Med Ed Dean Announces Transition to New Role

With several new education initiatives underway, such as restructuring the curriculum of the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Program and remodeling the core clerkship year, Hundert said he is excited to continue building momentum over the coming year, but that it’s the right moment for a new dean to take the helm to ensure continuity of leadership through the rollout and continuous improvement of these important curricular changes.

He said he is looking forward to using his fundraising skills to help strengthen the School and advance its mission.

“I’m almost never in a meeting where we don’t say, ‘If we only had more resources, think how much more we could do,’” Hundert said, explaining that his newest role will involve working closely with alumni and other individuals and organizations who feel strongly about supporting the medical school’s mission to alleviate suffering and promote health and well-being for all.

“If somebody wants to make an impact on human health, what better way than to support research, students, programs, or new facilities at a place like HMS, where you have all of this unbelievable talent?” Hundert said. “With some connection to over a third of HMS alumni — between my years here as a student, faculty member, student affairs dean, and medical education dean — I am excited to help tell our story to those who want their philanthropy to make a real difference.”

Many achievements

Daley’s announcement referenced Hundert’s record of service and his many achievements as dean for medical education, including the successful implementation of the Pathways curriculum, his support for the creation of the unique Advanced Integrated Science Courses and curricular societal themes, and HMS’ most recent successful LCME reaccreditation, along with his work to reduce student debt and create the REACH Scholarship program, for which Hundert has helped raise millions of dollars from alumni and donors.

Daley also cited Hundert’s expansion of the HMS Office of Recruitment and Multicultural Affairs, his promotion of an extensive anti-racism initiative for the MD program, and his supervision of new student mental health and wellness initiatives.

Hundert said he is especially proud of the people he has been able to mentor and tap for positions where their talents will continue to strengthen the PME. One of those people is Dean for Students Fidencio Saldaña, who said Hundert is known for his love of working with students, his unwavering support of faculty, and his collaborative leadership style.

“Ed empowers all of the faculty to work to their top potential. He puts an incredible amount of trust in all those around him, which inspires confidence resulting in extraordinary achievements,” Saldaña said.

“He has made the Program in Medical Education a place of innovative, patient-centered education that promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion. This legacy is a true turning point for the medical school, and I have no doubt it will remain so for many years to come,” Saldaña added.

Hundert formalized a network of educational leaders who meet regularly across the hospitals where students do their clinical learning, and members of the teaching faculty at HMS’ affiliated hospitals cited Hundert as a great partner and especially supportive of their work educating students on the wards.

“Ed has been a strong advocate for focusing on and improving the learning environment for our students in the hospitals. He has been able to bring together the hospital leadership in this effort,” said Barbara Cockrill, HMS associate dean for faculty development in medical education and director of the Academy at Harvard Medical School.

“A few years ago, we had the first ever learning environment symposium, which brought together the presidents of all of the teaching hospitals and launched the effort. And, although there is still work to do, I think it’s made a remarkable difference for our students, the trainees, and the faculty,” she said.

Cockrill added, “No matter how hectic and stressful, Ed always reminds us that the reason we are here is to prepare our students to improve the lives of patients — whether it be through direct patient care, medical research, or public and global health efforts. He always pushed us as faculty to keep that in mind. We aren’t just teaching students to pass an exam, or to be ready for the next phase of school, but rather to become lifelong learners who will make a difference.”

Leading by example

Hundert, who received his medical degree from HMS in 1984, said he is proud to be following in Federman’s footsteps, transitioning to a position where he can help AAD garner support to buttress HMS’ future and generate vital aid for students.

“Dean Hundert is a tremendous partner in attracting the philanthropic resources necessary to make Harvard Medical School financially attainable for every admitted student, and I’m excited that our partnership will continue and expand in the years to come,” said Lisa Boudreau, HMS dean for alumni affairs and development.

Larry Paul, co-founder and managing principal of the private equity firm Laurel Crown Partners and president of the Louis Berkman Company, is an alumnus of Harvard College and HMS, where he earned his medical degree in 1990. As co-chair of the HMS Advisory Council on Education, graduate school director of the Harvard Alumni Association, and vice chair of the HMS Board of Fellows, Paul has worked closely with Hundert.

“Ed has managed to lead through example, approaching his students with a compassion commensurate to that which he shows his patients,” Paul said. “His counsel, relatability, and empathy have allowed him to fulfill his role as dean for medical education in a way that will set a high bar for those who follow him.”

According to Jennifer Potter, HMS professor of medicine and advisory dean and director of the William Bosworth Castle Society, Hundert cares deeply about diversity, and his contributions are evident across the School.

“Attuned to student voices, Ed heard the need for a definitive HMS stance on social justice and promulgated the creation of a new anti-racism initiative. He was a staunch proponent for the integration of longitudinal societal themes across the curriculum — such as aging and disability, health equity, sexual and gender minority health equity, substance use, and trauma-informed care — which center on the health care needs of diverse populations,” Potter said.

She added, “Ed crafted a new selection process for advisors that resulted in a sea change in the representation of diverse faces and perspectives in the academic societies. Moreover, he was instrumental in naming the William Augustus Hinton Society, which brought long-overdue homage to the first African American professor at Harvard University.”

Hundert said he is particularly proud of how the partnership between faculty, staff, and students, through feedback systems like the student education representatives, in which all course directors have student liaisons for real-time continuous improvement, enabled him to guide the PME through the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the most challenging periods in the School’s history, the crisis created unprecedented stresses on faculty, students, staff, and the educational enterprise.

“We had the double whammy of not only switching to Zoom like every educational program, but switching to Zoom for the care of patients in clinical settings that were themselves constantly being disrupted,” Hundert added. “We would make plans every day and have to change the plan the next day because the clinical realities kept changing.”

Fortunately, Hundert said, HMS was well positioned to weather the crisis because of years of educational innovation at the School that preceded it, and because the entire PME worked hard to maintain communications and transparency with students, engendering trust and confidence in the system.

Derek Soled, the former HMS class president who graduated in May 2022 with joint medical and business degrees from Harvard, is now an internal medicine-pediatrics resident at Brigham and Women’s and Boston Children’s hospitals. He recalls Hundert’s nightly Zoom calls during the lockdown months of the pandemic with gratitude, saying he felt that Hundert truly cared about the welfare of individual students, making the time “to offer support in ways that no one else could, to be our rock and leader.”

“To have a senior administrator constantly advocating on students’ behalf to the University and School leaders while still making time to eat lunch with them and speak to them on the phone in the evenings — there’s just no one like that,” Soled said.

“Everyone who passed through the doors of HMS in the last 10-plus years is a better doctor and person because of Dean Hundert: what he did and accomplished, and what he brought out in each of us,” he added.

The School is launching a national search for the next dean for medical education, and has retained the search firm Exceptional Executive Search. Daley thanked Jules Dienstag, the HMS Carl W. Walter Professor of Medicine, for accepting his invitation to chair the search committee. He added that thoughts and nominations can be sent in confidence to hms@eesrecruit.com.