Sarah E. Garner

TULANE UNIVERSITY

Director of Pathologists' Assistant Program

nEw orleans, LA

www.instagram.com/passion4pathology

Here are the reasons why Sarah Garner is a finalist for the 2020 Ada Lovelace Awards, STEM Educator.

💥 Impact- Became a faculty member at Tulane University at the age of 23 and Tulane University School of Medicine at the age of 24. She created a clinical lab and a Pathologist Assistant PA program at Tulane University, the first allied health professional program offered there, the only PA program offered in the southern United States, and one of only 13 programs in existence.

💡Innovation- Creates innovative ways to make gross anatomy more enjoyable and manageable for her students through technology. She wrote her own anatomy book, and she recently started a 3D printing project in which she collaborates with students to print 3D anatomical structures based on cadaveric dissections.

👑 Leadership- Mentors hundreds of students every year and won the Professor and Excellent Faculty Member at Tulane University.

🌇 Community- Has built an education community through Instagram and Twitter to make anatomy and histology learning more accessible. She has 62.4K followers on Instagram.

Sarah Garner is a board-certified Pathologists’ Assistant (PA) and is the founder and Director of the Pathologists’ Assistant Program at Tulane University School of Medicine, the first allied health program offered at Tulane and the only PA program offered in the southern United States. Sarah is consistently ranked by students as an outstanding professor due to her passion, kindness, teaching innovations, and dedication to her students, recently demonstrated by being awarded “Professor of the Year” at Tulane University School of Medicine.

The limited number of women in the anatomy and medical education field has motivated Sarah to get her PhD in medical and health professions education with a concentration in contemporary human anatomy education. Her clinical specialization in anatomic pathology combined with knowledge of medical education will allow her to transform medical education by increasing the amount of basic science integration through technology and active learning in the classroom, as well advocate for women and pathology professionals in medical education positions. Thus, her current research projects include investigating the role of the flipped classroom in gross anatomy, gender roles in spatial understanding, the integration of gross anatomy and pathology, as well as the role of pathologists’ assistants in medical and health professions education.

With advances in technology and a focus on curriculum integration, Sarah is always trying to find ways to improve her teaching techniques to fit her students’ needs. Recently she collaborated with students to design and print 3D anatomical models. Sarah has also published the first two volumes of her book series, Garner’s Guide to Gross Anatomy. This series is the first of its kind in that it uses technology to defy the boundaries of a classic anatomy textbook by incorporating cadaveric dissection photographs and videos, interactive quizzes, and review videos integrated throughout a textbook and dissection manual. Sarah’s inspiration for this was a student asking if she could have a ‘mini-Sarah’ on her shoulder at all times to help her through lab. Sarah’s answer, as it always is, was “why not?”. The books allow a personalized educational experience by utilizing technology to offer carefully guided, yet self-paced student-directed learning.

Sarah has also utilized her tech-savvy teaching skills to promote the field of pathology by creating continuing education webinars and through her educational social media pages (@passion4pathology). Social media makes her educational content available to over 63,000 followers all over the world rather than being confined to the four walls of a classroom. She has also created a teaching practicum and social media platform for her PA students (@tulanepathassist) to create educational content to be shared with others. For her dedicated efforts to innovation in and advocacy for pathology, Sarah was awarded the “2019 40 Under Forty” award by the American Society for Clinical Pathology.