New Leadership Changes Within PME

Two new academic society appointees will be in place this fall

Image: iStock

Image: iStock

Changes in Harvard Medical School's Program in Medical Education this fall will bring new leadership to the Walter Bradford Cannon and Oliver Wendell Holmes societies as well as a new chief for the School's Scholars in Medicine program and a new face at the Academy.

Walter Bradford Cannon Society

Current Cannon society master Gordon “Buck” Strewler, HMS professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, will be leaving HMS this summer to take a position at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, where his wife, Anne Fabiny, is associate chief of clinical geriatrics at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.

Dean for Medical Education Edward Hundert led a selection committee that appointed Sara Fazio, HMS associate professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess and associate director of innovation in medical education, as the new Cannon society master.

“One of the appealing things about this position was it allows me to continue mentoring these highly driven, highly successful students,” Fazio said. “My vision is to have this wonderful conglomeration of all the societies, capitalizing on their individual strengths, to really create a home for all of the students.”

The selection committee included faculty members as well as students Omar Bayomy, Kennan Mahan and Jason Mitchell, who are currently members of the Cannon society.

“Dr. Fazio is extremely warm and outgoing and such a strong role model who is so well connected,” Bayomy said.

“From a student’s perspective, the biggest thing I looked at was the student recommendations,” said Mahan. “She had incredible student recommendations. In our interview with her, she was easy to talk to and energetic, which were qualities we were looking for.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes Society

Emily Oken, associate professor of population medicine at HMS, will fill the position Fazio previously held as associate master of the Holmes society.

“I am most excited to work with the students,” Oken said. “This is going to be a time of transition, with plenty of new opportunities, and I want to provide a home for the students.”

In 2011, Oken won the HMS Young Mentor Award, which is given annually to recognize faculty who are still in the early stages of their careers but who are devoting their time to providing mentoring for others.

“She’s someone who has been mentoring students for years,” said Hundert. “She is a professional at being a mentor.”

“We all felt as though she would do well in the associate master position,” said Jason Mitchell, a student in the Cannon society and a member of the selection committee. “She had an exceptional research record as well as the capacity to develop a trend in mentoring students.”

Scholars in Medicine Program

Jeffrey N. Katz, HMS professor of medicine and orthopedic surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, will oversee the HMS Scholars in Medicine program, which was also previously managed by Strewler’s office.

“Jeff emerged as someone everyone really respected, and he came forward saying he was willing to do this and make a contribution to HMS,” said Hundert, who appointed Katz. “He has such a great history of mentoring students.”

“HMS students are incredibly bright, original, motivated and curious,” Katz said. “They are a joy to work with. I hope our program helps make their scholarly project a high point of their HMS careers and an opportunity to dig deep into something they really care about.”

Katz, Oken and Fazio will assume their new roles on Aug. 3, 2015.

The Academy

In other changes, Barbara Cockrill, associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, was named the Harold Amos Academy Associate Professor in July. Cockrill was appointed as associate director of the Academy in July 2014, and she has served as co-director of the second-year MD course, Human Systems, for the past decade. In her role in the Academy, she is responsible for working with the faculty in the Pathways curriculum to develop new pedagogical skills for teaching. In 2011, Cockrill won the Donald O’Hara Faculty prize for Excellence in Teaching.