WASHINGTON – Tamara L. Owens, Ph.D., founding director of the Howard University Simulation & Clinical Skills Center, has received the 2020 Outstanding Educator of the Year award from the Association of Standardized Patient Educators (ASPE).

Health care simulation is a learning tool that recreates a particular health care environment to allow people to experience a realistic health care event. ASPE is the leading organization in health care simulation for academic-based educators. Each year the organization recognizes two members for outstanding achievement and leadership.

“I am elated that my peers within ASPE have bestowed upon me the highest honor in our field,” Owens said. “I am very honored and blessed to receive this award, especially as the simulation health care profession is broadening its scope to meet new demands.”

The ASPE Outstanding Educator award honors educators who have gained distinction from peers in the field and improved the recognition of the importance of patient simulation and technology at their respective universities. Owens is a former president of ASPE and has contributed to the field as an author and researcher.

Owens said the purpose of health care simulation is to teach new skills, refresh old ones and improve the delivery of safe and effective patient care. New technologies are improving patient safety and care every day. She said educators in the field have a particular opportunity in the virtual environment, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, to offer tele-simulations as a way to continue critical clinical education.

The Howard University Simulation & Clinical Skills Center is a state-of-the-art, premier facility that serves 10 of the 13 schools and colleges across campus. The Center offers remote and onsite simulations to address course goals and objectives across disciplines. The Center is home to the Wayne II and Kirie Frederick Task Training/Virtual Reality Suite, named in honor of the children of Howard University president, Dr. Wayne A. I. Frederick

About Howard University

Founded in 1867, Howard University is a private, research university that is comprised of 13 schools and colleges. Students pursue studies in more than 120 areas leading to undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees. The University operates with a commitment to Excellence in Truth and Service and has produced one Schwarzman Scholar, three Marshall Scholars, four Rhodes Scholars, 11 Truman Scholars, 25 Pickering Fellows and more than 165 Fulbright recipients. Howard also produces more on-campus African-American Ph.D. recipients than any other university in the United States. For more information on Howard University, visit www.howard.edu.

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Media contact: Sholnn Freeman, sholnn.freeman@howard.edu