LCME Awards
Table of Contents
About the Donna M. Waechter LCME Distinguished Service Award
The Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) reviews and awards accreditation status to educational programs leading to the MD degree in the United States. This peer review process is dependent on volunteers who devote countless hours to improving medical education through accreditation. The LCME Distinguished Service Award was created in 2012 to express the profound gratitude of the LCME for the tireless service and immeasurable dedication contributed by these often “unsung” individuals, whose efforts are directly tied to the excellence of medical education in the United States today. The award was renamed to the Donna M. Waechter LCME Distinguished Service Award in 2023 to honor Donna M. Waechter, LCME Assistant Secretary, who encapsulated the qualities of those who receive this award.
New Horizons Award
The New Horizons Award was established in 2012 as a one-time award. The LCME was formed in 1942 with a handshake between its two sponsors: the Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Medical Association. The New Horizons Award acknowledged the transformative initiative led by Drs. Lois Nora and Valerie Parisi during their tenure on the LCME to codify this relationship. Under their courageous leadership, the LCME undertook a comprehensive review of its organizational structure and functions, a process that ultimately resulted in the first memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the two sponsors. This MOU has enabled the LCME to directly address some of its most pressing challenges while ensuring its ability to remain the gold standard for accreditation of medical education programs.
2023 Donna M. Waechter LCME Distinguished Service Awardee | Paul B. Roth, MD, MS
Paul B. Roth, MD, MS
From the fall 2023 award citation:
Dr. Roth received a Master of Science Degree in Biology at Fairleigh Dickinson University in 1972 and his MD degree from the George Washington School of Medicine in 1976. After completing a residency in Family Medicine at the University of New Mexico (UNM) in 1979, he joined the faculty at UNM in the Department of Family, Community and Emergency Medicine.
Over the following years, Dr. Roth began pursuing Emergency Medicine as a career and became the Director of the Division of Emergency Medicine in 1982 and received his Emergency Medicine Board certification in 1988. He facilitated the establishment of the state’s Trauma System and created the helicopter air rescue program at UNM Hospital which remains the state’s only Level I Trauma Center. Eventually, Dr. Roth established a free-standing academic department of Emergency Medicine at UNM and became its first Chair.
Dr. Roth’s specialty in Emergency Medicine was Disaster Medicine, and he created the Center for Disaster Medicine at the UNM SOM in 1990. He was one of the founders of the American College of Emergency Physicians’ section for Disaster Medicine and created the nation’s first civilian Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) within the National Disaster Medical System. After many activations in response to natural disasters in the USA, he commanded a DMAT following the September 11, 2001, devastating attack on the Twin Towers in New York City.
Prior to his retirement in August 2020, he served as Chancellor for Health Sciences Center (HSC) and CEO of the UNM Health System since 2005 and dean of the UNM School of Medicine (SOM) since 1994. He participated in the dramatic growth of the HSC and the SOM and enabled significant growth and advancement of its research, educational, and clinical missions.
As Chancellor, Dr. Roth’s priorities for were to significantly improve the health and well-being of New Mexico’s diverse populations and to promote health-related outreach programs for the state’s Native American, Hispanic, and African American communities.
2021 Donna M. Waechter LCME Distinguished Service Awardee | Barbara Ann Kleiner Schindler, MD
Barbara Ann Kleiner Schindler, MD
From the fall 2021 award citation:
Dr. Schindler earned her bachelor’s degree from Boston University and her MD degree from the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania (now Drexel University College of Medicine). She completed her post-graduate training in internal medicine, adult psychiatry, and child psychiatry at the Medical College of Pennsylvania. She is a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics, and vice dean emerita of educational and academic affairs at Drexel University College of Medicine. As vice dean, a position she held for 18 years, she successfully guided the College of Medicine through several LCME accreditations. Prior to becoming vice dean, Dr. Schindler served as acting chair of the Department of Psychiatry from 1993 to 1995.
Dr. Schindler has over 150 publications, abstracts, and presentations in consultation-liaison psychiatry/psychosomatic medicine, substance abuse in women, and medical education. She collaborated on a multicenter study of the effects of financial stress on the physical and mental health of academic-health-center faculty and is the principal investigator of two SAMHSA grants, one to expand Caring Together for women being released from incarceration, and another focused on expanding prevention, identification and treatment of opioid use disorder in Philadelphia.
Dr. Schindler is the founder and medical director of the Caring Together Program, an outpatient treatment program for women with substance use disorders and their children. She is board certified in psychiatry, with added qualifications in geriatric psychiatry and expertise in hospital consultation psychiatry and the treatment of addictive and psychiatric disorders.
