On Jan. 20, 2026, Duke’s Office of Biomedical Graduate Education (OBGE) recognized Professor of Pathology Laura Hale, MD, PhD, and Assistant Professor of Pathology Chelsea Landon, DVM, PhD, DACLAM, as two of Duke University School of Medicine’s top instructors for their outstanding teaching in Duke Pathology’s Graduate Program in Pathobiology and Translational Biosciences. This is the third year in a row that each has earned this honor.
Hale was recognized for her teaching of the PATHOL 725 “Introduction to Systemic Histology” course. Landon was recognized for her outstanding teaching and oversight in her “Animal Models in Translational Research” course. They each received excellent ratings in the Fall 2025 course evaluation.
Anna Hampton, DVM, director of the Office of Animal Welfare Assurance, chair, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, and G. Allan Johnson, PhD, also received commendations for their outstanding lectures on the regulatory aspects of animal care and use that they gave as part of the Animal Models course directed by Landon.
Ratings were calculated based on median ratings of 4.5 or above on four or more course characteristics, as well as a median rating of 4.5 or above for the overall effectiveness of the course. In addition, the response rate of the courses being recognized was more than 50%.
“Your effort has not gone unnoticed, and it is my pleasure to acknowledge the impact you made on our students,” wrote Kate Zhang, PhD, OBGE program assessment manager. “On behalf of OBGE, I extend my deepest gratitude for your teaching and your commitment to educational excellence.”
For over 25 years, Hale has taught the Introduction to Systemic Histology and General Pathology courses, typically taken by graduate students in pathology and other biomedical departments in the fall and spring of their first year of graduate school. She also typically teaches several classes each year for other graduate courses, including Molecular Aspects of Disease; Animal Models in Translational Research; Laboratory Management for Pathology Assistant Students; and Basic Biology of Cells as a Function of Aging. For the past seven years, she also taught medical students in the first half of the pathology section of the Fundamentals of Patient Care 2 course taken by first year medical students.
Landon currently serves as Assistant Director within the Division of Laboratory Animal Resources (DLAR) and Director of the Animal Models Unit within the Duke Regional Biocontainment Laboratory, with a strong interest in animal model development and collaborative research efforts. She is a member of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute and Duke Cancer Institute. Her current research interests involve various immunization strategies and the use of the maternal rabbit model for a variety of translational applications, including immunization, dietary deficiencies, disease model development, and toxicology-based studies.