2017 Department of Medicine Faculty Mentoring Award honorees

Please join the Department of Medicine in congratulating Drs. Carlos del Rio (Infectious Diseases) and Colleen Kraft (Infectious Diseases), who recently received the Emory University School of Medicine’s 2017 Faculty Mentoring Award. This award recognizes School of Medicine faculty who have demonstrated outstanding mentoring in the domains of education, service, and/or research to trainees or early career faculty during the past year. The following quotations are excerpts from nomination letters submitted by past and present mentees.

Carlos del Rio, MD

“Carlos has been the most outstanding mentor I have ever had. I first met him in 2006 when he recruited me to complete a fellowship in Infectious Diseases… Most importantly, Carlos was always fully supportive of my short and long-term career goals and aspirations and 150% behind my efforts and endeavors.”

“Carlos has served as my primary mentor for the last seven years, since I came to Emory as an Infectious Diseases fellow. He has simultaneously served as primary mentor for numerous other faculty, fellows, residents, and students throughout his illustrious career here at Emory.”

“Whether he is on a plane or halfway around the world, Carlos is somehow always accessible to us, whether to review a grant before submission, give input on a manuscript, or troubleshoot issues in the day-to-day research process.”

“Perhaps even more important than his notable substantive contributions to our work, Carlos has simply mastered the art of facilitating opportunities for his mentees. He is an expert networker with high-powered connections literally all over the world – and, more than anything, he uses these connections to help all of us find opportunities, create research partnerships and grow as scientists. In every setting, Carlos is quick to jump on any opportunity to brag about his mentees or highlight our accomplishments – and in many cases this bragging leads to opportunities for us down the road!”

“Carlos truly wants us to succeed in the ways that we want to succeed. His goal is truly for us to fulfill our own dreams and goals, whatever they may be… [H]e works in a tireless and selfless manner to channel his outstanding successes into opportunities for his mentees.

Colleen Kraft, MD

“In medicine, one often finds apparent compromises in the larger trajectory of careers. Dr. Kraft is an exceedingly rare mentor that walks this balance of rigor, accessibility, and concern for her mentees’ well-being. It is humbling to consider that though she has opened doors to most of my success this past year, she has many additional mentees who she is also successfully supporting at the same time.”

“Dr. Kraft created exceptional research opportunities for me to become involved in projects based in my field of interest early on during my fellowship training, enabling collaboration with other faculty within Emory as well as leaders in the field at outside institutions, both abroad and within the United States.”

“Dr. Kraft is an ideal candidate for the Emory School of Medicine Mentoring Award. She is a role model for academic achievement at her stage of career and her generosity of time and spirit for mentoring is truly exceptional.”

“At every step along her path, she actively considers how to include trainees, be they Emory medical students on their Discovery rotation, residents with interests in pathology, infectious diseases or gastroenterology; infectious diseases fellows and junior faculty.”

“In her capacity as medical director of the Emory University Hospital microbiology laboratory, she coordinates and often directly teaches students, residents, fellows (and faculty) using both planned teaching cases and real-time highlights from the microbiology laboratory. She instills enthusiasm and curiosity in a manner that makes a difference on a daily basis. As her former trainee, I have tried to incorporate her enthusiasm for teaching into my daily bedside teaching rounds.”

 

To see the full list of 2017 Emory School of Medicine Faculty Mentoring Award recipients, visit 2017recognitionsweek.strikingly.com/blog/mentoring-awards.