June 23, 2006

Two at SIU Med School Receive 2006 Humanism Award

A faculty member and graduating senior from Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield have received the 2006 Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Awards. Dr. Cynthia G. Thomas , assistant professor of family and community medicine, and Dr. Wendy Dingel , a 2006 graduate, were announced as recipients at the medical school’s graduation in May. Awarded by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, the national honor is given at many U.S. medical schools to a faculty member and graduating senior who demonstrate compassion, respect for patients and families, and clinical excellence.

Thomas' nominators said that as a family practitioner, she is "a teacher and clinician that treats her patients with the utmost respect and dignity and is a good role model. She has inspired numerous students to go into family medicine and also to be committed to the underserved population. She always has time for students and goes to great lengths to help any student who needs her guidance. She is also very culturally sensitive to all students who come through her office. She also is very active in the community, participating in many church based-community initiatives to reach out to Springfield’s neediest citizens."

Thomas joined the SIU faculty in 1998. She completed a one-year faculty development fellowship, focused on the health needs of the underserved, in the family and preventive medicine department at the University of California San Diego (2001). Thomas earned her medical degree at SIU and completed her family practice residency at SIU's Springfield program (1991, 1994). She earned her bachelor's at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1987).

She previously received an award from SIU's Student National Medical Association chapter for her service to the community.

Dingel's nominator said that she "created service opportunities in the communities for students that had not existed before and is a student you hear about from the community because she has been so active and therefore serves as a role model."

Dingel served on various committees and volunteered for several programs – the Student National Medical Association, the National Network of Latin American Medical Students, Cover the Uninsured Committee, the Mini Medical School program, Image and various health fairs held for the public.

She begins an internal medicine residency at Aurora Health Center and Aurora Sinai Medical Center in Milwaukee in July. She is the daughter of Dr. Warren and Aida Biel of Glendale, Wisc. She is a graduate of Greenville High School in Greenfield, Wisc. (1994) and the University of Wisconsin in Madison, when she earned a bachelor's degree in bacteriology (1998).

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