SUNY Board of Trustees Appoints Two Downstate Faculty Members to Rank of Distinguished Professor
Jul 26, 2013
Two members of the Downstate faculty have been appointed to the rank of distinguished
professor, the highest faculty rank conferred by the State University of New York.
Audrée A. Bendo, MD, MS, has been appointed Distinguished Service Professor in Anesthesiology.
Binita R. Shah, MD, FAAP, has been appointed Distinguished Teaching Professor in Pediatrics
and Emergency Medicine.
As distinguished faculty in active service within SUNY, Dr. Bendo and Dr. Shah also serve as members of the SUNY Distinguished Academy, established in March 2012. Across the SUNY’s 64-campus system, there are fewer than 500 professors who hold this distinction.
“In bestowing our highest faculty honor, we proudly recognize the extraordinary achievements of these individuals,” said SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher.
“Their contributions to Downstate are significant,” added Downstate President John F. Williams. “I congratulate Dr. Bendo and Dr. Shah on this well-deserved honor.”
About Audrée A. Bendo
A prominent authority in neuroanesthesiology, Dr. Bendo has been a member of Downstate’s faculty since 1985. Her roles in the Department of Anesthesiology include executive vice chair, vice chair for education, and residency program director.
Internally, Dr. Bendo has served on numerous academic and hospital committees. Externally, she has brought recognition to Downstate through service activities in state and national organizations. Dr. Bendo sits on the New York State Education Department’s advisory committee on Long Term Clinical Clerkships and is chair of the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ annual meeting, with responsibility for planning and implementing the largest scientific meeting for anesthesiologists in the world. In a specialty in which patient safety is paramount, Dr. Bendo has a strong reputation for advancing evidence-based quality measures and setting high standards for the residents and students she teaches.
About Dr. Binita R. Shah
Dr. Shah holds faculty appointments in Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine, and is the senior educator in both departments.
Her connection to Downstate goes back 37 years, to her days in training as a Downstate resident. Considered a master clinician and teacher, she played a major role in establishing Downstate’s Emergency Medicine Residency program and its first Pediatric Emergency Medicine fellowship. While clinically based at Kings County, Dr. Shah has a strong impact on clinical care at Downstate: she has trained thousands of medical students, residents, nurses, and physician assistants. Dr. Shah has also won wide acclaim as the co-author of the atlases of Pediatric Clinical Diagnosisand Pediatric Emergency Medicine. She is also a contributor to Saunders’ Manual of Pediatric Practice, one of the most well-known reference books in the field.
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About SUNY Downstate Medical Center
SUNY Downstate Medical Center, founded in 1860, was the first medical school in the United States to bring teaching out of the lecture hall and to the patient’s bedside. A center of innovation and excellence in research and clinical service delivery, SUNY Downstate Medical Center comprises a College of Medicine, College of Nursing, School of Health Professions, a School of Graduate Studies, School of Public Health, University Hospital of Brooklyn, and a multifaceted biotechnology initiative including the Downstate Biotechnology Incubator and BioBAT for early-stage and more mature companies, respectively.
SUNY Downstate ranks twelfth nationally in the number of alumni who are on the faculty of American medical schools. More physicians practicing in New York City have graduated from SUNY Downstate than from any other medical school.