University of Kentucky - Kentuckian Yearbook (Lexington, KY)

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25 Pisacano With a familiar look of concern, Pisacano drills a point home to his students. —Photo by David Coyle Using touches of theatrics, Pisacano keeps his audience captivated in order to teach them what might otherwise be boring material. — Photo by David Coyle The face of a man who enjoys his work. After years of teaching the same material, it always seems fresh and alive to Pisacano. —Photo by David Coyle

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Elixirs of humor are part of this doctor’s Classroom Prescriptions 24 Pisacano m ry main goal, which may | | sound schmaltzy, is to get JL ▼ JLstudents to have a real ap- preciation for the human body . . . for life, said Dr. Nicholas Pisacano. Schmaltzy or not, Pisacano usually succeeded in attaining his goal every semester. As instructor of the Introduction to Biology (BIO 110) course, Pisacano earned the reputation for being un- usually enthusiastic about his subject. Some have questioned his enthu- siasm, but many wondered why Pisa- cano taught at all. It's kind of odd for a doctor to be teaching, said Teresa Howard, a ju- nior journalism major. 'I wondered why he wasn't teaching medical school.' Pisacano held his own in the medi- cal world without having to teach for the Biology Department. Besides being the executive director and sec- retary of the American Board of Family Practice in Lexington, he was also in Who's Who in the World, held a position on the Medical Board of Medical Specialists, had honorary memberships in the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Royal Society of Medicine in England, and was a member of the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Educa- tion. I don't have to teach, obviously, continued on page 26

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Classroom Prescriptions said Pisacano. But I have a compul- sion to teach young people. Part is vanity, it really builds your ego. The other part is that I love it and simply enjoy it. I enjoy the privilege of tea- ching and working with the Biology department. I think that if you can show someone something they've never known before, and make them appre- ciate it, then you've really done something, he said. A lot of teach- ers give students a lot of junk out of books. I teach them concepts. His methods were effective. Most students who took his class said re- gardless of good or bad grades, they learned a lot. Pisacano's main targets of teaching were the heart's functions and misfunctions, aging, mental health, and cancer. I remember so much from that class, said Dana Cooper, a 22-year- old psychology sophomore. He ex- plained about the main causes of heart disease and cancer and I've really tried to live by the preventions he told us about. I try and stay away from all the foods he told us were harmful. Cooper's attitude backed up Pisa- cano's philosophy of teaching preven- tion. Although some students felt he used unneccesary scare tactics in his class, Pisacano felt he was justified in 26 Pisacano Away from his professional life, Dr. Pisacano likes to take time off to spend with his wife and six children. For leisure, he liked to spend time playing the piano or feeding his fascina- tion for literary works in his private study at home. —Photo by David Coyle