Presidential Award for Excellence Recipients

Professor of Medicine

Dr. Mims is a physician-scientist, educator and mentor whose career has been distinguished by sustained leadership in medical education and faculty development. She is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at Baylor College of Medicine, where she has spent decades shaping curricula, training physicians and scientists and advancing academic excellence.

Dr. Mims plays a pivotal role in institutional and national medical education. Since 2009, she has served as chair and co chair of the Baylor College of Medicine / MD Anderson Comprehensive Board Review in Hematology and Medical Oncology, leading development of the benign hematology curriculum and overseeing faculty selection, content review and continuous course improvement. This program educates fellows, advanced practice providers and practicing oncologists nationwide.

Nationally, Dr. Mims is a longstanding leader within the American Society of Hematology (ASH) and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). She has co chaired ASH Trainee Day, chaired the ASH Junior Investigator and K2R Symposia and contributed extensively to national educational programming that supports fellows and junior faculty. She was a co leader of the inaugural ASH Mentorship Summit and currently serves as co chair of the ASH Mentorship Committee, overseeing mentorship programs for fellows and early career faculty in both classical and malignant hematology.

Dr. Mims is deeply committed to undergraduate and graduate medical education. For more than 20 years, she has taught core courses in hematology pathophysiology, leukemia, myeloid neoplasms, iron metabolism and consultative hematology at Baylor. Her teaching spans medical students, residents, fellows, physician assistants, nurse anesthetists and graduate students, and includes leadership in translational science and clinical trials education.

Mentorship is a defining element of Dr. Mims’s career. Since 2004, she has trained hundreds of residents and more than 150 hematology / oncology fellows, many of whom now hold academic and leadership positions. Her excellence as an educator has been recognized with numerous institutional and national teaching awards, reflecting her lasting impact on generations of physicians and academic leaders.

Professor of Molecular & Human Genetics

V. Reid Sutton, M.D., has made transformational contributions to medical education at Baylor College of Medicine and on the national stage through more than two decades of visionary leadership. A tenured professor at Baylor for more than 22 years, Dr. Sutton has shaped graduate, undergraduate and postgraduate education through sustained excellence in teaching, mentorship and institutional service, preparing generations of learners to lead in medicine and biomedical science. 

As long-serving program director for Baylor’s medical genetics residency and fellowship programs, Dr. Sutton has overseen training that represents nearly 8% of all genetics residents and fellows in the U.S. Under his leadership, these programs have maintained continuous accreditation with board pass rates exceeding national averages, and more than 100 former trainees have progressed to influential leadership roles worldwide, including program directors, division chiefs and department chairs. He also has served as a career mentor for medical students and served on multiple graduate student thesis committees and as a clinical mentor to graduate students in genetics.

Dr. Sutton’s national educational leadership is exemplified by his service on the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Board of Directors, including his tenure as Chair of the Committee on Requirements and Chair of the Journal Oversight Committee for the Journal of Graduate Medical Education. Through this work, he has shaped accreditation standards, educational policy and scholarly discourse affecting every accredited residency and fellowship program in the country. During his service as ACGME Medical Genetics Review Committee Chair, he led the development of milestones, in training examinations and accreditation transitions that permanently advanced the structure and rigor of genetics education. 

His influence also extends to physician assessment and certification. As a long-standing member of the USMLE Pathology and Genetics Committee, Dr. Sutton authored hundreds of examination questions used across all three USMLE licensing examination steps, directly impacting the readiness of U.S. and international medical graduates. 

Through his enduring commitment to mentorship, national service and educational innovation, Dr. Sutton exemplifies Baylor’s highest ideals of excellence in education. His work continues to elevate the standards of undergraduate and graduate medical education while serving as a mentor and role model for learners and faculty across the institution and around the world.