Rate My Professor Michelle Lazarus

Associate Professor Michelle Lazarus is a prominent educator and researcher in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Monash University. She serves as Director of the Monash Centre for Human Anatomy Education (CHAE) and Deputy Head of Department (Education) in the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology within the Biomedicine Discovery Institute. Lazarus also holds positions as Deputy Director of the Monash Centre for Scholarship in Health Education (MCSHE), Curriculum Integration Network lead, and anatomy education discipline lead in the medical curriculum. A PhD holder and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), she leads the Lazarus Research Group, which investigates evidence-based anatomy education to improve students' professional identity formation, role development, knowledge competency, and psychosocial skills integration, including uncertainty tolerance, medical ethics, professionalism, and clinical skills. She teaches extensively in undergraduate medical anatomy, developmental biology, and biomedical sciences programs and supervises higher degree by research and honours students.

Lazarus is an acclaimed educator, having received the Australian Award for University Teaching: Teaching Excellence Award (Health) in 2022, Dean's Award for Teaching Excellence in 2020, Monash Education Academy Fellowship in 2016, and Silver Quill in 2023. She authored the book The Uncertainty Effect: How to Survive and Thrive through the Unexpected in 2023, based on her research into uncertainty management in healthcare. Her key publications include 'A meta-analysis of anatomy laboratory pedagogies' (2018, Clinical Anatomy), 'Breaking with tradition: A scoping meta-analysis analyzing the effects of student-centered learning and computer-aided instruction on student performance in anatomy' (2019, Anatomical Sciences Education), and 'Dissecting the role of sessional anatomy teachers: A systematic literature review' (2018, Anatomical Sciences Education). She runs workshops for academics initiating education research, develops innovative curricula such as the AskAnatomist science literacy podcast and medical imaging tutorials, and contributes to committees including the General Surgical Science Examination Board of the Royal Australian College of Surgeons. As Guest Editor for Anatomical Sciences Education, Lazarus advances collaborative, team-based research with local and international partners, securing multiple education grants and influencing global healthcare education through media engagements on AI and uncertainty tolerance.