A family practice faculty member at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine has received a new teaching honor. The winner of the Excellence through Commitment Outstanding Teaching Award is Dr. James M. Daniels II, professor of family and community medicine, based at SIU's Family Medicine Center in Quincy. He also is director of SIU’s primary care sports medicine fellowship.

According to Dr. Debra Klamen, SIU's associate dean for education and curriculum, Daniels was the unanimous choice for the award. "The selection committee, steering committee members of the School’s Academy for Scholarship in Education was impressed by Dr. Daniels' stellar teaching evaluations, both their scope and their quality, and by his innovations in medical education," she said. Daniels now enters the University-wide competition as the School of Medicine's nominee. The SIUC winner will be named this spring.

Daniels has produced educational materials that have been adopted by other family medicine programs nationwide. He also has received grant support for designing new and innovative curricula and has published several articles in the area of medical education.

Medical school faculty members nominated for the award were judged on a variety of things including their philosophy of teaching, an overview of their teaching assignments for the last three years, other teaching-related activities such as advising and mentoring, and evaluations of their teaching including those from students and faculty colleagues.

The new award recognizes faculty who demonstrate exceptional skill in and commitment to teaching and educational scholarship. It was stimulated by Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s long-range plan, known as Southernat 150: Building Excellence through Commitment. An important goal of the plan is to recognize and reward teaching excellence.

Daniels joined the SlU's faculty in 1995 and is board certified in family medicine, preventive medicine and primary care sports medicine. He completed a family practice residency at SIU's Quincy program (1986) and later a fellowship in occupational medicine at University of California in San Francisco (1992). He also earned a master’s of public health at the Medical College of Wisconsin (1992). He earned his medical degree at SIU (1983) and two bachelor's degrees at Quincy College in Illinois (1980).

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