For Eva Maddox, Ph.D., artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t a shortcut or a threat. It’s a form of literacy. And, she’s teaching students how to use it with the same care
they bring to the health careers they’re preparing for.
“I tell my students that AI can summarize a complex concept for you,” said Dr. Maddox, clinical assistant professor in the School of Exercise Science — part of Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences Ellmer College of Health Sciences at Old Dominion University. “But, it cannot learn for you.”
As one of the University’s inaugural AI teaching fellows, Dr. Maddox is helping future health professionals build fluency with a technology that’s already reshaping their field.
“AI and neural networks have been a part of health for decades,” she said. “But, AI as we now know it — so generative AI — is a different and more nuanced beast. In the health sciences, new tools are coming out almost daily to assist in everything from mental health support to chart summaries for clinical visits.”
Dr. Maddox’s comfort with emerging tools comes from an uncommon path. “I was the first in my family to attend college,” she said. “I worked in corporate America for one of the top software companies and accounting firms in the world, then joined the Army as a combat medic.”
She said those experiences taught her to question the “this is how it’s always been done” mentality — a perspective she carries into her teaching today. In her courses, that awareness translates into practice. Students explore how tools, like NotebookLM, can turn a dense research paper into a digestible podcast or quiz. They test what’s helpful, what’s missing and where human judgment still matters most.
“The issue isn’t more policy,” Dr. Maddox said. “It’s literacy.”
That conviction led her to create what she calls the “Reliable Science” assignment. Students choose a scientific question that interests them and compare three answers: one from a YouTube source, one from an AI tool and one from a peer-reviewed article. The practice takes AI out of the abstract and lets students see for themselves where AI gets things right and where it starts to drift from the facts.
“They see that there are situations where AI is reliable and useful,” Dr. Maddox said, “and situations where maybe you’re going to get vague, unsupported responses.”
Jack Speights (B.S. ’25), who was a senior when he took Dr. Maddox’s class, but is a graduate student now, said the process helped him see both the promise and the limits of the technology.
“AI can give you an answer faster than reading research, but it leaves out the background details and limitations,” he said. “You still have to do the work to
confirm what’s valid.”
Another student, junior Samantha Cordon, said the experience helped her see the nuance. “AI is helpful for finding information, but you still need to verify it with other sources,” she said. “Having a professor who talks openly about that balance makes a big difference.”
For Dr. Maddox, those shifts in thinking are the real win. “A vast majority of people who should be learning AI tools are still AI-phobic,” she said. “There’s an expectation now that students will be AI-literate and capable of using AI to support their workflows.”
The goal isn’t to turn future clinicians into coders, she said. It’s to make them thoughtful, adaptive professionals in a field that’s evolving by the week. That mindset extends beyond technology. As a veteran and mentor, she sees curiosity as a form of service to her students, to her field and to the future of healthcare.
“Excitement and skepticism should be equally nurtured,” Dr. Maddox said. “That’s the balance. That’s where real learning happens.”