Professor of Medicine & Assistant Dean for Student Affairs
A Teacher for the Ages
This profile is one in
an ongoing series of
profiles on the dean’s
support staff who
work with Dean
Donald E. Wilson in
executing the mission
of the medical school.
One such exceptional faculty member is Gary D. Plotnick, ’66, professor of medicine and assistant dean for student affairs. In his 37 years at Maryland, Dr. Plotnick has garnered numerous teaching awards, and is considered by many to be one of the finest teachers at the medical school.
“Dr. Plotnick is a wonderful teacher in the Maryland tradition,” says Frank M. Calia, MD, MACP, vice dean of the medical school, himself a winner of numerous teaching awards. “Our medical school has been blessed with several such individuals—like Ted Woodward (’38) and Marshall Rennels—and Gary Plotnick belongs in that pantheon.”
That Dr. Plotnick is such an outstanding teacher is no surprise to those who know him. A third-generation Baltimorean, Dr. Plotnick graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a BA in biological sciences in 1962, and received his medical degree from Maryland in 1966. After two years of residency at University Hospital, he took a one-year tour of Vietnam, courtesy of the U.S. Navy, followed by a year as a general medical officer at the Bethesda Naval Hospital. He returned to Maryland to complete his residency, chief residency at the Baltimore VA Medical Center, and a subsequent cardiology fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
“I knew I wanted to be a doctor as a child due to the way I was taken care of by my own pediatrician,” Dr. Plotnick says. “And I knew that cardiology was the specialty for me during my second year of medical school, when I learned the joy of making the diagnosis at the bedside. And it was when I was chief resident that I was bitten by the teaching bug, and I knew that academic medicine was the path I was meant to take.”
Dr. Plotnick joined the medical faculty at Maryland as assistant professor in 1974 and the following year was named assistant dean for student affairs, under then-associate dean, Murray Kappelman, ’55. Dr. Plotnick says that as assistant dean, “I see myself as someone who can help young people interested in medical education advance their careers. As a career advisor to third year students, I try to help them make the best guess as to where they should match and in what specialty. Match Day is a wonderful day. I get tears in my eyes thinking about how excited the kids will be to open their envelopes. I just feel so happy for them!”
Dr. Plotnick’s first teaching award was the Alpha Omega Alpha Outstanding Faculty Member Award in 1976, a mere two years after joining the faculty. He became associate professor in 1978 and was made full professor in 1989, by which time he already had four teaching awards under his belt. And since then, the number of awards he has received, the number of committees he sits on, and the regional and national organizations he gives his time to have also continued to increase. But his main focus is still teaching and his students.
Five years ago, Dr. Plotnick became co-director of the pathophysiology and therapeutics course, which comprises two-thirds of the second year of medical school. “As a clinician, to be able to go back and relearn basic science is a luxury,” Dr. Plotnick says. “In addition, by sitting in on and listening to hundreds of lectures each year, I am privileged to learn what makes a good lecture—it is both content and presentation. And as a frustrated actor, I love being a showman!”
That Dr. Plotnick loves his job is evident to those who know him. William Henrich, MD, professor and chair of the department of medicine, nominated Dr. Plotnick for the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s 2001 Teacher of the Year award, which Dr. Plotnick won. In his nomination, Dr. Henrich wrote that Dr. Plotnick “has developed into one of the major educators at Maryland . . . and is an outstanding lecturer who combines content and clarity with humor and enthusiasm. He is actively involved in all aspects of medical education and has won numerous teaching awards, including the golden apple award for the past five years.” The golden apple is awarded annually to the faculty member considered by the senior class to be the best teacher.
In addition, he is the top vote-receiver for the sophomore “wall of fame,” a student election for the best teacher of the sophomore year. According to Dr. Henrich, “Many students have changed their schedules to take their junior clerkship or sub-internship during the months that Gary is attending. He has served as career advisor to countless students over the years, and over his career, he has been a valued mentor to more than 100 former cardiology fellows.”
Dr. Plotnick and his wife Leslie Parker Plotnick, MD, ’70, a professor of pediatrics and a pediatric endocrinologist at Hopkins, have mentored two sons into adulthood. The eldest, Michael, a lawyer in Washington, and his wife Sharon have recently made the Drs. Plotnick grandparents for the first time. Son Daniel is in Maryland’s class of ’06; Dan’s wife Rachel is in the class of ’03.
Looking back over a Maryland career still in the making, what is Dr. Plotnick most proud of? “I am most proud of training the kind of physicians that I would want my friends and family to see,” Dr. Plotnick says, “keeping them excited about learning and helping them to become compassionate caregivers. There is nothing more rewarding than to see students get excited about learning and to watch them take their knowledge to the bedside and help patients get better.”