Professor Gary Velan, Academic Mentor, Medicine

Gary is a Professor and former Head of the Dept of Pathology (2005-2016) as well as Director of Learning and Teaching Development (2011-2018) within the School of Medical Sciences. He was appointed Associate Dean (Education) in Medicine in 2016 and Senior Vice Dean (Education) in 2018. Gary’s innovations in education include the introduction of online formative assessments to UNSW, as well as the development of virtual microscopy adaptive tutorials (VMATs). Those resources have resulted in improved learning outcomes for students in Medicine and Medical Science at UNSW and beyond.

He is internationally recognised for research in medical education, focusing on eLearning as well as assessment and feedback, and has been a key contributor to educational research projects funded for more than $4.5 million. In 2015, Gary received a UNSW Learning and Teaching Fellowship to develop and implement standards based assessment in the biomedical sciences. In the same year, his contribution to scholarship in medical education was acknowledged by the award of a Fellowship of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Health Professional Educators (ANZAHPE). He currently leads a UNSW SEIF1 grant awarded to the Scientia Education Academy to develop an online education portfolio (showcase) for academic staff.

Gary’s achievements in education have been recognised within UNSW by two Vice Chancellor's Awards for Teaching Excellence (2003 and 2009) and a Vice Chancellor's Award for Programs that Enhance Learning (2016), at a state level by a NSW Minister of Education's Quality Teaching Award (2003), and at a national level by a Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (2007) and a Teaching Excellence Award (2010) from the Federal Government’s Office for Learning and Teaching."

Gary is a Scientia Academy Fellow and an Education Focused academic providing leadership and vision in learning and teaching across UNSW and in the higher education sector.

Email [email protected] to enquire if Gary is available to mentor you.

Research Page

Conditions of mentoring facilitation

• one-on-one mentoring
• 1-2 mentees at any stage