Health Professions faculty honored with Distinguished Teacher awards

Lori Sherlock, Ed.D., and Breanna Adkins, Ed.D., MOT, OTR/L, have been recognized with WVU School of Medicine Health Professions Distinguished Teacher awards.

The yearly award honors a senior and junior faculty member for exceptional teaching, highlighting those who excel in innovative teaching methods, course and curriculum design and instructional tools.

“Dr. Sherlock and Dr. Adkins are great examples of what it means to be educators and mentors. They bring expertise, creativity and compassion to their classrooms,” Mary Beth Mandich, Ph.D., PT, vice dean for Health Professions, said.

Sherlock, who received the senior award, joined WVU in 2001 and the Exercise Physiology faculty in 2004. She is currently a professor of Exercise Physiology. She teaches courses in Aquatic Therapy and oversees the WVU Aquatic Therapy Clinic, the professional field placement for senior-level Exercise Physiology students pursuing an emphasis in Aquatic Therapy.

Adkins, who received the junior award, joined WVU in 2021 and is an assistant professor of Occupational Therapy. She is one of the only occupational therapists in West Virginia to be Board Certified in Pediatrics through the American Occupational Therapy Association. Her clinical work includes working with WVU Birth to Three, providing home-based early intervention, and with the WVU Children's Brachial Plexus Clinic. 

The senior-level award recognizes an associate or professor-level faculty member, or a faculty member with five or more years of service at the time of the nomination deadline. The junior level award recognizes a faculty member with less than five years of service and below assistant professor level at the time of the nomination deadline.