Lindsay Brown, MD, Selected As Teacher of the Year

Lindsay Brown, MD, Selected As Teacher of the Year

Written by Lisa Lewis, MS

In her two years as a Health Sciences Clinical Assistant Professor in the UCLA Department of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Medicine, Lindsay Brown, MD, has already made quite an impact. She was recently honored as Teacher of the Year, as selected by this year’s resident physicians. The award was announced at both the residency graduation in June 2024 and the fellowship graduation in July.

“Dr. Brown is an outstanding clinician educator who takes care of some of our most fragile patients while providing outstanding teaching for our trainees,” said Judi Turner, MD, PhD, Clinical Professor and Vice Chair for Education.” She’s a role model of caring and professionalism, and her commitment to our department’s educational mission is truly remarkable.”

The selection of Dr. Brown also marked the first time the award has gone to a woman professor since its inception in 1981, Dr. Turner noted. “Because our specialty is a very high-risk specialty, there’s a little bit of—for lack of a better word—machismo associated with being considered a great clinician,” she said. “But you don’t have to be aggressive to be a fantastic clinician, especially a fantastic clinician educator.”

Dr. Brown, who noted that she was only recently a resident and fellow physician herself, said she was “excited and shocked” when she found out she’d been selected. “I was mostly just honored,” she said, “especially as such a junior faculty member.”

Her teaching style and inspiration

In developing her teaching style, Dr. Brown strives to emulate the mentors who inspired her during her own residency. “The teachers and mentors I learned the most from were the ones who prioritized intra-op teaching,” she said. “Residency is hard enough, and they really made you

 feel like your education and your training was their priority.”

She described residency as part of a process in which making mistakes and occasionally struggling with procedures is to be expected. “That’s why residency is four years and not four months,” she pointed out. “And everyone has to learn somewhere – you can’t practice on yourself or teach it [anesthesia] to yourself.” 

Particularly during lengthy hours in the operating room, Dr. Brown makes it a point to bring up various teaching topics, she said—a strategy that she learned from her mentors. Another favorite area of focus: oral board scenarios, drawing on her own recent experience taking her boards.

In the words of resident physicians

In written evaluations, resident physicians described Dr. Brown as “a role model,” and praised her for remaining calm even in “the craziest/tensest situations.” As one trainee wrote, “She is so incredibly nice, hardworking, caring, talented and smart! She is one of my favorite attendings to work with.”

Others praised her bedside manner, noting that she cares about all her patients, ranging from babies to adults, while at the same time prioritizing resident physicians and their education. As another trainee wrote, “She is so thoughtful and understands that we are still learning and does not take the stress out on us.”

Another resident physician praised Dr. Brown for her “exceptional clinical acumen and procedural skills and inspiring bedside manner with the kiddos” as well as prioritizing wellness and providing “an appropriate amount of resident autonomy for their level.” The trainee added, “Give this woman a teaching award!”

Maxime Cannesson, MD, PhD, Chair of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, described Dr. Brown as embodying “all of the values of an excellent teacher, in terms of the extent of her knowledge as well as her ability to transfer her knowledge to resident trainees and medical student fellows, but also to her peers and other faculty.” 

He praised her as “someone who’s extremely approachable who empowers the residents and the trainees,” likening her approach to that of a coach with an athlete. “She works side by side with them,” he said, “and has the ability to get the best out of them in a way that they always feel extremely comfortable and confident.”

As he noted, “A lot of residents aspire to be the physician and the teacher that she is.” 

A newly expanded role

Last month, Dr. Brown was named as the new Pediatric Anesthesiology Fellowship Associate Program Director, overseeing this year’s fellow physicians. In this role, she assists Wendy Ren, MD, Fellowship Director, mentoring the fellows and organizing weekly didactic curricula and various simulation days.

Dr. Brown described her overall approach as being one of “paying it forward”: “I feel like I owe it to the mentors I had in residency and fellowship who invested time and effort in me.”

As Dr. Cannesson summed up, “In a very short time with us, Dr. Brown has been able to really make significant contributions to her division, pediatric anesthesia, to our patients, obviously to our trainees, and to the department at large.”