Dear Members of the HMS and HSDM Community:

Following an intensive national search that considered dozens of remarkable candidates, I am thrilled to announce that Bernard S. Chang will become our next dean for medical education, effective July 31.

Dr. Chang is a noted neurologist, dedicated HMS faculty member and educator, and advisory dean of the Francis Weld Peabody academic society. He succeeds Dean Edward Hundert, who announced last November that after nine years helming the Program in Medical Education, he will transition to a new role as senior philanthropic advisor in the HMS Office of Alumni Affairs and Development while continuing to serve as associate director for the Center for Bioethics and a senior faculty member in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine.

A Harvard College graduate in biochemical sciences, Dr. Chang received his MD from the New York University School of Medicine and an MMSc degree in clinical investigation from HMS. He completed his residency and fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he is now an HMS professor of neurology, vice chair for education in neurology, and chief of the Division of Epilepsy. Over the years, his clinical practice has centered on the care of patients with seizure disorders, and his research has helped uncover the mechanisms by which developmental brain malformations lead to epilepsy and learning difficulties.

Dr. Chang’s career in medical education began as a neuroanatomy lab instructor for second-year HMS students in 2000. He has been recognized by peers and students as a gifted and creative leader and educator who has demonstrated remarkable dedication to advancing the academic mission of the School. As a society advisory dean, he has wholeheartedly promoted the well-being of students, including those from historically underrepresented and marginalized backgrounds.

For 10 years, Dr. Chang directed an HMS course on the human nervous system and behavior, and in the mid-2010s, he helped lead the curricular reform process that resulted in the Pathways curriculum. In recognition of his teaching and advising, Dr. Chang has been honored with the O’Hara Faculty Prize for Excellence in Teaching, the S. Robert Stone Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Faculty Award for Best Preclinical Instructor, and the Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award.

I am confident that Dr. Chang has the experience, spirit, and vision to lead our Program in Medical Education into a new era of distinction. Inquiry, discovery, and scholarship will be at the heart of what we do as we cultivate a new generation of physicians, well equipped to meet the challenges of the next age of medicine and health care.

Please join me in congratulating Dr. Chang on this important new role. I also want to thank our search chair, Dr. Jules Dienstag, the HMS Carl W. Walter Professor of Medicine, and all the search committee members for their diligence and unflagging dedication to the School. Harvard Medical School and I personally owe Dean Hundert a huge debt of gratitude for his leadership and many years of distinguished service.

Sincerely,

George Q. Daley
Dean of the Faculty of Medicine
Harvard University