Biography
Ellen Tobin began her early career as a theatre actor in NYC. Pursuing theatre was a joy and the culmination of a lifelong dream of toiling on the stage as so many other thespians had inspired her throughout her early youth. She spent all her time training under important mentors, studying fellow New Yorkers as a form of character development and eventually being cast and workshopping many new dramas on the lower East side or as they say off - off Broadway.
After being seen in a one act play, she was hired as a standardized patient for Icahn School of Medicine. This “side gig” for actors turned into an important and fulfilling career in Communication studies. Ellen worked for over 22 years at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital, specializing in helping foreign doctors achieve residency in the United States and continuing to learn and perfect her skills as an educator and facilitator with medical students and residents.
Ellen has been with Clarkson University since its merger with Union-Graduate college. First working in the Bioethics Department as a Consultant for The Bioethics Master’s Program, of Clarkson University and Icahn School of Medicine where she is responsible for coordinating and conducting student consultation simulations in Clinical, Research and Policy Ethics. She is involved with training standardized patients and faculty in best practice of effective communication and constructive feedback. As an adjunct instructor, Ellen wrote and designed a course in Effective Interpersonal Communication skills for Bioethics students that is offered each year as an elective. Ellen was awarded the Quality Matters (QM) Certification Mark for her course. The QM Certification Mark is the internationally recognized symbol of online and blended course design quality.
Ellen is thrilled to join this Fall 2024 the Lewis School of Science to teach a new course on Communication. (HC217)
Ellen also currently works at New York Medical College in the Clinical Skills and Simulation Center (CSSC) since 2013. In her position as Assistant Director of Clinical Education she is responsible for successful implementation of clinical skills training and related remediation strategies for both medical students and standardized patients (SPs) in all forms of human and technical simulation. Ellen takes great joy as a lead educator of students and SPs alike at the CSSC, particularly related to clinical coaching and content design. Ellen’s training techniques enhance the development and expertise for the doctors of tomorrow, including, but not limited to, Clinical Reasoning, Physical exam training, history taking skills, time management, implementation of holistic feedback practice, bias training, case development and effective communication.
Ellen has published in both The Hasting Report and The International Journal of Ethics, and she has presented at many conferences such as Society of Research Administrators International (SRA), International Conference on Clinical Ethics & Consultation (ICCEC) etc.