Educator of the Year Awards

Educator awards exemplifying individuals’ contributions to AO NA teaching, mentoring, and support 

The One AO/LearnX 2023 Program Committee has approved a new featured event to be held at every One AO meeting starting this year: the AO NA Educator of the Year Awards.

In collaboration with each clinical division’s education committee, we have created named educator awards that exemplify individuals’ contributions to teaching, mentoring, and support provided at our educational events. The chosen individuals must have also contributed to the overall advancement of their clinical division and the AO NA education mission.

This year, we are proud to announce the legacy award winners, whom the awards are named after:


AO Trauma NA: Winner of the 2023 Jeff Mast Educator of the year award: Jeff Mast, MD

AO Spine NA: Winner of the 2023 John France Educator of the year award: John France, MD

AO CMF NA: Winner of the 2023 Brian Alpert Educator of the year award: Brian Alpert, MD

AO VET NA: Winner of the 2023 Alan Ruggles Educator of the year award: Alan Ruggles, DVM, DACVS

AO Hand NA: Winner of the 2023 Jesse Jupiter Educator of the year award: Jesse Jupiter, MD


In following years, each division will run a nomination process to identify the winners.

The 2023 Educator of the Year Award ceremony will be held Saturday, April 29 at the Chairpersons Dinner. We are excited to celebrate these incredible individuals with you.