WVU School of Medicine names Ferrari as 2017 Distinguished Alumnus

Norman D. Ferrari III, M.D., has been named as the 2017 West Virginia University School of Medicine Distinguished Alumnus. A WVU professor and physician for 31 years, Dr. Ferrari will be honored by his friends and colleagues at the School’s Alumni Weekend banquet on October 13.

Ferrari was appointed vice dean for education and academic affairs and founding chair of the Department of Medical Education in 2012. He is a professor of medical education, pediatrics and internal medicine. In this role, he is responsible for all physician medical education programs, including the medical degree admissions process, development and implementation of the curriculum, student affairs, graduate medical education, continuing education and program accreditation.

“Physicians such as Norman Ferrari are the backbone of the WVU School of Medicine,” Clay Marsh, M.D., WVU Health Sciences vice president and executive dean, said. “He has worked on both the Morgantown and Charleston campuses, has been named Teacher of the Year twice, and serves as school ‘dad’ to many of our medical students. His institutional knowledge is unparalleled, and he is an inspiration to his students, fellow professors and patients.”

Ferrari received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from WVU’s Eberly College of Arts and Sciences and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in 1978. He graduated from the WVU School of Medicine in 1982, having been elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha National Medical Honor Society. At WVU Medicine’s J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital, he completed a combined residency in internal medicine and pediatrics in 1986 and is currently Board-certified in both.

Since joining the faculty in 1986, he has served as pediatric clerkship coordinator for 13 years and as interim chair for pediatrics from March 1998 until June 1999, and again in December 2002 until January 2006. He served eight years as vice chair of education for the Department of Pediatrics. In the summer of 2001, he was appointed interim dean for medicine and associate vice-president for the Charleston Campus of West Virginia University. He also served nine years as the Designated Institutional Official for Graduate Medical Education programs.

In 2001, Ferrari was a recipient of a WVU Foundation Outstanding Teaching Award. He is the first faculty member to twice be named as the Distinguished Teacher of the Year in the School of Medicine, and he was recognized for his contributions to rural health education in West Virginia with the Judith Kandzari Award in the fall of 2009. The only physician in the state of West Virginia currently serving on the American Board of Pediatrics, in 2003 he was appointed chair of the General Certifying Exam Committee for General Pediatrics by the American Board of Pediatrics and in 2013 assumed the role of chief medical editor. In 2009, he received the Dean's Award for Excellence for Service to the School and was inducted into WVU’s Academy of Excellence in Teaching and Learning. He is also a founding member of the WVU School of Medicine Chapter for the Gold Humanism Honor Society.

In 2003, he was awarded the Bishop's Cross Award by the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston for his longstanding contributions to Catholic education in West Virginia. In 2010, he was granted the Parker Palmer Courage to Lead Award from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and in 2012 was appointed to the national board of directors for the ACGME. He lives in Morgantown with his wife, Nancy, and is the father of two children, Elizabeth and Nicholas.

The Distinguished Alumnus award was established in 1984 by the Executive Council of the WVU School of Medicine Alumni Association, and was revised in 1995 by the Awards Committee. The intention is to honor alumni "whose distinguished careers and unselfish contributions to society have enhanced the prestige of the West Virginia University School of Medicine and in their own special way, have helped to upgrade the quality of health care."

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