Faculty Spotlight - Roberta Brown, M.D.

In January, Dr. Roberta Brown received the Rowland P. McKinley, Jr. Endowed Chair for Teaching Excellence. This profile, along with 3 other US teachers, was published in the 2016-2017 Philanthropic Impact Report.
Even when Roberta Brown was a practicing family physician, teaching was never far from her mind. “Teaching is so much about listening, and so was taking care of my patient families. Diagnosing a patient is 75 percent listening, and about 25 percent actual examination. When I’m working with the boys, it’s the same way. It’s not just about science. It’s helping the boys gain self-esteem, helping them understand how their actions affect other people and their impact on the world around them. I can only do that by connecting to each boy as an individual—and that happens through listening.”

When Roberta’s own daughter was in middle school, Roberta volunteered at her school during a special science day. Her job was to manage the water measurement experiment, and she had a blast working with the sixth-graders. This was the spark that eventually led her to become a sixth-grade science teacher at University School, and we are so glad it did! She now brings that spark to her job every day. “It’s such a great circle of energy,” she explains. “When I come to school ready and in a good mood, it puts my students in a good mood. They feel my excitement, and in turn, get excited about science.”

Since arriving at US in 2009, Roberta has had a great impact on the middle school science department. Most notably, she expanded the sixth-grade curriculum, added a robust plant unit (her husband is a plant researcher, so her information is cutting-edge!), and launched the popular Young Surgeons course with colleague Kathy Osborne. This extra-curricular invitation-only course takes advantage of the outstanding medical practitioners and facilities in Cleveland to provide boys with an introduction to the medical field through dissection, clinics with guest physicians, and visits to medical facilities.

Roberta was honored to be named the Rowland P. McKinley, Jr. Endowed Chair for Teaching Excellence, which was established in 2002 by Susan and Bill Oberndorf ’71 and Barbara Ruhlman with the Thomas F. Peterson Foundation. Susan, Bill, and Barbara’s goal in establishing the endowment was to honor dedication and commitment to teaching, which has always been the hallmark of a US education. Roberta plans to use the chair funds to supplement her course materials for both her Young Surgeons and regular classes and to give her students more field experiences. She’s particularly looking forward to trying out a monthly magazine produced by Scholastic called Science World, which covers current events in the world of science.

In addition to supplementing course materials, Roberta plans to add to her growing collection of “items that spark imagination–that’s what I’m all about,” she says. Her latest showstopper is a hologram maker, a seemingly simple combination of curved mirrors that creates not-so-simple 3D optical illusions. It’s a fascinating hook Roberta will use to get the boys thinking about observation and to illustrate important concepts: not everything is the way it seems, take your time before drawing conclusions, and different individuals will often have different observations of the same phenomenon or data. “My hope is that the boys will come out of this class having learned critical thinking–not just for science, but for life. They need the ability to analyze the volume of material coming at them in this internet age,” she explains.

Roberta concludes, “I am so lucky to be here. I love working in the middle school. I’ve probably taught about 500 boys so far in my time here at US. If I’ve made a difference in even a small percentage of these boys’ lives, just think about this spectacular opportunity to make an exponential difference in the world."