Dr. Schindler has earned fellowship status in the American Psychiatric Association and the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine and is a past president of the Philadelphia Psychiatric Society. She served on the Council of the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine and the Philadelphia Psychiatric Society. She is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha. Her awards include: the Drexel University College of Medicine Alumni Lifetime Achievement Award, the Association of American Medical Colleges Women in Medicine Silver Achievement Award, the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Society’s Presidential Award, the Daniel Blain Award of the Philadelphia Psychiatric Society, the Commonwealth Board Award, the WMC/MCP Alumnae/i Association Service Award, and the Lindback Teaching Award.
To date, during her 20 years of service to the LCME, Dr. Schindler has participated in a total of 26 LCME accreditation survey visits, 12 as a team member and 14 as the team chair. She served as a professional member of the LCME from 2014 to 2020. During that time, she also served as a member of the LCME Executive Committee, a member of the Subcommittee on Standards, and as chair of the Subcommittee on Standards. She continues to provide her leadership as an LCME survey team chair.
2020 Donna M. Waechter LCME Distinguished Service Awardee | Stephen Ray Mitchell, MD, MBA
Stephen Ray Mitchell, MD, MBA
From the fall 2021 award citation:
A Dreyfuss National Merit Scholar at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, Stephen Ray Mitchell completed training and certification in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the North Carolina Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill. He completed rheumatology subspecialty training at Georgetown University. In 1988, he accepted a faculty position to provide rheumatology teaching and service in adult and pediatric rheumatology at Georgetown University Hospital, where he opened the Childhood Arthritis Center which he continues to direct. From 1992-1998, Dr. Mitchell served as Residency Program Director in the Department of Internal Medicine and in 1996 initiated an innovative Medicine Pediatric Residency program at Georgetown in partnership with Kaiser Permanente, under the sponsorship of partnerships for Quality Education and the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Dr. Mitchell served as the Associate Dean for Clinical Curriculum at Georgetown University School of Medicine from 1998 to 2000 and as Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2000 to 2002. From 2002 to 2020, he served as the Joseph Butenas Professor and Dean for Medical Education at Georgetown University. As Dean for Medical Education, he and was responsible for the overall operation, development, curriculum, and student affairs for the School of Medicine. Dr. Mitchell also served as the chief academic officer (CAO) for the school of medicine for the last 20 years. He now serves as Dean Emeritus and is a member of the faculty in the Department of Medicine.
In 2013, he received a Master’s in Business Administration from McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. He served as member of the National Council of Deans of the AAMC and as chair of the LCME.
Dr. Mitchell has led and participated in 21 LCME survey visits (6 as a team member and 15 as the team chair). He served as a professional member of the LCME from 2013 to 2019. During that time, he also served as a member of the LCME Executive Committee, a member of the Subcommittee on Standards, a member of the Subcommittee on Planning/International Relationships, as chair of the LCME Executive Committee, as Chair of the Nominating Committee, and as chair of the Subcommittee on Standards.
2019 Donna M. Waechter LCME Distinguished Service Awardee | Bruce M. Koeppen, MD, PhD
Bruce M. Koeppen, MD, PhD
From the fall 2019 award citation:
Dr. Koeppen received his MD from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine in 1977 and his PhD in physiology from the University of Illinois in 1980. After completing a research fellowship at Yale University in 1982, he joined the faculty of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, where he served as a Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Cell Biology. While at the University of Connecticut he held the administrative position of Dean for Academic Affairs. In that position, he oversaw all educational and research programs in the school of medicine. On November 1, 2010, he joined Quinnipiac University as the founding dean of its new medical school, the Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine.
Dr. Koeppen has served on a number of state and national education-related committees and organizations, including the United States Medical Licensing Examination Composite Committee, the Executive Board of the National Board of Medical Examiners, the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, and the State of Connecticut Advisory Council on Graduate Medical Education. He was a member of the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, serving as the chair of its accreditation standards committee, and continues to serve on accreditation survey teams. He has served on 30 LCME accreditation survey teams, including 11 as team secretary and 15 as team chair.
