Faculty Teaching Awards

After completing medical school and residency at Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Dr. Fan remained for advanced training in laparoscopy and urogynecology. She is subspecialty boarded in Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery. As the director of the resident gynecologic surgical practice at Columbia University Medical Center, she kindled her passion for surgical and clinical instruction. In this role, she earned medical student and resident teaching awards.

In late 2012, Dr. Fan joined the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at Yale School of Medicine. She has worked towards improving the access to gynecologic care for the underserved through the Women’s Center at the York Street Campus. In June 2013, the Section of Gynecology was created within the OB/GYN department and Dr. Fan was named Director of this group The Section of Gynecology is committed to improving access to care within the Yale Community, and serving as a consult service to the University. An advocate of evidenced-based medicine, she helped form the Gynecologic Practice Guidelines committee. Moreover, Dr. Fan is committed to creating systems for constant self-assessment and improvement within medicine. She serves as co-chair of the Gynecologic Practice Quality Assurance Committee at Yale. She has also spearheaded a novel process for M&M within the OB/GYN department.

Yale gynecologist Dr. Alla V. Vash-Margita focuses her practice on the medical and emotional needs of children and adolescent girls. It’s a subspecialty, she notes, that represents “a grey zone, where pediatricians may not have enough expertise and ‘adult’ gynecologists may be out of their comfort zone.”

Dr. Vash-Margita received her MD from Uzhgorod State University Medical School in Ukraine and went on to complete her Ob/Gyn residency at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. Dr. Vash-Margita speaks seven languages (English, Ukrainian, Slovak, Polish, Russian, Serbian, and Hungarian). Her fluency in multiple languages allows her to be an active contributor to numerous global humanitarian organizations, including the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee and Yale’s Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Education Program, which provided psychological counseling to victims of the 2014 Ukraine Revolution.

This award honors an outstanding academic faculty member for outstanding teaching in women’s health. The 2018 recipient was Dr. Christian Pettker.

A native Californian, he came east for college at Princeton University, followed by medical school and residency at Columbia University in New York. He moved to Yale for his Maternal-Fetal Medicine fellowship and has been on faculty there since. For over a decade he has overseen Yale’s comprehensive obstetric patient safety program, which aims to improve patient care by standardizing treatment methods, creating a high reliability culture, and encouraging communication and collaboration between clinicians and departments. In addition to his role as Associate Professor and Chief of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Services, he is a practicing clinician with a focus on labor and birth and high risk pregnancies. A gap year before medical school to teach high school students at Eton College in England convinced Dr. Pettker that teaching would be a part of his lifetime work in medicine. His teaching activities reach undergraduates, medical students, residents, and fellows and Dr. Pettker also teaches courses on obstetrics and quality/safety across the country.

This award honors one outstanding academic faculty member for his or her dedication to teaching students about women’s health. The 2017 recipient was Dr. France Galerneau. Dr Galerneau was born and raised in Canada where she completed her medical education including a residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology and fellowship in Maternal-Fetal Medicine. After practicing perinatology for 12 years at University of British Columbia in Canada, she joined the MFM team at Yale University.

Dr. Galerneau’s scholarly interests include: undergraduate medical education in the field of reproduction, graduate education in maternal-fetal-medicine, particularly OB/GYN ultrasound, obstetrical and pelvic ultrasound, prenatal diagnosis, fetal assessment and maternal complications of pregnancy. She organizes all medical education aspects for her section, Maternal Fetal Medicine consistently offering thoughtful learning opportunities for students, residents, fellows and visiting scholars. She directs the OB/GYN preclinical education for the YSM medical students as well as the physician associate students. For the last four years, she worked with YSM's Strategic Curriculum Rebuild Committee to create a new curriculum, herself directing our new "Across the Lifespan" Module. The first run-through of the new curriculum met with unprecedented approval from students. She is a favorite lecturer among students and residents. She has published and presented internationally with Dr. Janet Hafler on clinical reasoning. Dr. Galerneau is highly deserving of recognition for her dedication to teaching.

This award honors one outstanding academic faculty member for his or her dedication to teaching students about women’s health. The 2016 recipient was Nancy Stanwood, MD, MPH. Nancy L. Stanwood, MD, MPH joined Yale in 2011 as an Associate Professor and Section Chief of Family Planning. Born and raised in Connecticut, she graduated magna cum laude from Brown University and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She completed her Obstetrics and Gynecology residency at University of Michigan and the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program fellowship at the University of North Carolina, where she also earned her MPH.

Before coming to Yale School of Medicine, Dr. Stanwood was at the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry. During her ten years there, she successfully built and directed the Family Planning service including securing the Kenneth J. Ryan Residency Training Program grant. She is an enthusiastic teacher and among her awards is the prestigious National Faculty Award from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Council on Resident Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Dr. Stanwood’s research interests include the underuse of intrauterine devices and prevention of teen pregnancies. She is a dedicated advocate for her patients and serves on the Board of Physicians for Reproductive Health, a national organization dedicated to sound science in reproductive health policy.

Mrs. Richmond earned her MS from the Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner and Family Nurse Practitioner program at Columbia University in New York. She is Board certified by NCC. After graduation she worked at the New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Medical College of Cornell University as a Nurse Practitioner and Clinical Research Coordinator at the Prostate and Voiding Dysfunction Center in the Department of Urology. Subsequent to Cornell, she commenced working at Yale University’s Urogynecology & Reconstructive Pelvic Surgery department in 2003 as a Nurse Practitioner and Clinical Researcher. She specializes in pelvic floor muscle rehabilitation, electrical stimulation, and behavioral modification therapies for pelvic relaxation and urinary incontinence. Mrs. Richmond also treats patients with various urogynecologic and gynecologic conditions. She is a member of the American Urogynecological Society and National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health.

