ASPE Educator of the Year: Grace Gephardt
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 Grace Gephardt as announced (below) by 2004 SP Educator of the year, Carol Pfeiffer. We will highlight the work of Wendy Gammon in an upcoming edition.
Grace came to our profession in 2006 and has made invaluable contributions to the organization in a short period of time.
She has worked as a Standardized Patient Educator, in the PULSE (Pediatric Understanding and Learning through Simulation Education) Center, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, and at the same time provided incredible leadership that has been at the core of ASPE’s pulse for several years.
She has published and presented her work in many arenas and venues.
Her truly outstanding contribution has been to the Conference Committee where she has been a driving force behind the ASPE annual conference since 2008. Besides mentoring, acting as liaison with ASPE ADMIN (during the transition years to KMG) and committee succession planning, she was ever-present when the need arose. The behind the scenes work of organizing a conference is immense and she has gone above and beyond the scope of her committee commitment to ensure a good conference experience for all ASPE Members. Her roles have included the organization of all logistics, finances and venue management, program planning, liaison for online abstract submission, lead in organizing abstract review, plenary selection, organization of online materials and registration , organization of conference functionality during the conference and much more.
Her sense of humor and unflappable presence has made each of us happier to attend.
Thank you, Grace Gephardt, for your truly outstanding service to this organization.
ASPE News 