Students, fellows, teaching faculty and affiliates, and staff celebrated the start of a new academic year at our annual Fall Welcome Event on August 27, 2024. The 2024 Henry K. Beecher Prizes for Ethics Teaching were awarded and twelve capstone mentors were recognized for 5+ years of service.
Center Director Rebecca Brendel, MD, JD began the event with gratitude for the team that has made the work of the Center for Bioethics possible. She emphasized the importance of "honoring members of the Center for their contribution to our education" and, in particular, thanked the mentors who offer their time and guidance to students as they navigate prospective career paths. With 344 graduates of the Center, this year 97 students were matched with mentors, some of which have been serving in a mentorship capacity for more than five years. After thanking these mentors by name, Dr. Brendel went on to congratulate Wes Boyd, MD, PhD for his new appointment as the Director of Education in the Center for Bioethics. As Director of Education at the Center, Dr. Boyd oversees the Master of Science in Bioethics, the Fellowship in Bioethics, the public educational offerings of the Center, and the Medical Ethics and Professionalism sequence for Harvard medical and dental students.
The event continued with Dr. Boyd's kind introduction of the two winners of the 2024 Henry K. Beecher Prize for Ethics Teaching, in which one honor is awarded for master's student teaching and another for medical student teaching. The 2024 Henry K. Beecher Prize for Master's Student Ethics Teaching was awarded to Roberto Sirvent, JD, PhD for his outstanding work and teaching of the following Master of Science in Bioethics (MBE) courses: Gender and Sexuality in Bioethics, Intersectionality, Theological and Religious Perspectives in Bioethics, and Environmental Ethics. Dr. Boyd went on to describe Dr. Sirvent as "…a dynamic teacher who is widely beloved by students and who is vitally important to the Center's teaching mission." Dr. Sirvent made great efforts to keep a "razor sharp focus" on systemic and systematic injustice and racism, social determinants of health, humanity's intimate relationship with the environment, colonialism, and power and social relations that affect health.
Dr. Boyd shared quotes from his students, including:
In receiving the award, Dr. Sirvent kindly remarked on his experience, saying,
"I'm just grateful that this is such a unique group of students that is excited to explore these ideas and so the award is not really about me, it’s about the students wanting to create a learning environment where all of us can explore together."
The second award, the 2024 Henry K. Beecher Prize for Medical Students Ethics Teaching was awarded to David Kimball Urion, MD, FAAN. Dr. Urion is "a stalwart and beloved teacher" in Essentials I and II and all other Medical Ethics and Professionalism (MEP) sessions, as well as the co-director for Essentials II, a required course in the MD curriculum which all fourth-year students take. Dr. Boyd further described Dr. Urion's extensive work as the co-director for Essentials II, sharing that, in this role, he "…attends endless planning meetings with the other course co-directors, continually updates all the curricular materials, topics, and faculty guides, hosts weekly faculty development meetings, and always advocates to add emerging topics of importance to the students."
Dr. Boyd also shared quotes from medical students, remarking:
• “Dr. Urion is one of the most skilled orators I have ever heard, with a magical ability to string along words into beautiful sentences that bring to life the concepts being discussed. He was able to navigate class discussions on potentially sensitive topics with grace and poise, making sure all classmates felt heard and encouraged to speak. He embodies so many attributes of the physician I want to be: thoughtful, humorous, and focused on doing "right" by our patients.”
• “Dr. Urion was absolutely phenomenal. Tasked with facilitating some heavy discussions, he did so with patience, kindness, empathy, and perfectly timed comic relief. I was blown away by his desire to mold the sessions to what the students wanted. He solicited our feedback after every session and implemented changes ASAP. I learned quite a lot about ethics in this class, but a LOT about being a discussion leader and a teacher as well.”
• “Dr. Urion... is arguably the most articulate and well-spoken professor l've ever encountered in my time as a student. His reasoning through ethical issues was beyond impressive, which helped me to reevaluate certain opinions/misconceptions I'd held before. I wish everyone in my class had gotten to experience his teaching.”
In speaking with Dr. Urion after his acceptance of the award, he shared a quote that encapsulated his gratitude towards the medical students he worked with so closely:
"One of the great Eastern European rabbis once said, 'Much did I learn from study of the texts, much more did I learn from my teachers, but the most I learned was from those I had the privilege to teach.'"
Center leadership also celebrated those who provided 5+ years of mentorship in the Master of Science in Bioethics capstone experience. It is our great pleasure, with gratitude and admiration, to recognize these members of our teaching community: