This interview is one in a series of interviews with the 2026 recipients of the ACGME Awards. These awardees join an outstanding group of previous honorees whose work and contributions to graduate medical education (GME) represent the best in the field. They will be honored at the 2026 ACGME Annual Educational Conference, taking place February 19-21, 2026, in San Diego, California.
2026 Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Awardee Lisa R. Merlin, MD is the Distinguished Teaching Professor and Vice Chair for Education in the Departments of Neurology and Physiology and Pharmacology at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University (HSU). In addition to serving as program director for Downstate's neurology program at One Brooklyn Health, she directs the pre-clinical neuroscience course, the neurology clerkship, the senior advanced neurology electives, and the Clinical Neurosciences Pathway at SUNY Downstate HSU College of Medicine.
ACGME: How did you become involved in medicine, and in academic medicine specifically?
Dr. Merlin: I entered medical school planning to be a primary care physician out in practice. I fell in love with neuroscience and ended up pursuing neurology training, still planning to hang a shingle upon completion. Fortunately, my chair, Roger Q. Cracco, MD (may he rest in peace), noticed my love for teaching and introduced me to the world of academic neurology. In 1990 (upon my completion of residency at Downstate), he hired me as a junior attending while I learned the ropes of basic science research in Bob Wong’s lab. I earned a reputation in epilepsy circles thanks to my activities in the lab exploring basic mechanisms of epileptogenesis. It’s been a wonderful journey since then.
While investing in benchwork and clinical activities, I served as neurology program director at SUNY Downstate from 1995-2002. When the ACGME introduced the Parker J. Palmer [Courage to Teach] Award in 2001, I was nominated and was declared a finalist. I could not reapply because by the following year I passed the program director baton to a junior colleague and took over all neuro-relevant coursework for the medical students at Downstate, a role I still hold today: I am course director for “Brain, Mind and Behavior,” neurology clerkship director, advanced electives director, and director and founder of our Clinical Neurosciences Pathway, which provides medical students with additional advanced activities in the neurosciences.
ACGME: What does this award mean to you?
Merlin: In 2021, I established a new advanced neurology residency program under the Downstate neurology umbrella, located at One Brooklyn Health (OBH)-Brookdale Hospital, one of our affiliates. Our first cohort of residents started in 2022 and graduated in 2025, and as soon as we transitioned from Initial Accreditation to full Continued Accreditation, Downstate’s DIO [designated institutional official], Dr. Lisa Dresner, nominated me for this award. This time, as you know, I was delighted to find out that I was selected as an awardee! I suspect I may be the oldest person ever to get this award. This is incredibly meaningful and I am deeply appreciative.
ACGME: What do you feel is the most important job the program director has?
Merlin: Being a program director is a lot like being a parent: you are responsible for nurturing, guiding, and supporting your crew until they are finally ready to leave the nest and fly. All my 2025 graduates who sat for the boards passed on their first try; I am SO proud of them! They had a different training experience than most residents, given we were a new program, so they had no senior residents to role model; they learned everything directly from the attendings, from their patients, and from their textbooks.
Of course, a program director also has administrative duties – we need to make sure we are following ACGME guidelines, so we need to review any ACGME updates each year to ensure continued compliance, then we need to provide faculty development, educating all faculty members on the guidelines and what is required of them. And finally, we need to promote a collegial environment where residents, faculty members, APPs [Advanced Practice Providers], and staff members all feel respected and appreciated members of the family, because each of them is truly critical to the success of the program. I have been blessed with the best program coordinator, Dorina Spinel, who is the glue that keeps our family happy. I LOVE MY JOB! I am so fortunate to have this extended family at OBH.
ACGME: What is the most rewarding part of your job?
Merlin: My current undertaking as program director at Downstate Neurology at OBH is the most important thing I have done with my career, which spans 35 years to date. We had an affiliated hospital in an underserved area, and I established a new neurology program there to increase neurological care for the community. It is thrilling to see the expansion of the department and the program and the success of our residents in the fellowship match and the certification exams. I am blessed to have this opportunity; it has been rejuvenating and incredibly rewarding.
Learn more about the ACGME’s Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Award here. Register for #ACGME2026 on our conference website and celebrate this year’s honorees live.