Dr. Pannullo Honored As Educator and Mentor

Dr. Susan Pannullo has recently been honored by both Weill Cornell Medicine and The Washington Center as an outstanding educator and mentor.

In March, Dr. Pannullo was elected Chair of the Board of Trustees of The Washington Center (TWC), on whose board she has served since 2007. TWC, which is based in Washington, DC, is an academic institution that provides internships and academic seminars for undergraduate students around the world, many of whom are from groups underrepresented in education or first-generation college students. Dr. Pannullo becomes the first alumna of TWC to lead the program, and the second woman. 

Dr. Pannullo completed a TWC internship in 1981 as an undergraduate at Cornell; her assignment took her to the National Institutes of Health, where she worked in the laboratory of a Nobel Prize-winning researcher. She credits that internship as a formative experience on her path to becoming a neurosurgeon and neurologist at Weill Cornell Medicine. Dr. Pannullo’s oldest son, Joseph, also completed a TWC internship in 2013, giving Dr. Pannullo a unique perspective on the organization as a participant, parent, and board member.

The four-year term as Chair will run through the end of 2024 and will include the organization’s 50th anniversary. (More about The Washington Center)

Dr. Pannullo was also recently named winner of the 2021 Robert G. Schwager, M.D. '67 Education Scholar Award, a prestigious three-year career development award in medical education. The Schwager Award is named for the renowned surgeon, teacher, and researcher who made significant contributions to medical education before his untimely death in 2007. The honor goes to Weill Cornell Medicine faculty members who have shown extraordinary commitment to medical student education.

The award will help fund Dr. Pannullo’s work engaging medical school alumni in an innovative program to mentor and coach medical students. She will work on this project with Dr. Yoon Kang, senior associate dean for medical education at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Dr. Pannullo founded the Medical Student Neurosurgery Publishing Group at Weill Cornell and advises the Weill Cornell Medicine medical student chapter of the AANS. She mentors students in neurosurgery and neuro-oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York and biomechanical engineering at the Cornell University campus in Ithaca. In his letter announcing the Schwager Award, Dean Augustine Choi commended Dr. Pannullo for her innovations in medical education and training at Weill Cornell as well as her national leadership in medical student education. 

More about Dr. Pannullo

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