CHICAGO , Sept. 27, 2007 – The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has honored 10 program directors for their dedication to teaching new physicians.

The award, given annually since 2001, is given to distinguished program directors, nominated by faculty and residents, in recognition of their commitment to teaching and development of innovative and effective residency programs. The award is named after Parker J. Palmer, PhD, a senior adviser at the Fetzer Institute and the author of The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life.

"Parker Palmer reports that we do not teach what we are, but instead teach who we are. It is especially important at this time that the teachers of medicine live the values of medicine," noted David C. Leach, MD, CEO and executive director of the ACGME. "The ACGME is very pleased to be able to identify and honor program directors who "live divided no more," who demonstrate on the outside the deeply held and authentic truths on the inside."

The 2008 Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach award recipients, their specialties, and the institutions sponsoring their programs are:

• Robert Brown, MD, nephrology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center , Boston , Massachusetts


• Steve Galetta, MD, neurology, University of Pennsylvania , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania


• Kalpalatha Guntupalli, MD, pulmonary/critical care, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston , Texas


• Karen Horvath, MD, general surgery, University of Washington , Seattle , Washington
  
• John Jane, MD, neurosurgery, University of Virginia , Charlottesville , Virginia
  
• Richard Lackman, MD, orthopaedic surgery, University of Pennsylvania , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania


• Mukta Panda, MD, transitional year, University of Tennessee College of Medicine, Chattanooga, Tennessee


• Susan Promes, MD, emergency medicine, Duke University , Durham , North Carolina


• Richard Shugerman, MD, pediatrics, University of Washington


• William Sonis, MD, child and adolescent psychiatry, Drexel University College of Medicine, Friends Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The program directors will be honored Feb. 11, 2008 at an awards dinner held during the ACGME's winter Board of Directors meeting in Rosemont , Illinois . Award recipients will also attend an educational retreat next spring at the Fetzer Institute in Kalamazoo , Michigan .

For information on nominating a program director for the Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Award or to view a list of recipients from previous years, visit the ACGME Web site, www.acgme.org , and click on "ACGME Awards."

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The ACGME is a private, non-profit council that accredits 7,800 residency programs in 27 specialties affecting 100,000 residents. Its mission is to improve the quality of health care in the United States by ensuring and improving the quality of graduate medical education for physicians in training.