JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas –
Maj. Jordan Gammons, an instructor at the U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence, or MEDCoE, at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, has been selected as one of the top classroom instructors within the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, or TRADOC.
Gammons is one of seven winners of the 2021 TRADOC Instructor of the Year competition. The award recognizes the best instructors at TRADOC schools based on several criteria, including tactical and technical knowledge, communication skills, classroom management and training and education.
The award has seven categories. Gammons was selected as the best instructor in the officer category.
“I feel humbled because I feel like I’m getting an award for something I truly love,” Gammons said. “It’s really neat to invest in the future leaders of MEDCoE and then for someone to tell me I’ve done a great job with that and they want to recognize me, just seems overwhelming and humbling.”
Gammons is an instructor for the Captains Career Course, or CCC, a nine-week training course that provides officers with tactical, technical and leadership knowledge and skills they need to lead company-sized units and serve on battalion and brigade staffs.
Gammons is an Army nurse, specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, the field covering women’s health. She has been an instructor at MEDCoE for two years, bringing her 14 years of service to her students.
As a CCC instructor, Gammons said she gets the opportunity of being able to shape, coach, teach and mentor future MEDCoE leaders.
“To think that I had a small part in making them better people, better officers and better leaders is just tremendous,” Gammons said.
As an instructor, Gammons said her philosophy is to foster a learning environment in which students feel comfortable sharing their ideas and experiences.
“I know I don’t know everything, which at times can be a little bit intimidating, but I think trying to set up an environment where students feel just as comfortable sharing their experiences really have been a benefit to me as an instructor because they end up teaching one another, and they teach me at the same time,” Gammons said.
Lt. Col. Robert Federigan, MEDCoE Captains Career Course chief, said Gammons played a lead role in two projects involving the instruction of students.
First, when the pandemic last year forced instructors to go to virtual learning, Gammons was a part of a team of CCC instructors who came up with a plan within 48 hours that allowed for the whole course curriculum to be taught without disruption.
“We were able to confidently execute and continue training in a virtual platform,” Gammons said. “During this conversion, there was no time lost at all from any instruction.”
Second, Gammons was the lead instructor for a 20-week pilot CCC course this spring. The purpose of the course was to find ways to modernize the course with an improved curriculum to better prepare officers for leadership roles.
“Maj. Gammons came to us with no experience as an instructor,” Federigan said. “It’s been a pleasure watching her grow as an instructor. She is absolutely a humble and selfless officer who is fully deserving of this recognition.”
Col. Shannon Shaw, MEDCoE Department of Leader Training director, said Gammons is an instructor who is respected by both her peers and students.
“She is a competent professional,” Shaw said. “So, I think that earns her the trust of her students. She coaches them through their own self-discovery of learning so they can learn this material for themselves, too. She guides them appropriately, knows when to give more and when to kind of hold back, to really draw out the best in all of her students.”
Shaw added: “(Maj. Gammons) represents the very best of the MEDCoE and Army medicine – a selfless leader and instructor whose character, competence and commitment inspire not only her students but all with whom she serves.”
Gammons said she wants to remain an instructor as long as she can. She wants to go back into nursing to maintain her skills, but she then would like to teach what she has learned to Army nurses.
“I feel I have found my calling,” Gammons said. “I love teaching.”