Samenow teaches "Addiction and Society," a first-year writing seminar in the College of Arts and Science.

_{by Whitney Weeks}

It’s safe to say that Dr. Charles Samenow is an expert at multitasking. A fourth-year co-chief resident in the Department of Psychiatry at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Samenow also teaches “Addiction and Society,” a first-year writing seminar in the College of Arts and Science, and serves as faculty adviser for an undergraduate residence hall.

“I enjoy teaching,” said Samenow, who, in addition to a medical degree, has a master’s degree in public health with an emphasis on health behavior and health education. “Of course I’m willing to do the work of a resident, but I also want to do something else. I need my brain to turn in a more creative fashion.”

Required of all first-year students in the College of Arts and Science, these seminars are designed to encourage critical inquiry and writing skills as well as foster faculty-student interaction with class sizes of fewer than 20 students.

After exploring several options for teaching at the undergraduate level, Samenow found his best fit was with Arts and Science’s psychology department. With the help of Vanderbilt’s Center for Teaching and the psychology department chair, he took his idea for a course on addiction and society and made certain it met the requirements for a first-year seminar.

Over the course of a semester, Samenow’s students complete dozens of required readings, hear from a number of guest lecturers – including those recovering from addictions, health care professionals and policy makers – and attend addiction support group meetings.

In addition to class lectures, Samenow can regularly be found meeting with students outside of class to discuss upcoming projects or papers. On the first day of class, he makes a point of emphasizing that he expects to be contacted with questions or concerns or even thoughts on the subjects the class is studying. He fills half of a white board with numbers, including cell phone, office phone and pager, and addresses, including e-mail and instant message, all of which he encourages students to use freely.

In addition to his classroom work with undergraduates, Samenow has a slew of medical center obligations. Among his responsibilities as a chief resident is assisting Dr. Catherine Fuchs with daily morning report sessions, a key component in the medical education program at teaching hospitals such as Vanderbilt. Samenow also spends two and a half days each week in a clinical setting.

His interest in the psychology of addiction has led him not only to the classroom, but also to become a researcher for the Vanderbilt Center for Professional Health. Founded in the late 1990s as a resource to address matters of improper behavior and addiction among medical professionals, the center is nationally known for its effort to create and deliver best-practice programs that work.

“Issues aren’t black and white,” Samenow said. “That’s what makes certain topics interesting – teen pregnancy, abstinence education versus condom distribution, needle exchange programs, social drinking versus alcoholism. Especially with addiction issues, the complexity is part of the appeal. The components are so varied – social, genetic, behavioral. There’s so much to it.”

_{Posted 02/27/06}