College of Health Professions Dean to Receive Distinguished Educator Award
Maura Iversen will be honored next month for 25 years of educating rheumatology students
Maura Iversen, dean of Sacred Heart University’s College of Health Professions, will receive the 2020 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Distinguished Educator Award at the organization’s online Convergence 2020 in early November.
“I’m a clinical epidemiologist and behavioral scientist who is also a physical therapist. In my career I have worked with patients who have lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, osteoarthritis and more,” said Iversen. “I am honored to receive this award which recognizes my work educating more than 5,000 rheumatology fellows, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, physical therapists and occupational therapists nationally and internationally.”
Although Iversen has been educating across a multitude of disciplines, she particularly focuses on rheumatology education, injury prevention and rehabilitation. She has taught rheumatology fellows and physicians research design for 25 years, including at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health program on clinical epidemiology. Currently, she teaches statistics, epidemiology and rheumatology rehabilitation methods for rheumatology health professions across the world.
Iversen’s award recognizes both her work with different professional students and her efforts promoting interprofessional simulation and education. In 2006, she earned her simulation certification from the Harvard/MIT, CIMIT program. With that certification, she established simulation centers at MGH Institute of Health Professions and Northeastern University in Boston. Now, at Sacred Heart, she will be expanding simulation learning across the professions.
“I am humbled to receive this award. I believe we cannot deliver high quality, effective and safe health care without interprofessional education as a foundation of learning,” Iversen said. “Students needs to understand the roles, responsibilities and value added of each professional team member to communicate effectively with each other and their patients.”
The ACR is an international, nonprofit organization based in the United States. According to its website, the ACR has served more than 7,700 physicians, health professionals and scientists worldwide.
Sacred Heart’s Center for Healthcare Education includes six primary care simulation rooms, eight acute care simulation rooms, three debriefing rooms, a home suite and five skills labs. For more information about the state-of-the-art Center for Healthcare Education and its classrooms, labs and facilities, visit the webpage.