College of Medicine IT specialist Austin Wolcott received the 2019 Exemplary Service Award for technology services during Florida State University's recent Employee Recogntion Awards Ceremony. He was the university-wide winner in that category.

  The Exemplary Service Award is decided based on nominations submitted by colleagues. It is based on achievements and resulting impacts to a department, college, division, or the university as a whole.  There are seven award categories with one winner selected for each.

FSU Provost Sally McRorie said: "While Austin has only been with us about a year and a half, he has already been instrumental in making technical pieces come together despite numerous networking obstacles. When the College of Medicine opened a temporary medical clinic at Sabal Palm Elementary School to provide medical care to children that attend or are enrolling at, he discovered that there were a lot of technical challenges. Some of these were network connectivity outside the county servers, medical equipment needing to be connected and tested (while considering all aspects of patient privacy), and numerous smaller issues. He was extremely instrumental in making the technical pieces come together.

"Because of Austin, we are able to care for the most vulnerable population in Leon County.  He was completely focused on customer service and finding solutions, not excuses."

FSU Provost Sally McRorie presents the Exemplary Service Award to Austin Wolcott.

Two clerkship faculty members of the College of Medicine’s Tallahassee Regional Campus were honored March 28 by the Capital Medical Society. Andrew Wong, M.D., received the I.B. Harrison, M.D., Humanitarian Award, and John Katopodis, M.D., received the Outstanding Physician Award.

“[Wong] is one of the people in the group that constantly pushes to improve our practice and meet the community needs,” said Mark Fahey, M.D., his colleague/introducer at the awards dinner. “Andy has always been there to pitch in and help fix things and make things better for patients, colleagues, community, and the up-and-coming future of medicine – our students. As orthopedists we fix things!”

Here is an excerpt from Katopodis’ introduction by Doug Murphy, M.D.: “Being FMA president is essentially a full-time job, yet John was able to perform his duties as president while handling a busy cardiology practice and a new son at the same time! ... John is a physician’s physician.... He is well read and respected throughout Florida. However, don’t ask him an in-depth question on cardiology unless you have an extra 20 minutes!”

Washington Hill, former OB-GYN clerkship director and current Sarasota Regional Campus community board member, recently received the Rutgers University-Camden Lifetime Achievement Award.

Hill was honored alongside his brother, George Hill:  2019 Rutgers University-Camden Chancellor's Awards

The Hills were recognized as part of the university’s 2019 Chancellor’s Awards for Civic Engagement.

Florida State University's recent faculty awards ceremony included honors for two people from the College of Medicine.

Robert J. Tomko Jr. was recognized with the 2018-19 University Graduate Teaching Award and Benjamin Smith received the 2018-19 University Undergraduate Teaching Award.  Both were recognized for their work with the College of Medicine's physician assistant program. In addition to being honored at the Faculty Awards Dinner at the FSU Alumni Center, each will receive a $2,000 honorarium from the university.

The winners were selected by a committee of faculty and students who reviewed nominations, student questionnaires and support materials.

The University Teaching Award recognizes teaching excellence as multi-faceted, involving areas such as providing a positive role model to students, imparting a respect for truth and a love of learning, challenging students' thinking and assumptions, showing respect for all persons, and innovative instructional techniques.

From l-r, Benjamin Smith, FSU President John Thrasher, Robert J. Tomko Jr., and Jim Zedaker, associate dean and director of the School of Physician Assistant Practice.