Carolyn E. Kloek, MD, has been selected for the 2017 Women in Ophthalmology (WIO) Educator Award. This award is given to an individual who has consistently provided an exceptionally positive and rewarding training experience to medical students, residents, and fellows.
At Harvard Medical School, Dr. Kloek holds the rank of Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology. Among her leadership roles, she is Program Director of the Harvard Ophthalmology Residency Training Program, one of the top five residency programs nationwide. She is also the Associate Chief for Practice Management for Mass Eye and Ear, Clinical Director of Ophthalmology at Mass. Eye and Ear, Longwood, as well as Chief of the Division of Ophthalmology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She also serves as Director of Continuing Medical Education for the New England Ophthalmological Society.
Passionate about medical education, Dr. Kloek develops innovative tools, technologies, and training methods to raise the standards of ophthalmic education both within the Harvard Department of Ophthalmology and around the world. A major priority for Dr. Kloek has been to improve ophthalmology resident surgical training locally and nationally. In collaboration with others at Mass Eye and Ear, she implemented a surgical curriculum that has improved the quality and increased the quantity of surgical training for residents and improved patient outcomes. This curriculum and the outcomes of its implementation have been presented nationally.
Dr. Kloek also seeks innovative ways to develop trainees’ professional skills. She implemented a resident-as-teacher curriculum and published the results of this curriculum. She also developed a core curriculum and weekly case discussion series for Harvard medical students who participate in an HMS ophthalmology elective. She also designed and implemented an experiential workshop to teach ophthalmology residents how to break bad news to ophthalmology patients and serves as co-Director of the Quality, Humanism, and Professionalism lecture series at Mass Eye and Ear.
In addition to her significant efforts in curriculum development Dr. Kloek has mentored numerous med students and residents in their paths to careers in ophthalmology. A member of the Academy of HMS since 2009, the WIO Educator Award is the most recent of several awards and honors bestowed upon Dr. Kloek. She was named Teacher of the Year in 2008 by Harvard Ophthalmology residents, received the Rabkin Fellowship in Medical Education at HMS, and was nominated for the HMS Charles McCabe Faculty Prize for Excellence in Teaching in 2011. In 2014, she was selected for the Pinnacle Award for Achievement in the Professions by the Boston Chamber of Commerce, and the emerging Leader Award by Women in Ophthalmology.
Dr. Kloek will receive the WIO Educator Award at the WIO meeting held August 10 through 13 in San Diego.