Mentoring Award

"I first met Dr. Dente when I was a 3rd year medical student on my first clinical rotation on the Surgery A service at Grady Memorial Hospital. Shortly after starting the rotation, I mentioned to Dr. Dente that I wished to pursue general surgery residency. He quickly presented an opportunity to do my discovery project with him. Our project evaluated the use of the massive transfusion protocol in severe pelvic fractures. I had never done any formal research prior to this project and Dr. Dente helped me with every aspect of the project from data collection, to eventual abstract submission, presenting on the podium at a national meeting, and a publication. Working with Dr. Dente on this project inspired me to pursue a career in academic surgery, and he continues to push me to engage in various projects both at an institutional and national level to move the field of trauma surgery forward. I model every one of my research endeavors off our initial project together and have just been awarded my first EAST multicenter trial based on the research principles that I learned from Dr. Dente.”

“Dr. Gourley provides exemplary mentorship to students across multiple Emory programs, primarily in neuroscience and pharmacology, and both at the graduate and undergraduate level. To date, Dr. Gourley has mentored 19 doctoral students, including 2 MD/PhD students, and 25 undergraduate students. Currently, over half of the graduate students in the Gourley lab are supported by extramural funding from various sources and graduates from her lab go on to notable and diverse science-related positions. The success of her students would not be possible without Dr. Gourley’s persistent advocacy. In addition to her mentorship of Gourley lab graduate students, Dr. Gourley has served on 79 thesis committees both at national and international institutions, highlighting her engagement with the graduate community at large. Dr. Gourley is also committed to supporting graduate education in the classroom and served course director of the Neuroscience Program’s intensive Cellular and Developmental Neuroscience and continues to serve as a lecturer for neuroscience and pharmacology classes. In the world of research, where most mentors possess intelligence, Dr. Gourley distinguishes herself as a mentor that is also kind. She cares about the success and happiness of each of her mentees. She is an outstanding faculty member committed to fostering mentorship of the highest quality and legitimizing the importance of mentoring graduate students within the larger context of graduate education. These qualities are epitomized in Dr. Gourley’s strong, and remarkable, record of commitment to supervising and training mentees at all levels of research, with a notable passion for excellence in advising and nurturing the careers of her mentees.”