Jason Garbarino, D.N.P., RN-BC, CNL has received the University of Vermont’s Kroepsch-Maurice Excellence in Teaching Award for his innovation, creativity, community-building, and diligent efforts to create memorable and meaningful learning experiences in the classroom.

A clinical associate professor and clinical nurse leader, Garbarino’s primary teaching and research areas of interest involve promoting age-friendly care and fostering student interest in caring for older adults. In a year that presented many unique challenges for faculty, Garbarino shifted the service-learning component of his Gerontology course to an online format, coordinating with students, teaching assistants, and volunteers to enable students to connect with older adults at a time when physical distancing requirements made maintaining a sense of connection perpetually difficult.

Beyond the classroom, Garbarino mentors undergraduate nursing students and RNs in the Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) program at Appletree Bay Primary Care. Garbarino’s work to provide evidence-based, age-friendly exams for older people has earned Level 2: Age Friendly Health System-Committed to Care Excellence designation from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement for the practice.

Garbarino completed his doctoral degree at UVM and maintains a clinical practice in the University of Vermont Medical Center. He serves as chair of the American Nurses Credentialing Center Gerontological Nursing Board Certification Exam Content Expert Panel, and vice-chair of the UVM undergraduate nursing program. He previously received UVM’s Outstanding New Service-Learning Faculty Award for development of the Aging is Very Personal (AIVP) service-learning program.

The Kroepsch-Maurice Excellence in Teaching Awards recognize faculty for excellent undergraduate instruction and memorialize Robert H. and Ruth M. Kroepsch and her parents, Walter C. and Mary L. Maurice. Robert H. Kroepsch served as Registrar and Dean of Administration at UVM from 1946-1956. Ruth graduated from UVM in 1938 and her father, Walter Maurice, graduated from UVM in 1909. All four were teachers. Each year one faculty member in each of the four rank categories (Lecturer/Senior Lecturer/Clinical Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor) receives this honor.