Outside of practice, Mrs. Richmond has volunteered the past 3 years with the Yale Global Urogynecology Initiative (UGHI). The project focuses on pelvic floor dysfunction and vaginal surgery education and training for Dominican OB/GYN and Urology residents through workshops, patient evaluations and surgeries for underserved, low-income women in the DR.

I have been in New Haven since 1971 (so almost half of the time women have been at Yale Medical School)-and with the education offered to me by Drs. Speroff, Glass and Kase, and Dr. Morris, I had little choice but to go into obgyn and stay right here. And I also had to spend the rest of my life paying back the wonderful education I had here by teaching those coming after me. After finishing my internal medicine internship and obgyn residency, I went into practice with Dr. Tom Hanson, who was my chief resident when I did my sub internship. I enjoyed all aspects of obgyn, so I couldn't do a fellowship. I stopped delivering babies after 25 years in practice, and now take care of women of all ages, but mostly peri and post menopausal ladies. I was very honored to receive the 2018 Leon Speroff Menopause Educator of the Year award from the North American Menopause Society. I am also a benighted Mets fan. This photo was taken for the 100 years of women at Yale Medical School celebration. I am sitting next to the glass vaginal dilators which were given to me by my mentor, Dr. John McLean Morris.

Assistant Professor Erin McMahon earned her bachelor’s degree in Biology & Society from Cornell, and later studied nursing at Fairfield University. She received her MSN from San Diego State University and her EdD in Nursing Education from SCSU. She holds faculty appointments at YSN and YSM and is a member of the American College of Nurse Midwives. She is a member of the board of directors for the American Midwifery Certification Board.

Dr. Ravski is a New York native who attended Brooklyn College and earned his Medical Degree at New York Medical College in 1974. He completed his residency in the Obstetrics and Gynecology department at Brookdale Hospital Medical Center in New York in 1982. Currently Dr. Ravski is the President and Managing Partner at County Ob/Gyn and is also an Associate Clinical Professor at the Yale School of Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

In addition to his work at County, Dr. Ravski is board certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology and a Fellow at the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He is an Attending Physician at Yale-New Haven Hospital and an Associate Clinical Professor at the Yale School of Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Outside of our practice, Dr. Ravski donates much of his free time to the Jewish Community and annually travels with a group of students to Poland and Israel where they learn about their Jewish heritage throughout history. Dr. Ravski is the immediate past president of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven

This award honors a community physician for his or her dedication to teaching students. The 2018 recipient of this award was Dr. Vincent Lynch. Dr. Lynch graduated from Penn and received his MD from New York Medical College. He completed a medical internship at Chicago Wesley Memorial hospital, a division of Northwestern University School of Medicine, and did his residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital. After residency Dr. Lynch spent two years in the U. S. Navy stationed at Balboa Naval Center, San Diego, California. He was Director of the Obstetrical Service and started their first High Risk Obstetrics Service. He then returned to New Haven and entered practice with the Greater New Haven Ob/Gyn Group.

Currently Dr. Lynch is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences. He has received several teaching awards because of his involvement with residents, medical students and nurses. U. S. News and World Report named Dr. Lynch among the top 10% of gynecologists in the country in their Best Doctor’s Edition.

This award honors a community physician for his or her dedication to teaching students. The 2017 recipient of this award was Maria C. Asis, MD, FACOG. Dr. Asis graduated from Tufts University and Tufts University Medical School. She went on to do her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. Upon completion, she joined her father, Dr. Jose Asis who was at that time a solo practitioner. As the practice evolved into the seven-member group practice, Generations, Dr. Asis maintained an interest in reproductive endocrinology and menopause. When her practice moved to the 20 York Street campus, her dedication to students became apparent as she led clinical workshops, and mentored students both in the hospital and the office.

Dr. Asis is a fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She is a member of the North American Menopause Society and she recently became a certified menopause specialist. She is a reviewer for Maturitas, an international journal of midlife health, and is now involved in a clinical research project in osteoporosis screening.

This award honors one outstanding academic community member for his or her dedication to teaching students. The 2016 recipient of this award was Sean M. Flaherty, MD, Ph.D., F.A.C.O.G. Dr. Flaherty graduated from Tufts University and pursued his graduate education at the University of Vermont, where a Ph.D was conferred upon him in 1997 from the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. He simultaneously acquired his M.D in 1999 from the University of Vermont’s School of Medicine.

Dr. Flaherty has been affiliated with Yale School of Medicine Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences, in New Haven, Connecticut since 2002 where he did his residency, and then as a community physician since completing his residency at Yale in 2006.

Dr. Flaherty received a number of awards and honors, such as: Yale School of Medicine excellence in teaching award in 2007; Yale School of Medicine Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology Top Ten Resident Educators and Top Ten Medical School Educators, both in 2006. He received the AAGL Laparoscopic Award in 2003, as well as, the SLS Outstanding Laparoendoscopic Resident Surgeon Award in 2003, among many others.

Dr. Flaherty has Professional Memberships in the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopy, American Institute of Ultrasound Medicine, Connecticut State Medical Society, New Haven Obstetrics and Gynecology Society as Secretary and Treasurer, and now President. He also holds current positions at Yale New Haven Hospital Department of Women and Children, and is on the Clinical Quality Assurance Review Board, along with many other hospital committees. Dr. Flaherty is also diplomat of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

He has publications in the National Academy of Sciences and has spoken at the Minimally Invasive Robotic Association Conference, among many others.