June 09, 2010

Medical school names Dressen ‘Mentor of the Year’

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Dr. Frederick Dressen of Carbondale is the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine’s “2009-2010 Mentor of the Year” for his work as a volunteer mentor to first-year medical students in Carbondale.

The freshmen class of 2013 nominated 15 physician mentors for the honor, which was awarded in May. The nomination for Dressen said: “He provides an excellent learning environment by allowing me to interact with patients on my own. I have shadowed many physicians before, but none have allowed such freedom and trust. This freedom has improved my confidence and history-taking ability exponentially. Dr. Dressen does not tell. He does not show. He involves his students. He challenges them to be good and then be better, always emphasizing consistency.”


A general surgeon, Dressen is in practice at the Center for Medical Arts in Carbondale. He is board certified in general surgery and board eligible in trauma and critical care surgery. Dressen is a fellow in the American College of Osteopathic Surgeons. He completed his subspecialty training in trauma and critical care, his specialty training in surgery and his medical training all at Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine/Midwestern University in Chicago (1992, 1991, 1987). Dressen earned his master’s and undergraduate degrees from SIU Edwardsville (1980, 1978).

The SIU School of Medicine provides the clinical mentor program for its first-year students in Carbondale. Sixty area physicians served as mentors last school year.

Established in 1970, the School of Medicine this year is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its founding. Based in Carbondale and Springfield, the medical school is specifically oriented to educating new physicians prepared to practice in Illinois communities. Since 1975, 2,336 physicians have earned SIU medical degrees.