VCU news

RICHMOND, Va. (Nov. 8, 2004) – Accordions, rubber bands, Slinkies, and a mattress spring are the tools of the trade in Linda Costanzo’s first-year respiratory physiology course as she demonstrates how respiratory diseases like emphysema and pulmonary fibrosis take their toll on lung function.

Her trademark method for making complex concepts understandable is among the reasons Costanzo, a physiology professor in Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Medicine, was one of four medical school faculty members in the United States chosen to receive the 2004 Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society’s Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teaching Award.

The Association of American Medical Colleges gives the award annually to recognize significant contributions to medical education by gifted teachers. The awards were presented during the 115th Annual Meeting of the AAMC in Boston on Nov. 6.

"With mounting clinical and research pressures exerted on the time and thought given to teaching, faculty such as Linda Costanzo continue to grow in importance for the fortunate institutions that have them," says H. H. Newsome Jr., M.D., Dean of VCU’s School of Medicine. "Dr. Costanzo is a master of her craft and a real windfall for our students. The Glaser Award is a fitting tribute to her consummate skills. "

In addition to receiving VCU’s and the VCU School of Medicine’s highest awards for teaching, Costanzo was the inaugural recipient of the Arthur C. Guyton Physiology Teacher of the Year Award from the American Physiological Society in 1993.

Costanzo has been teaching since 1982, and her three best-selling physiology textbooks, written – as she says, to students, for students – have been overwhelmingly adopted all over the country by first- and second-year medical students and translated into seven languages.

Costanzo joined the physiology faculty at VCU in 1980. She served as director of pre-clinical curriculum and currently is course director for M-I physiology and M-II board reviews. She earned a doctoral degree in pharmacology from The State University of New York in 1973 and completed her postdoctoral training in physiology at Cornell University Medical College in 1979.