Dr. Koeppen is a recognized educator. In addition to co-authoring Renal Physiology, now in its 6th edition, he is a contributing author and editor of Berne and Levy’s Physiology, which is in its 7th edition. His other books include Netter’s Atlas of Physiology, and Berne and Levy’s Essentials of Physiology. He has received numerous teaching awards from students at the University of Connecticut Schools of Medicine and Dental Medicine. At the national level, he was the 1995 recipient of the Arthur C. Guyton Teaching Award from the American Society of Physiology, and was the 1998 recipient of the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Alpha Omega Alpha – Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teaching Award. In 1999, the Board of Trustees of the University of Connecticut recognized Dr. Koeppen’s outstanding achievement in leading the faculty of the school of medicine through a comprehensive revision of its curriculum. In 2002, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, and that same year he was named as the 2002 co-recipient of the Frances M. Maitland-PACME award from the Alliance for Continuing Medical Education. In 2007, Dr. Koeppen received the Edithe J. Levit Distinguished Service Award from the National Board of Medical Examiners, and in 2009 he was named an inaugural member of the University of Connecticut’s Academy of Distinguished Educators. He was named a Healthcare Hero – Educator of the Year in 2012 by Business New Haven.
2018 Donna M. Waechter LCME Distinguished Service Awardee | Philip A. McHale, PhD
Philip A. McHale, PhD
From the fall 2018 award citation:
Philip A. McHale is currently an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Physiology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center College of Medicine Oklahoma City.
Before his retirement from the College of Medicine, he served as the director of the Health Sciences Center Institutional Animal Care and Use Program. Prior to that, he held a number of administrative positions in the dean’s office including coordinator for educational development, assistant dean for educational programs, associate dean for student affairs, and associate dean for educational assessment and informatics.
In addition, Dr. McHale was the principal investigator and program director for the Health Sciences Center Native American Center of Excellence Consortium and the principal investigator and program director for the Partnerships in Health Professions Program (Native American). These programs supported multiple efforts to recruit and retain more Native Americans into the Colleges of Medicine and Dentistry; they were supported as training grants from the HRSA Division of Disadvantaged Assistance.
Although formally retired, Dr. McHale continues to teach both cardiovascular and respiratory physiology to first-year dental and physician associate students at the Health Sciences Center.
Dr. McHale served in the U.S. Navy as a nuclear weapons specialist attached to the Defense Atomic Support Agency. Following his military service, he enrolled at the University of Arizona and received a BS degree with distinction in engineering mathematics. He then earned his PhD degree from Duke University where his research interests included mathematical descriptions of ventricular function and studies related to the regulation of coronary blood flow. While at Duke, he was also a research physiologist (GS-12) at the Durham Veterans Administration Medical Center.
While enrolled at the University of Arizona, Dr. McHale was elected to Tau Beta Pi, the National Engineering Honor Society. He is also the recipient of an American College of Cardiology Young Investigator’s Award.
He has received numerous teaching awards including the American Medical Student Association Golden Apple Award for Teaching Excellence and several Aesculapian Awards for Excellence in Teaching the Basic Sciences while at the University of Oklahoma.
Dr. McHale currently serves as a field secretary for the LCME. He has participated in 52 LCME accreditation survey visits, 44 as team secretary.
2017 Donna M. Waechter LCME Distinguished Service Awardee | Cam E. Enarson, MD, MBA
Cam E. Enarson, MD, MBA
From the fall 2017 award citation:
Dr. Cam E. Enarson is currently a Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. He was appointed Senior Vice President, UNC Health Care System (Carolina Value) in January 2015 and serves as Interim President of the Medical Foundation of North Carolina. From 2011-15 he served as Vice Dean for Finance and Administration, UNC School of Medicine. Dr. Enarson was heavily involved with the UNC medical school’s preparation for the successful March 2012 LCME survey visit and helped lead the institutional self-study.
Dr. Enarson earned his BA from Concordia College in Moorhead, MN and his MD from the University of Alberta School of Medicine in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He completed a residency in anesthesiology at the University of Maryland and a fellowship in cardiothoracic anesthesia and intensive care at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center of Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Enarson completed an MBA at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Enarson has been active at the national level with the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the American Medical Association (AMA), and the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME). For the AAMC Group on Educational Affairs, Dr. Enarson has served as co-chair of the Special Interest Group on Quality Improvement in Medical Education, co-chair of the Special Interest Group on Curriculum, and member of the Section on Undergraduate Medical Education Steering Committee. He was an institutional representative for the AAMC Medical School Objectives Project. Dr. Enarson served on the Steering Committee of the Southern Group on Educational Affairs (SGEA) and chaired the SGEA Undergraduate Medical Education Section. For the AMA, Dr. Enarson served on the Governing Council of the Section on Medical Schools, chaired the AMA Section on Medical Schools, and was the Section on Medical Schools Liaison to the Council on Medical Education. He has also served as an At Large Member of the NBME and as a member of the National Board’s International Advisory, Audit and Finance Committees.
