Vol. 48 | July 2025 – 8 minute read

Following a strong reception in 2024, the Educator Development at UTSW (EDU) course has returned this summer with refreshed and expanded content designed to support faculty growth across all levels. The course offers practical tools to strengthen teaching skills, advance scholarly work, and enhance impact in academic medicine.

For 2025, the Office of Faculty Development has once again partnered with the Southwestern Academy of Teachers (SWAT) to develop a new series of ten video modules featuring successful UTSW faculty, pictured above. They cover a broad range of topics, including the Kern Framework for curriculum design, best practices in podcasting for education, and strategies for effective exam development.

Faculty who complete all 10 modules will receive a certificate of completion and recognition at a SWAT meeting this fall. The inaugural EDU course saw significant engagement, with 600 faculty members completing all modules.

The entire EDU course takes under 2.5 hours to complete. Access it on Taleo Learn by searching for “EDU 2025.”

To keep faculty, students, trainees, and the UT Southwestern community abreast of fast-changing immigration news, the Office of International Affairs (OIA) is sharing information through its website in real time, organizing immigration updates in chronological order. 

As new guidance is available, Kirt Thompson, M.B.A., Director of the OIA, is also communicating directly with stakeholders – including leadership in our four schools, department administrators, department chairs, and center directors – as well as with individuals who may be potentially affected by the changes.  

The OIA has contacted visa holders from the countries that are part of the full or partial travel ban. The office is working with the Office for Graduate Medical Education, the Postdoctoral Office, and the Graduate School to assist students and scholars who might experience delays due to the temporary pause of scheduling new visa interviews for F & J visa applicants, which was recently lifted.  

Also, thus far, no UTSW students have had their SEVIS record terminated, nor student visa revoked as a result of presidential executive actions. 

The OIA is closely monitoring these developments to support the well-being of all our students and employees, including members of our international community. Connect with the OIA team via email.  

Dean Charles Mouton (UT Medical Branch at Galveston), Congressman Randy Weber (R-TX), and Dr. Lee

Dr. Lee, Congressman John Joyce (R-PA), and Dean Julie Byerley (Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine)

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) organized congressional visits last month featuring members of the Council of Deans (COD), which convenes deans of AAMC member medical schools in the U.S. and Canada to address issues affecting academic medicine.  The COD delegation included our Provost and Medical School Dean, W. P. Andrew Lee, M.D., Charles Mouton, M.D., M.B.A., Dean of the UT Medical Branch at Galveston John Sealy School of Medicine, and Julie Byerley, M.D., M.P.H., Dean of Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine.

The visits were an occasion to discuss the cumulative effect of federal actions proposed by Congress and the administration such as reductions in NIH budget, and how they will impact the nation’s medical schools, academic health systems, and biomedical research institutions. Read more.

UT Southwestern ranked #1 in the Nature Index among health care institutions globally publishing high-quality research articles in biological sciences. The list ranks institutions based on their contributions to selected high-quality journals tracked by the Nature Index database, from March 1, 2024 to Feb. 28, 2025. This latest ranking is a testament to the consistent strength and impact of our research community.

Wendy W. Chapman, Ph.D., has been appointed Associate Dean for Health Informatics and Director of the Center for Clinical Informatics, effective July 7, succeeding Christoph Lehmann, M.D. She will also be the Chief Learning Health Officer for UT Southwestern Health System. 

Dr. Chapman joins us from the University of Melbourne where she served as Associate Dean of Digital Health and Informatics, and inaugural Director of the Centre for Digital Transformation of Health.

She devoted the first part of her career to natural language processing of clinical notes – developing and evaluating easy-to-use algorithms, sharing schemas, data, and annotations, and building collaborations. Aware of the great potential of clinical informatics to have a direct impact on health care, Dr. Chapman took on progressive leadership roles at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of California, San Diego, and the University of Utah with the goal of bridging digital health research, clinical care delivery, and consumer empowerment.

A widely cited leader in the field of medical informatics, she has been recognized with multiple honors including election to the National Academy of Medicine in 2017. Read more.

Fangyu Liu, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Pharmacology, is one of five U.S. investigators to receive a 2025 Damon Runyon-Dale F. Frey Award for Breakthrough Scientists related to her research to discover new drug candidates to treat pancreatic, colorectal, breast, and prostate cancers.

Presented by the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, the award recognizes Damon Runyon Fellows who have exceeded the Foundation’s highest expectations and are considered most likely to make paradigm-shifting breakthroughs to transform the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer.

