Alex Taylor, Ph.D., assistant professor of anatomy in neuroscience, has been awarded the Helen Lamb Outstanding Didactic Instructor Award. Taylor received this award to recognize his excellent contributions to training nurse anesthetists at a special ceremony during the Barnes-Jewish College Goldfarb School of Nursing commencement in December 2025.
Of the eight awards presented at this ceremony, the Helen Lamb Outstanding Didactic Instructor Award was one of three given to faculty, voted on by the 2025 graduating class. This award is presented annually to a Nurse Anesthesia faculty member who has demonstrated excellence in didactic instruction.
Helen Lamb is considered the mother of Nurse Anesthesia education. In 1929, she established the educational program to train Nurse Anesthetists at Barnes Hospital (now Barnes-Jewish Hospital) where she served as head of the Anesthesiology department. She went on to be the leading force on setting educational standards for Nurse Anesthesia across the country as a founding member and past president of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists.
Author: Serina DeSalvio, freelance writer supporting the Department of Neuroscience.