Dr. Enarson was an AMA appointee to the LCME, where he served from 2002-08 as a member of: the Subcommittee on Policy (and chaired that subcommittee from 2004-06), the Task Group on Distance Learning, and the Working Group on International Accreditation Activities. He also served as co-chair of the LCME from 2007-08. From 1995-2017, he has participated in 33 LCME survey visits, usually as the survey team chair. Following the conclusion of his membership on the LCME, he has served numerous times on LCME Independent Review Committees.
2015 Donna M. Waechter LCME Distinguished Service Awardee | Jeffrey P. Gold, MD
Jeffrey P. Gold, MD
From the fall 2015 award citation:
Dr. Jeffrey P. Gold currently serves as chancellor of the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) and chairs the board of UNMC’s principal clinical care partner, Nebraska Medicine. Prior to joining UNMC, Dr. Gold served as chancellor of the University of Toledo’s health science campus. In that role, he had full leadership responsibility for the clinical, education and research programs, the faculty practice plan, and the clinical delivery system. As dean of the University of Toledo’s College of Medicine and Life Sciences, Dr. Gold was responsible for the cultivation and recruitment of its faculty, development and implementation of its curriculum, and ensuring the highest level of education for its students, residents, and faculty. Prior to joining the University of Toledo, Dr. Gold served at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Weill Cornell Medical College.
Dr. Gold graduated from the Cornell University College of Engineering, where he majored in theoretical and applied mechanics. He earned his MD degree from the Weill Cornell College of Medicine and completed his general surgery residency at The New York – Presbyterian Hospital and Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital. He completed his cardiothoracic fellowship training at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Boston Children’s Hospital of Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Gold served as a member of the LCME for six years, chaired the LCME during his final year on the committee, and has chaired numerous LCME survey teams. His calm evidence-based leadership style guided the LCME through a significant period of change, from the surge of new schools and expansion of the number of distributed campuses to the reformatting of the accreditation standards. Dr. Gold’s generosity of time and energy and his dedication to the quality of medical education are greatly appreciated by the LCME.
Dr. Gold’s service to medical education has also included participation in more than 50 professional committees and more than 100 national organizations, volunteer boards, government/public health councils, and industry. He has chaired the American Medical Association’s Council on Medical Education and Committee on Undergraduate Medical Education, and he serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education.
2014 Donna M. Waechter LCME Distinguished Service Awardee | Michael J. Reichgott, MD, PhD
Michael J. Reichgott, MD, PhD
From the fall 2014 award citation:
A 1965 Einstein graduate, Dr. Reichgott trained in internal medicine at the UC San Francisco Medical Center, where he completed a fellowship in clinical pharmacology and a PhD in pharmacology. Dr. Reichgott joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania in 1972, conducting clinical research in hypertension and clinical pharmacology. A founding member of Penn’s Section on General Internal Medicine, he became director of ambulatory care and clinical practice programs for the Department of Internal Medicine. In 1980, Dr. Reichgott was appointed chief of the Section of General Internal Medicine and associate chief of staff for ambulatory care at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center. He returned to Einstein in 1984 as medical director of the Bronx Municipal Hospital Center. He was appointed as Einstein’s associate dean for students and first associate dean for graduate medical education in 1989, transitioning to associate dean for clinical affairs in 1999, while continuing to serve as the designated institutional official for Einstein’s ACGME-accredited programs.
For the AAMC, Dr. Reichgott was a member of the governing council of the Group on Educational Affairs and a founding member of the Section on Resident Education and the Group on Resident Affairs. He was the organizing chair of the GEA Section on Graduate Medical Education. As AAMC appointee, he was a founding member of the ACGME Institutional Review Committee (1996-2002), and he continues to serve on the ACGME’s Standing Appeals Panel.
For the AMA, Dr. Reichgott is past chair of the governing council of the Section on Medical Schools and has served as the section’s delegate to the AMA House of Delegates. He was an AMA appointee to the LCME, where he served as chair of the Subcommittee on Standards from 2005 to 2008 and as co-chair of the LCME (2008-2009). In 2011, Dr. Reichgott was appointed as AMA co-chair of an ad hoc task force established to evaluate the organizational structure and scope of responsibility of the LCME. He now serves on the LCME Council. Since 1997, he has participated in 25 LCME survey visits.
