The President’s Award for Diversity and Humanism in Clinical Care

This award honors clinical faculty who exemplify the humanistic spirit of patient-centered medicine, both through clinical excellence and in outstanding compassion in the delivery of care.

See our Past Clinical Excellence Award Winners

The 2024 Winner:

Fiona Strasserking, M.D., FACC, FASE

Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine
Division of Cardiology

The impact that Dr. Fiona Strasserking has had on global health is matched only by the distance she’s traversed in her personal journey from ’90s-era Sierra Leone.

After the country’s civil war interrupted her medical training, she immigrated to the United States, where she decided to join the U.S. Navy to pay back a nation that had provided her refuge. After her service, she turned her eyes back to her passion – medicine – and was accepted to McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. She completed her internal medicine residency at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Barnes-Jewish Hospital and a cardiology fellowship at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where her passion for caring for people across the world was sparked. She was selected as a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Fogarty Global Health Fellow, which led her to travel to Zambia in 2021.

Now an Assistant Professor in UTSW’s Division of Cardiology, Dr. Strasserking is making a meaningful and lasting contribution to heart health here in Dallas and abroad. She coordinates the UT Southwestern Medical Center/University of Zambia International Heart Education Consortium, which helps train Zambian physicians and medical staff how to manage cardiovascular diseases. In a country where the population exceeds 20 million but has fewer than 10 formally trained cardiologists, the value of her work cannot be overstated.

As eager as she is to teach, Dr. Strasserking is just as keen to learn. She is mindful about health care delivery models in more resource-poor regions, which face challenges such as limited electricity and power supplies. She collaborates with her Zambian partners in developing better systems for treating heart failure in their communities.

“Dr. Strasserking is a true champion for diversity and inclusion,” said a colleague who nominated her for The President’s Award. “Her research interests surround disparities in health care, both in the U.S. and in global health. She has performed extensive work in Sierra Leone and Zambia, exploring research related to peripartum cardiomyopathy and treatment of heart failure in women in these countries, and has also forged relationships to build medical collaborations and training programs.”

Dr. Strasserking is equally devoted to her patients in North Texas. At Parkland Memorial Hospital, she reviews studies in the echocardiography lab, works in the Cardiology Clinic, and is a founding faculty member of the hospital’s cardio-obstetrics clinic, where she cares for pregnant women with underlying heart disease – some of the most complex and vulnerable patients.

“With her unique background and experiences, she is able to understand the patients’ lived experiences, challenges, and barriers and advocate for them from a place of compassion and understanding,” her nominator said. “She reminds us that the world is smaller than we know, and we are better for it when we think of the breadth of humanity. Her presence has advanced our focus on a diverse and humanistic workforce in cardiology and has really been transformative.”

Dr. Strasserking is a grant recipient of the UTSW Cardiology Division’s Cardiovascular Diseases Pilot Program to Promote Career Development, Workforce Diversity, and Health Equity, and she was a scholar in Research in Implementation Science for Equity (RISE), part of the NIH Programs for Inclusion and Diversity Among Individuals Engaged in Health-Related Research (PRIDE). She’s won multiple awards, including UTSW’s Outstanding Internal Medicine Undergraduate Medical Education Teaching Award.

In her words: This award is very meaningful to me, as it exemplifies who I strive to be as a physician. We see patients at their most vulnerable. Working alongside excellent physicians, nurses, and ancillary staff to meet their needs is extremely rewarding. Caring for patients at Parkland Health and UTSW and serving them with dignity and respect, regardless of their resources and status in society, is always a great reminder of why I chose this field. I am grateful every time a patient allows me into their life and trusts me with their care. I am grateful to the Division of Cardiology for their unwavering support of my vision and cannot think of a better group of people to be on this journey with.