Honoring Those Who Inpsire: 2026 Mentoring Award Winners

Since our founding in 1992, mentorship has been a hallmark of the Institute’s culture. In 2019, the Gordon Moore Award for Excellence in Mentoring was established to celebrate the outstanding Institute members who inspire, support, and catalyze the personal and professional development of colleagues.

This year’s call for nominations yielded letters of recommendation for 10 individuals who have made a meaningful impact on the personal or professional growth of one or more colleagues. We’re happy to announce this year’s award recipients:

Both are longstanding members of the Institute: Vickie recently celebrated 36 years of service, while Dr. Klompas is approaching his 20^th year as a faculty member. Vickie’s path began with a role as an administrative assistant, advancing through positions in Human Resources and then Operations. Dr. Klompas joined the department as an Instructor in 2007, balancing a rapid upward academic trajectory with a busy clinical workload. Throughout their careers, they have mentored numerous faculty, staff, and trainees.

Each awardee notes a common theme in their mentoring practice: the element of discovery. 

For Vickie, it’s discovering a mentee’s core strengths – oftentimes before the mentee even does. “A big part of my approach to mentoring is recognizing strengths and potential in others that they may not yet see in themselves—something my own mentors once did for me,” she says. She’s guided by intuition and her initial training as a social worker, driven by an innate drive to connect with and support others. Making these connections comes easy for Vickie, and she says that in hindsight, connecting with three specific women who would turn into mentors (Cheryl Silva, Sharon Boucher, and Kathy Yaeger) ultimately gave her the opportunities and tools that shaped the path she’s on today. Helping others cultivate their strengths is her way of paying that forward.   

For Dr. Klompas, it’s sharing the thrill of scientific discovery, and the learning in the steps before and after. “From developing and refining and analysis together, to the thrill of seeing the findings for the first time, to sharing these insights and ideas with clarity, it’s gratifying to work with colleagues and trainees to mature an idea that’s important to population health", he says. To receive an award named after Gordon Moore, he says, is an honor. “I’ve always admired the broader thinking, incisive analytics, and personal care and concern manifested by Gordon.” He credits Richard Platt, his original mentor at DPM, for exemplifying mentorship for the sake of the mentee rather than the mentor.

Congratulations to this year’s awardees, whose commitment to mentorship helps others discover their potential—and in doing so, advances the Institute as a whole.