and so many others. He dreamed big dreams regarding the liver transplant program, bone marrow transplant program, and the inflammatory bowel disease center, to name a few, and made the dreams reality. We will miss his spirit, but he leaves an amazing legacy to us and his family and friends.
The newsletter is filled with special recognitions. Our annual department research awards will be presented on June 14at Grand Rounds and the winners are highlighted here. Several of our trainees were selected as winners at the annual UNMC GME Research Symposium back in April and you can read about them. Dr. Jasmine Marcelin was recognized nationally by AAIM (Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine) with their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award in April.
There is an opportunity to nominate colleagues for both our department Advocacy Award and our Faculty Clinical and Educational Mentoring Award. Please see the details and make nominations by July 1.
There is a great educational resource about rounding styles provided by Instructional Designer Zach Slocum in collaboration with four faculty available through the faculty intranet. There are also ways you can connect to the Omaha community through events like Pride as provided by our Office of Equity and Inclusive Excellence.
We will be honoring our graduating residents on June 7 with their banquet. We are grateful for all they have shared with us during their residency training and excited for the next steps in their careers. We wish them all the best!
With the end of the academic year, we have some retirements. We celebrate the many contributions of Drs. Jennifer Larsen, Beth Reed and Dave Gannon as they explore new adventures.
Summer officially starts soon. I hope it will bring some time for rest and relaxation for each of you!
With gratitude for our department,
Deb Romberger