Faculty of Medicine and Surgery (FMS) professor Maria Minerva P. Calimag, M.D., Ph.D., is one of the recipients of the 2021 Metrobank Foundation Outstanding Filipino award. During a virtual press conference held on August 6, 2021, Dr. Calimag received the Outstanding Teacher award for Higher Education in recognition of her excellence as an educator and e-learning expert.
Metrobank Foundation, Inc. (MBFI) annually recognizes exemplars in the academe, military, and police sectors. For this year, ten awardees were chosen: four teachers, three soldiers, and three police officers.
According to the MBFI website, “The awardees’ accomplishments in their respective duties and communities range from creating breakthroughs and innovations that benefit their institutions and the people they serve.”
For this year in particular, the teacher awardees rose above and beyond the challenges of the pandemic in order to deliver quality education to their students through the effective use of technology. Calimag, a Pedagogical Lead and faculty member at the UST Graduate School, is one of UST’s e-learning specialists.
Calimag has been a mentor in the capacity-building of healthcare professionals through digital workflows in research management. In 2014, when webinars were not yet as expected, she conceptualized and co-developed a cloud-based online program for the continuing professional development of health professionals.
“For many years now, telephysicians have given me their trust and confidence, and the opportunity to lead them as president in various organizations,” Calimag said.
According to her, her mission as a leader, educator, and researcher is actually to champion the five Ps, which she enumerated as the medical profession, the Philippine Medical Association, her fellow physicians, patients, and the planet (Earth).
In the same speech, the awardee also shared that she engages in “grassroots advocacies, organizing, mobilizing, and engaging the public to advocate for themselves, teaching in interprofessional settings, both in academic and community settings to healthcare professionals.”
Aside from championing e-learning, Calimag, known as “The Philippines’ Proactive Organizational Health Leader and Pharmacovigilance Advocate,” has also utilized digital media in engaging and influencing legislators, policy-makers, barangay health workers, physicians, nurses, and pharmacists to embrace pharmacovigilance advocacy on the promotion of drug safety and drug anti-counterfeiting initiatives.
Calimag earned her Doctor of Medicine degree from the UST FMS and her Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Management degree, Summa cum Laude, from the UST Graduate School.
All ten awardees for 2021 received the iconic Flame trophy, a cash prize of one million pesos, and a gold MBFI Outstanding Filipinos medallion.
The virtual press conference may be viewed on the Metrobank Foundation Outstanding Filipinos Facebook page. Dr. Calimag’s segment is at the 23:45 mark.
Dr. Calimag joins the ranks of Thomasian educators who were previous recipients of this award, namely, Professor Emerita Dr. Beatrice Q. Guevara (1986), Former Faculty of Medicine and Surgery Dean Dr. Rosario Angeles Tan Alora (1992), former College of Education Dean Dr. Allan B. de Guzman (2011), and Microbiology expert Dr. Thomas Edison E. dela Cruz (2015).
