Her crisis of confidence is preserved in ink.

“I wrote ‘I hate anatomy’ in my notebook. I still have it,” Colomb-Lippa recalled with a knowing laugh.

Thousands of Quinnipiac students are grateful she stuck with it. A licensed physician assistant and a full-time senior instructor in the department of biology who has taught both subjects for nearly three decades, Colomb-Lippa will be honored on October 21 with the university’s highest teaching honor — the faculty excellence award.

“It’s just such an honor and I must’ve said 20 times [when I first found out], ‘I can’t believe it,’” she said. “I couldn’t think of anything else to say. I felt blown away by the fact that somebody thought I was doing something well enough to tell somebody else, you know?”

Scott Davies, PhD, an associate professor of biology, was among the nominating voices, citing Colomb-Lippa’s “extraordinary ability to make personal connections with her students” — a skill he characterized as “her teaching super power.”

“These connections create a learning environment that is welcoming and comfortable for students, which in turn enables [Colomb-Lippa] to push her students far more academically,” Davies wrote. “It is truly astonishing to watch her create these connections, and it is no exaggeration to say that she is the best at this that I have ever witnessed in my teaching career.”

Davies also cited Colomb-Lippa’s unique and inclusive teaching methods, particularly when it comes to administering exams, for revolutionizing the learning environment at Quinnipiac. Working closely with the office of student accessibility, she developed video exams as an alternative to the traditional in-person practical exam.

“This is not only a significant technical challenge, but also an immense time commitment that is entirely outside of her normal teaching duties,” Davies wrote. “Many, many students who take the human anatomy labs will benefit from this for years to come.”

One of those students, Kathryn Tocci, praised Colomb-Lippa for bringing human anatomy to life with her unique approach to teaching.

“She taught anatomy as a ‘story’ that built off of itself every single day that you learned about it,” Tocci wrote. “She always puts her whole heart and soul into her students and pushes us to work hard and strive to be the best version of ourselves while also being our biggest fan. She has a heart larger than any other and does her absolute best to get to know your name and everything she can about you. She creates a class full of collaboration,
personal connections and successful learning.”

Reflecting on her own struggles to grasp the material, Colomb-Lippa relied on some universal truths about learning that she could bring to the classroom.

“I don't believe in lists. Our brain is not wired to learn lists,” Colomb-Lippa said. “I believe in stories. This goes to patient care. How do you care for a human? You know their story. You listen to their story. Then you develop a new story which is part of the plan to treat them.”

Colomb-Lippa will be joined by her husband and her two daughters at the awards ceremony, a reminder of how much her duties at home have “melded together” with her career in “a beautiful way.”

“I think I started to feel more solid in my teaching career when I had kids, because parents are teachers,” Colomb-Lippa said. “I just met a new class today and I said it to them, ‘When I look out at you, I realize that you’re somebody’s child and you’re multidimensional, and I appreciate that about you.’ I’ve treated my kids like the great individuals that they are. I do that with my students, too. Things I’ve learned as a parent, I’ve definitely used as a faculty member. And vice versa.”