Dr. Reichgott is the chair of the Medical Education Committee of the Associated Medical Schools of New York (AMSNY), convener of the AMSNY-led Consortium on Medical Workforce, and chair of the Planning Committee for the implementation of a statewide Institute for Faculty Development. He was appointed to the State Board for Professional Medical Conduct in 2009. In 2011, he was appointed to the State Department of Education Advisory Committee on Long Term Clinical Clerkships
In 2011, Dr. Reichgott was awarded Einstein’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching.
2013 Donna M. Waechter LCME Distinguished Service Awardee | Robert C. Talley, MD
Robert C. Talley, MD
From the fall 2013 award citation:
Dr. Robert Talley was chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at the Sanford School of Medicine at the University of South Dakota from 1975 to 1987 and served as dean and vice president for health affairs there from 1987 to 2004. As dean, Dr. Talley introduced the now prevalent longitudinal model for clinical education. From 2004 to 2009, he served as director of the internal medicine residency program of the Sanford School of Medicine, where he is currently professor of internal medicine and an associate program director of the internal medicine residency program.
Dr. Talley served two terms on the LCME (1999-2006) and continues to serve the LCME on survey teams and ad hoc committees. Dr. Talley served as chair of the American Medical Association Section on Medical Schools and chair of the National Board of Medical Examiners internal medicine committee. He was a member of the administrative board of the Council of Deans of the AAMC (1999-2004). One of the first trained cardiologists in South Dakota, Dr. Talley has received several awards throughout his career, including: the Faculty Recognition Award; the Laureate Award, American College of Physicians, South Dakota Chapter; the South Dakota State Medical Association Distinguished Service Award; the American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine Mastership Award; the Department of Internal Medicine Golden Apple Award; and the South Dakota State Medical Association Special Presidential Award.
Dr. Talley received an MD from the University of Chicago. He completed internships and residency in internal medicine at Yale University School of Medicine and a fellowship in cardiology and clinical pharmacology at Emory University School of Medicine. He served as head, Section of Cardiovascular Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, at the University of Texas Medical School at San Antonio, Texas, from 1971 to 1975.
2012 Donna M. Waechter LCME Distinguished Service Awardee | Peter A. Winograd, JD, LLM
Peter A. Winograd, JD, LLM
From the fall 2012 award citation:
Mr. Peter Winograd is associate dean and emeritus professor of law at the University of New Mexico. He received his JD from Harvard University Law School and his LLM from the New York University School of Law, where he also served as assistant dean and director of admissions. Mr. Winograd held the same position at the Georgetown University Law Center, and he was a division director at the Educational Testing Service before joining the University of New Mexico School of Law faculty. He served as education policy advisor to Governor Bill Richardson and is a member of the Board of Governors of the American Bar Association, where he represents the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. As part of his ABA work, Mr. Winograd has focused extensively on the improvement of legal education and accreditation, having chaired the ABA’s Committee on Transparency in the Accreditation Process, which issued a well-received publication on ways to improve the law school accreditation process. He has also chaired numerous site evaluation teams tasked with reviewing and monitoring the compliance of law schools with the ABA Standards for Approval of Law Schools.
2012 New Horizons Awardee | Valerie M. Parisi, MD, MPH, MBA
Valerie M. Parisi, MD, MPH, MBA
From the 2012 citation:
Dr. Valerie Parisi served as a member of the LCME from 2006 to 2012, and as co-chair from 2010 to 2012. Dr. Parisi is currently vice-chair-elect for the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS). She holds an MD degree from Brown University, an MPH in Maternal and Child Health from the University of California-Berkeley School of Public Health, and an MBA from the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler School of Business. She also served as dean of medicine, chief academic officer, and vice president for academic program administration at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Dr. Parisi is board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology and maternal and fetal medicine.
2012 New Horizons Awardee | Lois M. Nora, MD, JD, MBA
Lois M. Nora, MD, JD, MBA
From the 2012 citation:
Dr. Lois Nora served as a member of the LCME from 2007 to 2012, and as co-chair from 2009 to 2011. Dr. Nora holds an MD degree from Rush Medical College in Chicago, a JD from the University of Chicago, and an MBA from the University of Kentucky Gatton College of Business and Economics. Dr. Nora has also served as president and dean at The Commonwealth Medical College in Scranton, PA, and at the Northeast Ohio Medical University in Rootstown, OH. Dr. Nora is a board–certified neurologist.