Jill Jemison, Assistant Dean for Technology and Chief Information Officer. (Photo: Medical Communications)

Jill Jemison, assistant dean for technology/chief information officer for the UVM Larner College of Medicine, received the 2020 Service Award from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Group on Institutional Resources (GIR) during their Annual Membership/Business Meeting webinar on June 10.

The AAMC GIR is dedicated to promoting excellence in the application and integration of information resources in academic medicine. The Service Award was instituted in 2019 by the group "to recognize an individual for significant and long-lasting impact in the field of academic medical center information technology, and to the GIR community."

"The GIR has always been about community," Jemison said when accepting the award. "When I attended the inaugural leadership institute in 2006, I knew profoundly what knowledge I had gained, but had no idea that I had found what was to become my professional home."

Jemison also called on GIR members to "embrace the issue of digital inclusivity and advocate for equal access to technology in our communities and across the missions of academic medicine."

"Jill is a selfless and tireless contributor to the GIR," said Ralph Zottola, Ph.D., assistant vice president for research computing at the University of Alabama, who nominated Jemison for the award. "She is an articulate spokesperson and effective recruiter, helping to grow GIR's membership and facilitating active participation by those members... She also raises awareness and facilitates collaboration with other professional organizations."

Jemison joined the Larner College of Medicine in 2002 to lead the transition to online learning and was named manager of online learning in 2004. Since 2010, she has led the College’s Technology Services team, overseeing infrastructure, programming, education technology, audio-visual services and desktop computing and support. She is also a faculty mentor in the Public Health Projects course for medical students.

Jemison has previously chaired the AAMC GIR Steering Committee and was founding chair of the AAMC GIR Education Technology Working Group. In 2015-2016, she was the first female faculty director of the AAMC GIR Leadership Institute (now AAMC Leading Information Technology in Academic Medicine). She was an invited program member for the 2019 Annual Conference of Educause, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of higher education through the use of information technology.