(Philadelphia, PA) - Gail Morrison, MD, Vice Dean for Education and Director of the Office of Academic Programs at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, is the recipient of the 2006 Daniel C. Tosteson Award for Leadership in Medical Education from the Carl J. Shapiro Institute for Education and Research. The Tosteson Award is presented to an individual whose leadership has brought about significant innovation or improvement in undergraduate and/or graduate medical education.

Over the last 20 years, Morrison has been actively involved in curricular design and implementation at Penn. She developed and implemented Curriculum 2000® and Virtual Curriculum 2000® -- an innovative, integrated and modular four-year curriculum for students of the 21st century. Since the implementation, student performance and recruitment has risen. Additionally, numerous U.S. and international medical schools have sent delegations to Penn to learn about the process as part of their own efforts to implement curriculum reform.

In addition to her work at Penn, Morrison also plays a key national leadership role in medical education. She was one of the five founding members of the Clerkship Directors of Internal Medicine, and was recently appointed Chair of the AAMC Medical Student Performance Evaluation Advisory Committee.

Morrison is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She interned in Internal Medicine at Beth Israel in Boston and completed her residency at Georgetown Hospital. She served as a Staff Associate for the Director of the NHLBI, and then returned to the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine where she completed her Nephrology Fellowship and began her life-long focus on undergraduate medial education.

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PENN Medicine is a $2.9 billion enterprise dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and high-quality patient care. PENN Medicine consists of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System.

Penn's School of Medicine is ranked #2 in the nation for receipt of NIH research funds; and ranked #3 in the nation in U.S.News & World Report's most recent ranking of top research-oriented medical schools. Supporting 1,400 fulltime faculty and 700 students, the School of Medicine is recognized worldwide for its superior education and training of the next generation of physician-scientists and leaders of academic medicine.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System includes three hospitals [Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, which is consistently ranked one of the nation's few "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S.News & World Report; Pennsylvania Hospital, the nation's first hospital; and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center]; a faculty practice plan; a primary-care provider network; two multispecialty satellite facilities; and home care and hospice.