Muzzin and Mash share Teacher of the Year honor a second time
It may have seemed like a case of déjà vu for some attending commencement on May 27. At the midpoint of the academic procession, Dr. Kay Mash and Kathy Muzzin strode down the aisle of the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, mace and centennial baton in hand, garbed in full academic regalia. Recipients of the dental and dental hygiene Teacher of the Year awards, respectively, they took their seats front and center as a part of the stage party’s distinguished guests.
Teacher of the Year recipients Dr. Kay Mash, left, and Kathleen Muzzin at 2015 commencement exercises
An identical scene played out six years earlier, when Texas A&M University Baylor College of Dentistry students selected Mash and Muzzin as 2009 teachers of the year, an award given annually by the Baylor College of Dentistry Alumni Association. Between the two of them, Mash and Muzzin have earned this honor five times.
Muzzin, left, and Mash at 2009 commencement exercises
Mash’s role as an associate professor in restorative sciences and director of preclinical operative courses means she interacts with second- and third-year students on a daily basis. It’s something she realized she was called to do in 1981, when she started teaching at the dental school.
Muzzin is a professor in the college’s Caruth School of Dental Hygiene and course director for multiple undergraduate dental hygiene and graduate-level courses. Since joining the dental school faculty in 1986, she models compassion and empathy in her approach to patient care, having supervised dental hygiene students in the Special Care Clinic for 20 years.
