ASPE Educator of the Year: Wendy Gammon
In recognition of the outstanding talent within ASPE, we annually honor an individual ASPE member through the “Outstanding SP Educator Award”. Nominations are sought each year a few months before the Annual Conference. The award is decided upon by a committee of former recipients selected by the President of ASPE.
To be eligible for the award, the nominee must: be an active member of ASPE; have been involved in SP education/ training for more than seven years; have made a significant contribution to the SP community by providing professional development and /or guidance to newcomers in the field; be recognized as a leader by working with varied levels of faculty within their institution, the SP 
community, and in national or international organizations (e.g., ASPE, AAMC, CAME, NBME, ECFMG etc.)
Two outstanding individuals were recognized as SP Educators of the year, which is a first for our organization. Grace Gephardt and Wendy Gammon both received the award. In this edition of the newsletter, we highlight the work of Wendy Gammon as announced (below) by 2004 ASPE Educator of the year, Carol Pfeiffer.
Wendy Gammon is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at UMMS and the Director of the Standardized Patient Program. With the educational background of English and a M.Ed., Wendy came to SP work in the 1989. Her roots as an SP and trainer in the early 90’s has directed her program for the past 23 years, embracing multiple innovations while maintaining very high standards.
Incredibly prolific in her publications, workshops and trainings, Wendy has not only done a variety of innovative work she has also published it. Her experience is broad and spans from working with disabled people, the elderly, and culturally diverse populations as SPs , to other areas of interest including domestic violence, pathologists communication skills, professionalism and medical error. Many of us have worked in some of these areas. She has done these and more. Her more recent work has been in combining human and mechanical simulation and working on Inter-professional education with multiple institutions.
Her service to ASPE started with the finance committee as the organization was founded, where she took the books from me at a meeting in 2004. She was the ASPE VP for finance from 2004-2006 and remained active in committee work until she was chosen by the ASPE President to chair the Certification Committee. The Certification Committee was a key committee from 2010-12 as the Certification for Simulation Health Care Educator Exam was being developed.
As a member of the test development committee and a member of the certification committee for SSIH she played an important role representing ASPE. Most recently she is serving as Chair of the Standards of Practice Committee.
It is indeed time to honor Wendy Gammon for 25 years of service to our profession, our organization and our practice.
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