2024 UCSF Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award Announced
The UCSF Faculty Mentoring Program is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2024 Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award: Monica Ghandi, MD, MPH and Kevin Shannon, MD
Monica Gandhi, MD, MPH
Monica Gandhi MD, MPH is a Professor of Medicine and Associate Chief in the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
She is also the Director of the UCSF Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) and the Medical Director of the HIV Clinic ("Ward 86") at San Francisco General Hospital.
She serves as the Associate Program Director of the ID fellowship at UCSF. Her research focuses on HIV treatment and prevention optimization, as well as mentoring.
In 2012, she developed a Mentoring the Mentors training program to train mentors in HIV research in tools and techniques of effective mentorship which is held annually through the UCSF CFAR and has been disseminated to multiple global programs.
She co-directed the CFAR Mentoring Program before coming the overall CFAR Director and established new mentoring programs for underrepresented minority (URM) investigators in HIV research at UCSF. She has served as the primary mentor on five K-level career development awards and mentoring is her favorite activity at UCSF.
Kevin Shannon, MD
Kevin Shannon, MD is the Auerback Distinguished Professor of Molecular Oncology and an American Cancer Society Research Professor in the Department of Pediatrics.
He was Director of the UCSF Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) from 2006-2012 and led UCSF Physician Scientist Scholar Program from its inception in 2013 until 2024.
He was Interim Chair of the Department of Pediatrics from 2009-10 and 2017-19 and is currently Vice Chair for Laboratory Research.
Dr. Shannon received his MD from Cornell University, obtained residency training in pediatrics at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and completed a fellowship in pediatric hematology/oncology at UCSF where he worked in the laboratory of YW Kan.
He served 10 years as in the US Navy Medical Corps before joining the full-time UCSF faculty in 1992. His laboratory has discovered inherited and somatic mutations that cause human developmental disorders and contribute to leukemia.
His current research focuses on normal and leukemic hematopoiesis with an emphasis on genetic mechanisms underlying leukemia development, aberrant Ras signaling, moue cancer modeling, molecular therapeutics, and drug resistance.
He has mentored for medical students, graduate students, post-doctoral scholars, and junior faculty members throughout his career including 4 UCSF medical students who received the annual Dean’s Research Prize lab and 7 trainees in his lab who received “K” series awards from the National Institutes of Health. Many of these individuals have gone on to successful research careers in academia and industry.
About the Award
The Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award recognizes faculty mentors at UCSF who have demonstrated a commitment to mentoring in the academic health sciences.
Mentoring is a critical component of productivity, career advancement and satisfaction for all faculty members. This award recognizes an outstanding senior faculty mentor at UCSF who has demonstrated a long-term commitment to faculty mentoring, but mentorship of trainees will also be considered.
Some of the characteristics that define an outstanding mentor include:
- A demonstrated commitment to fostering the intellectual, creative, scholarly, and professional growth of their mentees through mentorship and sponsorship.
- Motivating and inspiring the mentee to achieve breakthroughs by challenging their potential.
- Evidence of sustained commitment to a professional mentoring relationship that results in career growth and/or personal development of mentees.
- Positive role modeling as a professional with high ethical standards and a commitment to equity, inclusion, and diversity.
- Mentoring of UCSF based trainees and faculty is required, but mentorship and sponsorship of trainees and faculty at outside institutions will also be considered.
The recipient must have a minimum of 10 years of service at UCSF with a current appointment at 51% time or greater and have made significant contributions to the careers of his or her mentees.
For more information, visit the award website or contact Irene Merry.