Martha Johnson Gdowski, Ph.D.

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY:My teaching experience over the last 3 decades has encompassed several learning formats including didactic lecture, laboratory, journal club, and problem-based learning (PBL). I have taught in different capacities at four academic institutions (The Pennsylvania State University School of Medicine, Northwestern University School of Medicine, Ithaca College, and The University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry). This includes the following types of curricula: Undergraduate and Graduate Neuroscience, Graduate Neuroanatomy, Graduate Human Anatomy and Physiology for Physical Therapists, Undergraduate Medical Human Anatomy / Histology / Embryology, and Undergraduate and Graduate Human Anatomy. These experiences have provided an opportunity to instruct student populations that vary in age, life experience, race, ethnicity and economic background. Collectively, this has revealed how diversity in student populations produces a highly enriched learning environment that benefits everyone, including the instructor. Students are able to apply different elements of their knowledge and background to the group learning experience, yielding a more memorable learning experience in which students feel invested.
Teaching in different formats has reinforced that enabling students to take ownership of their learning experience produces a more interactive classroom and/or laboratory experience, a more dynamic teaching experience, and personalizes learning objectives so the students retain more of the requisite information. Not all students will excel at every subject. In fact, some will struggle to learn material that is outside of the realm of their academic strengths and/or experience. A memorable and impactful educator will effectuate methods that allow each student to take ownership of their learning experience and optimize their potential, which is a necessary step in the creation of a lifelong learner. A positive impact on each student that leads them to embrace independent learning becomes amplified when students use those tools to embark upon professions that benefit others. As a consequence, a positive impact on a single student goes grows logarithmically into palpable benefit to many more people than I could possibly impact in a single classroom.
The other challenge that I now embrace is the identification of voids in curriculum delivery and identification of creative solutions for filling them. Often, this has necessitated collaboration with talented colleagues with skillsets that differ from my own, which has enriched our learning environments. Partnerships with faculty in Pathology and Medical Humanities and Bioethics has improved our delivery of histology and anatomy laboratory instruction in the Human Structure and Function course. Students have reported greater satisfaction with instruction in those realms and a sense of improved faculty support through these collaborative partnerships.

Professional Background

EDUCATION:
1990-1995 Ph.D. in Anatomy, The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA
1986-1990 B.S. cum laude in Biology, Gannon University, Erie, PA

EXPERIENCE:
2016 - present Associate Chair, Medical Education, Department of Neuroscience, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
2013 - Present - Associate Professor, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
2010-2012 Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
2008-2010 Associate Professor, Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
2002-2008 Assistant Professor, Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
2001–2002 Research Assistant Professor, Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
1997-2001 Research Associate, Department of Physiology, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, IL and the Evanston Hospital Department of Neurology, Evanston, IL
1995-1997 Research Fellow, Department of Neurosurgery, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH

Research