Liana Milanés, MD, FAAFP, a UCSF Associate Professor in the UCSF Fresno Department of Family and Community Medicine and a recipient of the Henry J. Kaiser Excellence in Teaching Award, knows the day she realized that teaching medical students and residents was a dream within reach.
Ten years ago, as a chief resident at the UCSF School of Medicine Regional Campus at Fresno (UCSF Fresno), she accepted an invitation to a faculty development seminar and felt camaraderie with the professors. She had been drawn to teaching during medical school and residency and held faculty in the highest esteem, so much so that she had hesitated to consider pursuing academic medicine. After the seminar, she decided to apply to join the Family and Community Medicine faculty.
“I knew I could really work with this group of people,” she said, and teaching then became more than “a dream that I hadn’t even let myself dream.”
Today, as the residency program advisor and mentor, and chief resident leadership coach, she maintains an exuberance for teaching, which she attributes to an intangible quality. “Teaching has always felt like magic to me.” Beyond its mystical element, Milanés finds a scientific side to teaching that fascinates her. “It used to be old thinking that if you could do the work of doctoring, you could teach it. Now, we’re in a philosophically different place. There actually is evidence for teaching, and we should be as evidence-based in our teaching as we are in our clinical practice.”
For her educational skills. Milanés was bestowed the 2025 Henry J. Kaiser Excellence in Teaching Award last spring, and it was announced at the UCSF Fresno Commencement. She will give this year’s Commencement address on June 11.
Since 1969, UCSF has given the Awards to only four UCSF professors annually, who are recognized as exceptional faculty instructors. One of the Awards is bestowed upon a faculty member who teaches at UCSF Fresno.
2025 Recipients
Excellence in Classroom Setting: Lundy Campbell, MD, Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care
Excellence for Inpatient Care Setting: Nancy Choi, MD, Department of Medicine
Excellence in Ambulatory Care Setting: Mimi Lu, MD, Department of Emergency Medicine
Excellence in Teaching at UCSF Fresno Medical Education Program: Liana Milanés, MD, FAAFP, Department of Family and Community Medicine, UCSF Fresno
Excellence for Volunteer Clinical Professor (Posthumous): Brian W. Lin, MD, FACEP. Department of Emergency Medicine
In 2025, Milanés was also inducted into the Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). The Academy, established in 2000, fosters excellence in teaching, supports medical educators, and promotes innovation in curriculum development.
Milanés’ recognitions are well deserved, said Jose M. Barral Sanchez, MD, PhD, Vice Dean at UCSF Fresno. “UCSF Fresno is fortunate to have Dr. Milanés among our faculty. She is an outstanding teacher and role model, and her teaching skills, hard work, dedication, and enthusiasm are so appreciated by her residents, fellows, and students.”
Her approach to teaching can best be described as flexible. Over the years, she has learned to adapt her methods to meet the needs of individual learners. “I think the best teachers teach differently in every scenario,” Milanés said. “That sounds really hard, but the idea is to learn enough about the person you're interacting with, be flexible, and have different skills so you can meet their needs and be the teacher they need.”
Only students and residents can nominate faculty for the Kaiser teaching award, and comments on the nomination form, submitted anonymously, reveal Milanés’ commitment to her learners.
Milanés encountered challenges along her path to becoming a physician. Born in Cuba, she immigrated with her family to the United States when she was nine years old and struggled to learn English. She aims to be a role model of humanism in medicine because, she said, it is a key to a rewarding practice. She encourages mentees to develop problem-solving strategies, be self-reflective, and monitor and maintain their wellness.
Her mentor during residency, Alex Moir, MD, taught her the importance of fostering empathy and compassion, and receiving the Alex Moir Inspirational Leadership Award in 2019 was an honor. The award is presented by the UCSF Fresno Family and Community Medicine department to honor Moir’s legacy. Moir was chief of the department when he died in a skiing accident in 2015.
UCSF Fresno is a special place for teaching and patient care, Milanés said. “There are big academic institutions that work with lots of residents, and then smaller programs that have very dedicated one-on-one faculty, and you get to do a lot of procedures.” UCSF Fresno is the best of both programs, she said. In addition to precepting and teaching, Milanes has a family practice and is board-certified in Addiction Medicine.
Her trainees recognize her skills in teaching and clinical practice.
Milanés has found support as a medical educator. Soon after her faculty appointment, she took advantage of a year-long faculty development fellowship at UCSF in San Francisco. For three days a month, she attended intensive sessions and workshops on teaching semantics, best practices for giving feedback to trainees, and writing evaluations. “That was invaluable and incredibly formative,” she said.
She has become an enthusiastic proponent of professional development programs, including sessions for residents. “As residents go through their program and become more senior, they’re then expected to teach the juniors and medical students, so they also need teaching skills.”
Teachers need ongoing education themselves, and she co-chairs the UCSF Fresno Educators Essentials, a series of two full-day workshops covering topics such as curriculum development, assessment, feedback, and learner support.
A quarterly faculty dinner is a specific teaching event that has received positive feedback, and that Milanés is particularly proud to help facilitate. “We gather for community and relationship building. In these sessions, I present on topics like educator identity, crucial conversations, managing microaggressions, navigating challenging feedback conversations, and other faculty development topics.”
Her message to faculty: “We should constantly be evaluating how we’re teaching and making sure we are as evidence-based in our teaching as we are in our practice, our clinical practice, and not assume the way I learned it is the way it has to be taught or learned.”
Selfishly, Milanés said teaching makes her a better clinician. “It keeps me fresh and learning new things constantly.” It’s also heartening to think former trainees are practicing now, and “some of my values, some of my philosophy, is out there in the community. It feels more impactful than just me practicing.”
Looking ahead, Milanés sees herself continuing to teach and learn from trainees. “I just hope to stay flexible. To stay visible also. To be present and visible as myself here.”
