2011 Fall: The Second Flexnerian Report: Implications, Applications and Expectations

Dr. David Irby is Vice Dean for Education, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Office of Medical Education at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. He is a former Senior Scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, where he co-directed a national study on the professional preparation of physicians (Cooke M, Irby DM, O’Brien BC. Educating Physicians: A Call for Reform of Medical School and Residency). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010). For his research on clinical teaching and leadership in medical education, he has received numerous awards including the 2010 Karolinska Institutet Prize for Research in Medical Education. He earned a doctorate in education from the University of Washington, a Masters of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary and a postdoctoral fellowship in academic administration from Harvard Medical School.

Bridget O’Brien, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Office of Medical Education at the University of California, San Francisco where she teaches in the Health Professions Education pathway and the Teaching Scholars Program. She also directs evaluation for the San Francisco VA Center of Excellence for Primary Care Education (EdPACT). Her current research focuses on workplace learning in the context of longitudinal integrated clerkships, continuity clinics, and interprofessional team-based care. She received her BS from Cornell University, her Master’s from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and her PhD from the Graduate School of Education at UC Berkeley. She was one of the three primary researchers for The Carnegie Foundation’s national study of medical education and is a co-author of Educating Physicians: A Call for Reform of Medical School and Residency.

Catherine Lucey, MD, was recently appointed as the vice dean for education in the UCSF School of Medicine, effective September 1. She is succeeding David Irby, PhD, who will take a well-deserved sabbatical and then return to work on specific educational initiatives. Dr. Lucey was formerly the interim dean and vice dean for education at the Ohio State University (OSU) College of Medicine, and associate vice president for health sciences education for the OSU Office of Health Sciences. She provided the administrative leadership for undergraduate medical education, graduate medical education, and continuing medical education, as well as the schools of allied health and biomedical sciences. As interim dean, she unified the educational programs across the continuum of medical education and advanced interprofessional collaboration in education. She is chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine and a member of the Association of American Medical Colleges MR5 committee, charged with overseeing the revision of the Medical College Admission Test process. Lucey’s areas of expertise include professionalism, clinical problem solving and learner remediation. She is a passionate advocate for using education to advance the quality and safety of patient care and to prepare leaders capable of solving current problems in health care and health care delivery.

Dr. Ballejos is the Assistant Dean for Admissions at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and serves as the Diversity Affairs Officer for the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Group on Student Affairs, and as the Co-Chair for the SOM Committee on Admissions. Dr. Ballejos completed her dissertation and research on “The Effect of Various Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Weighting Schemes on the Medical School Admissions Rates of Under Represented Minorities” and participated in the 2008 Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) Graduate Student Research Program sponsored by the Association of American Medical Colleges. She conducted research on the non-cognitive constructs measured for medical school admissions. Her interests include serving diverse populations, research related to educational disparities and workforce training, and issues related to underrepresented minorities.

Dr. Skeff is currently the Vice-Chair for Education in the Department of Internal Medicine at Stanford University, and Co-Principal Investigator of the Stanford Faculty Development Center (SFDC). He received his MD from the University of Colorado and his PhD from the Stanford School of Education. Dr. Skeff’s academic career has focused on methods to assist faculty and residents nationwide to improve their teaching effectiveness, resulting in the development of the Stanford Faculty Development Center. The SFDC uses a train-the-trainer dissemination approach for faculty internationally to become more effective teachers. Dr. Skeff has received several awards for his work including: awards from students and residents at the Stanford University Medical Center, the Stanford University Walter J. Gores Faculty Achievement Award, the first national Award for Career Achievement in Medical Education from the Society of General Internal Medicine, the Joy McCann Mentoring Award, the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine’s Distinguished Medical Educator Award, the AAMC/AOA Distinguished Teacher Award in the Clinical Sciences, and the AAMC Flexner Award. He is a Master in the American College of Physicians and an ACP Regent.