Suzanne Stensaas, Ph.D.
Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy (Lecture Track)
Bachelors Degree in Zoology, (Pomona College), Master's Degree in Neurophysiology (UCLA) and a Ph.D. in Anatomy (University of Utah).
Email: suzanne.stensaas@hsc.utah.edu
Office Phone: 801-585-1281
Location: Room 415, Medical Research and Education Building (MREB)
Research
I have been involved in the Neuroanatomy course at the University of Utah since 1969! In 1980 I moved to the Pathology department and directed the Pathology course as well as teaching Neuroanatomy. From 1990-1999 I was on the faculty at (Weil) Cornell University Medical College, New York City where I directed the Education Center and Courseware Development, as well as the Pathology Course. I returned to Utah in 1998 to direct the Neuroscience Block in the then "new" curriculum. In 2008 I turned over the block to David Renner in Neurology and the course to Rich Dorsky in Neurobiology. In 2009 the next medical curriculum reform began and we all now teach in Brain and Behavior, a required integrated block for second year medical students.
In 1986 I left basic science research to focus on teaching. I was interested in finding appropriate ways to integrate new technology into medical education beginning with my own courses, which resulted in a videodisc called "Slice of Life" (history at http://slice.utah.edu/sol/aboutus/ and another videodisc, "Slice of Brain". A Neuroanatomy laboratory for the course along with its lab syllabus “HyperBrain” is on the Web at http://library.med.utah.edu/kw/hyperbrain/index.html. With Paul Larsen at the University of Nebraska and Media Solutions of the Eccles Broadcast Center we developed a site for neurological and anatomical localization: http://library.med.utah.edu/neurologicexam/ and a series of case studies http://library.med.utah.edu/neurologicexam/cases/index.html.
For 20 years I organized the annual Slice of Life Workshop for Medical Multimedia Developers and Educators with past conference presentations on the web at http://slice.utah.edu. Over the years it became an international event. Its main purpose was for faculty and developers to share ideas, progress, problems, evaluation data, and to assist administrators and faculty in seeing other ways of teaching and sharing materials. In 2008 we became part of the International Association of Medical Science Educators. After 40-years I am now enjoying phased retirement (25%), but still enjoy teaching human neuroanatomy to medical, dental and graduate students for the department, tracking new developments in mobile computing, participating in meetings, consulting and looking at ways to contribute to medical education in developing countries.
