Schulich Medicine professor earns Distinguished University Professor honour
Western researchers Kathy Hibbert, Lars Konermann, Lorelei Lingard, and X. A. (Andy) Sun have earned the title of Distinguished University Professor.
By Communications
Professor Lorelei Lingard, Centre for Education Research & Innovation at Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, is one of four Western faculty to earn the title of Distinguished University Professor. She was recently named along with Professor Kathy Hibbert from the Faculty of Education, Lars Konermann from the Faculty of Science, and X. A. (Andy) Sun from the Faculty of Engineering.
All awardees are internationally recognized leaders in their fields, demonstrating “sustained excellence in research, teaching and service to the community over a substantial career at Western.” Each has attracted millions in research funding and top awards for their work. Summaries of their accomplishments are listed below, drawn from endorsements by Western colleagues, former and current students, and academic peers from around the world.
Shawn Whitehead and Andrew Pruszynski were honoured for their outstanding academic achievements.
Hooked on communications
Lingard ‘grew up’ in the humanities, where her doctoral research focused on how third-year clinical clerks learn to present the patient case during morning rounds. From that time on, she was “hooked.”
Today she is a leading world expert in healthcare team communication and collaboration, advancing seminal understandings of how language impacts teamwork, how learning to communicate during clinical training shapes professional identity and how the individual focus of competency frameworks threatens the delivery of quality care.
Her work influences multiple fields globally, including communication science, team performance, patient safety, competency-based training, professional identity formation and assessment and licensure.
“As one of the most respected qualitative researchers in medical education, Lingard has fundamentally changed the kinds of questions scholars ask and the kinds of knowledge that are valued in the field,” one nominator wrote.
Her innovative work has earned her the highest honor for research in medical education: the Karolinska Institutet Prize for Research in Medical Education.
Lingard was the inaugural director of the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry Centre for Education Research & Innovation, where she’s now a senior scientist.
In 2016, she co-led the development of a Masters of Health Professions Education (MHPE) program, an international collaboration between Western, University of British Columbia, and Maastricht University. As an MHPE instructor, she consistently receives outstanding evaluations. She also co-developed the Karolinska Institutet PRIME Fellowship, which aims to develop mid-career ‘high teaching flyers’ globally in the health professional education research domain.
Lingard encourages her students and fellow academics to write with the goal “to be read, rather than to be published.” She’s helped improve their scholarly writing and publication rates through her educational series The Writer’s Craft, published in the Perspectives on Medical Education journal and her book, co-authored with Christopher Watling, Story, not Study: 30 brief lessons to inspire health researchers as writers.
Schulich Medicine Faculty Scholars
Andrew Pruszynski
Physiology and Pharmacology
Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
