Alumni Profiles

Still Going Strong

By Matt Corby

It all started with some headless chickens. When Sudesh Ebenezer, Ed.M.’05, was six years old, he lived in Tappen, British Columbia, a rural town with a thriving population of 300. One of his pastimes was watching farmers bring chickens to the chopping block and then let them run around for a few minutes without their heads. “How are they still alive and moving without their brains?” he wondered. Later that year he befriended Rob, a boy who had suffered from a speech-impairing fever at a young age. Again he began to wonder: Why did the fever prevent Rob from speaking? By the time he entered first grade, long before he heard the term neurosurgeon, Ebenezer vowed to learn about the brain. Twelve years of grade school and 15 years of formal training later, his fascination with the encephalon is as zealous as ever.

Today, however, as an adult and pediatric neurosurgeon in Olympia, Wash., Ebenezer knows that fascination is not enough. In order to achieve excellence in neurosurgery, he believes, one must focus not only on patient care and research, but also on how they are actually trained. Thus, he took it upon himself to help fill this gap.

Attending the Harvard Graduate School of Education seemed like an appropriate first step, yet it was an experience that nearly ended before it began. Ebenezer was initially enticed by Professor Robert Kegan’s work in bringing principles of adult learning to the reform of medical education, but after discovering that the Ed School has no master’s program in medical education, he looked into other schools. One day, on a whim, he e-mailed Kegan inquiring about his work. Kegan pointed Ebenezer toward the Special Studies Program, explaining how he could tailor it to his interests in medical education.

“The flexibility of the specialized program made the decision to come to Harvard easy,” Ebenezer says, “and would eventually allow me to take classes at the Ed School, the [John F.] Kennedy School of Government, and the Medical School.”

While at Harvard, he also took advantage of the Field Experience Program, through which he researched how neurosurgeonsin- training learn the nonclinical competencies of medicine, such as interpersonal skills and communication.

These days, Ebenezer often finds himself incorporating the strategies he learned at Harvard into his own work teaching physician assistants, family medicine residents, and ICU nurses how to better care for their patients. Professor David Perkins’ use of powerful imagery in class, for example, highlighted the importance of being immersed as a learner. Now, rather than trying to teach a concept simply by lecturing, Ebenezer provides visual examples through brain models and MRI scans. Professor Susan Moore Johnson’s, M.A.T.’69, Ed.M.’81, discouragement of micromanagement and top-down leadership influenced the way he directs others on the job. He has found that when people are given a level of autonomy appropriate for their training, they are happier and more efficient.

For Ebenezer, happiness is not only a successful operation, but also an exciting journey. A veritable globetrotter, he has traveled in all 50 U.S. states and through nearly 60 countries. He has worked as an exchange student in a medical clinic in Peru, as well as at a military hospital in Ukraine. In the future, he plans to become involved with the Foundation for International Education in Neurological Surgery, a U.S.-based volunteer organization that addresses the critical lack of trained neurosurgeons in the developing world.

Asked why he has committed himself to educating others, Ebenezer says that education and patient care go hand-in-hand. “Dedicated research in better methods of teaching, and time spent in educating physicians and health care workers on how to take care of their patients, ultimately results in a healthier population at large, which is our end goal.”

— Matt Corby is an undergraduate at Harvard College who, after working on this story, also wants to travel through 60 countries.

About the Article

A version of this article originally appeared in the Summer 2008 issue of Ed., the magazine of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Respond to this story with an e-mail to the editor.

photo by Carlos Javier Sanchez