The Frey Award includes a $100,000 grant added to the $254,000 Dr. Liu already received as a 2020-2024 Damon Runyon Fellow for her cancer research. Read more.

Italian medical geneticist Andrea Ballabio, M.D., an internationally recognized scientist who has devoted his career to elucidating the mechanisms underlying genetic diseases, has been named the recipient of the 2025 Beth Levine, M.D. Prize in Autophagy Research.

The $20,000 prize and lecture was established in honor of the late Dr. Levine, who was Director of UT Southwestern’s Center for Autophagy Research, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, and member of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Levine’s groundbreaking work demonstrated that autophagy – the mechanism cells use to get rid of damaged components and maintain cellular health – plays a critical role in the determination of human health and as a driving mechanism in a broad range of human diseases.

The Ballabio Lab studies the lysosome and its role in the control of cell metabolism in health and disease. Starting in 2009, Dr. Ballabio and his colleagues published a series of studies showing that a protein called Transcription Factor EB (TFEB) is a master transcriptional regulator of both lysosomal biogenesis and autophagy. TFEB regulates the function of beclin 1, the first mammalian autophagy gene, which was discovered by Dr. Levine. Read more.

On June 6, Faculty Wellness hosted its annual Faculty and APP Wellness Symposium. Nearly 40 faculty members, APPs, and health professionals participated in 7.25 hours of CME-certified interactive workshops. The sessions focused on values, purpose, and humanism in medicine, and how these elements support a culture of wellness. Participants engaged in self-reflection, practiced relationship-centered communication, connected with their personal “why,” and committed to an action item to help improve UTSW’s culture of wellness over the next year.

Nominations are open for the University of Texas System Kenneth I. Shine, M.D., Academy of Health Science Education. Recognizing excellence in teaching, the Shine Academy is composed of a diverse membership that represents many disciplines in health science education.

UT Southwestern may submit up to four nominees for this prestigious honor. Outstanding performance in any of the following categories will qualify faculty for consideration for membership in the Shine Academy:

• Direct teaching
• Curriculum development and instructional design or redesign
• Assessment of learner performance
• Mentoring and counseling
• Educational administration and leadership
• Educational scholarship and research

Submissions are due July 25. For more information, contact Pamela Munoz.

Sponsored Program Administration: Research Roundup

Discuss funding agency deadlines, process changes, and general research regulatory and administrative updates among fellow research support staff and department administrators.

• Register to attend. July 3

7T TANA 3rd Annual Meeting: Clinical Advances and Technical Challenges

Hosted by the UTSW Advanced Imaging Research Center, the meeting will discuss clinical advances and technical challenges to precipitate clinical translation, and to facilitate the standardization of imaging protocols and sharing of data and expertise.

• Register to attend. July 14-15

Call for Nominations: Leaders in Clinical Excellence Awards

Nominations are open for the 2025 Leaders in Clinical Excellence Awards, designed to honor clinical faculty who embody the very best in patient care and institutional excellence. For more information, visit the Clinical Faculty Awards website.

• Deadline for nominations is July 15.

Pursue a Master's in Business Administration

In partnership with UT Dallas Jindal School of Management, UT Southwestern sponsors a comprehensive 18-month M.B.A. program that emphasizes Healthcare Organization Leadership – designed explicitly for UTSW faculty and staff. 

• Apply by July 15.

Research Mentor Training Program

Research mentors for graduate students, postdocs, and junior faculty are invited to a series of in-person workshops. Sessions will cover “Aligning Expectations and Maintaining Effective Communications.”

• Register to attend: July 16, Aug. 5

Exploring Scopus AI and OpenEvidence

Learn about AI-powered research support tools available through Library Services.

• Register to attend. July 17

All about EBSCO’s New Search Interface

In August, the CINAHL database will have a new search interface. This session from Library Services will cover key changes and highlight similar updates to other EBSCO databases.

• Register to attend. July 23

Writing Accountability Group (WAG)*

A boot camp-style series designed to make scholarly writing a habit, WAG will help you develop your own scientific proposal with support and feedback from a cohort.

• Applications are open for August-September and October-November cohorts.

Biomedical Preparatory Application Period

Biomedical Preparatory at UT Southwestern is still accepting applications for incoming fourth grade students for the 2025-2026 school year. The school, a unique collaboration between the Dallas Independent School District and UTSW, gives children a head start in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) through hands-on learning, research exposure, and innovative instruction.

• Apply now.

*Sponsored by the UT Southwestern Clinical and Translational Science Award Program