Samer Fakhri, MD, FACS, FRCS(C), a faculty member at the UTHealth Otorhinolaryngology Texas Sinus Institute and Texas Skull Base Physicians and a staff member at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, has been recognized with the medical school’s Dean’s Teaching Excellence Award for the sixth time. Also recognized in 2011 was otorhinolaryngologist Sancak Yuksel, MD, who is an assistant professor in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology.
The Dean’s Teaching Excellence Award is an annual recognition to faculty for their outstanding teaching performance. The award is presented to faculty and volunteers who have exhibited outstanding teaching, incited intellectual curiosity in their students and engaged them in the learning process, helped them develop lifelong skills or otherwise served with distinction.
“I am humbled to have been recognized numerous times for doing what I enjoy,” Dr. Fakhri says. “Our role as effective educators is central to the mission of the medical school and UTHealth. As physicians and surgeons, we view our commitment to educate young physicians in the broader objective of providing excellent care to our patients and community at large. I am proud to say that this vision is shared among UTHealth faculty.”
“I always wanted to be a teacher and not just a surgeon,” Dr. Yuksel says. “I find that I learn more by sharing my knowledge with others. Teaching also hones my medical skills. You have to stay current with the literature and think carefully about how you present knowledge to students. Their futures and the futures of their patients are in your hands.”