Surgery faculty member recognized for excellence in medical education

Karen Braswell, supervisor for clinical education at the USA College of Medicine, presents the Best Clinical Educator Award to Linda Ding, M.D., assistant professor of surgery.

Linda Ding, M.D., F.A.C.S., assistant professor of surgery at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine, was recently named Best Clinical Educator by the class of 2020. The award, chosen by the graduating students, caps off a year of honors for Ding.

In addition to being named Best Clinical Educator, Ding was awarded the Red Sash Award and elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society by the graduating medical students. She was also named to the University of South Alabama Chapter of the Arnold P. Gold Humanism in Medicine Honor Society by the class of 2021. Ding is the first faculty member to receive all of these accolades within the same academic year.

“I am extremely grateful to be recognized by the medical students,” said Ding, who is also a general surgeon at USA Health. “As an educator, it’s my job to make the surgical experience accessible and engaging for all students. The best way to do this is to put the essential surgical knowledge in the context of their chosen future specialty, whether that’s surgery or not. To see the excitement and the ‘lightbulb turn on’ in a student’s mind is priceless.”

Ding joined USA Health in 2016. She is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the Association for Surgical Education, and the Eastern Association for the Society of Trauma.