Central Group on Educational Affairs

A Regional Group of the

Association of American Medical Colleges

Medical Education Laureate Awardees

M. Brownell Anderson, M.Ed. 1998 Laureate

M. Brownell Anderson is Associate Vice President of the Association of American Medical Colleges' Division of Medical Education and serves as the Division's deputy director. She has been employed at the AAMC for 14 years where she is responsible for the national curriculum and evaluation programs of the medical student education programs. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) represents all accredited allopathic medical schools in the United States and Canada, teaching hospitals, and representative academic societies. The Division of Medical Education serves as the primary resource to its constituents and others in the medical education community for information about medical school curriculum and evaluation; and about innovations in teaching and learning across the medical education continuum.

She serves as the Executive Secretary for the AAMC's Group on Educational Affairs(GEA) and directs the Medical School Objectives Project. The purpose of the GEA is the advancement of medical education - particularly curriculum, educational research and evaluation in undergraduate, graduate, and continuing medical education.

Ms. Anderson is the editor of the annual Proceedings of the Research in Medical Education Conference and edits an annual collection of reports of medical education innovations, "In Progress", published in the May issue of the journal, Academic Medicine. She serves on the editorial board of the journal, Teaching and Learning in Medicine.

Prior to coming to the AAMC in 1983, Ms. Anderson was coordinator of the second year curriculum and the Internal Medicine clerkship at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. Ms. Anderson attended Washington University in St. Louis and received her B.A. in English and B.S. in Biology and M.Ed. From the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

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Louise Arnold, Ph.D. 1998 Laureate

Louise Arnold, PhD, is Associate Dean for Research in Medical Education and Professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine. Dr. Arnold is a member of the AAMC's Group on Educational Affairs and of its Central Region. Currently she is leader of the section on undergraduate education for the CGEA. Her past CGEA leadership positions include CGEA chair, vice chair, program chair, member at large, and editor of Update for the Central Region. She has also been a member of the national GEA Steering Committee. Active in the Society of Directors of Research in Medical Education, Dr. Arnold has served as the Society's president, secretary, and treasurer.

Dr. Arnold has published extensively in the research in medical education literature and served as Associate Editor of Academic Medicine's "Ideas for Medical Education" in 1993. She is currently a reviewer for Academic Medicine, Teaching and Learning in Medicine, JAMA, Advances in Health Sciences Education, Journal of General Internal Medicine, and the AAMC's annual Research in Medical Education (RIME) Conference.

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Linda H. Distlehorst, Ph.D. 1998 Laureate

Linda H. Distlehorst, PhD, is currently Associate Dean for Education and Curriculum at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Education. She is a former teacher and instructional designer, and served most recently as the Assistant Dean for Curricular Affairs/Springfield and Assistant to the Associate Dean for Educational Affairs during which time she had administrative responsibility for an academic department and four service units. She currently oversees the undergraduate curriculum and is responsible for the longitudinal assessment of the School's graduates as well as the undergraduate education programs. Her research interests are in developing expertise and student and graduate outcomes, particularly as these are affected by admissions, academic progress, and curriculum, as well as the taxonomic organization of problem-based learning programs.

Linda has served as "member-at-large" of the Central Group on Educational Affairs (CGEA) several times over the course of her career and has provided assistance in putting together multiple regional programs. She feels the Central Group on Educational Affairs is one of the most important organizations medical educators can be involved in. It provides both leadership and collegiality, making it simple to get involved while helping to move the medical education process forward.

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Fred Ficklin, Ed.D. 1998 Laureate

Since 1976 Fred L. Ficklin, EdD has served as Assistant Dean for Student and Curricular Affairs and Associate Professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Dr. Ficklin is a member of the AAMC Group on Educational Affairs and has been active in the Central Region since 1978, serving in numerous leadership roles since 1984 including secretary (1984-1986); Editor of UPDATE (1989-1993); member-at-large (1987-1990); vice chair (1993-1994); chair elect (1994-1995); chair (1995-1997); and past chair (1997-1999). As CGEA Chair, Fred served on the national GEA Steering Committee.

Dr. Ficklin has published in Academic Medicine and in Teaching and Learning in Medicine, two journals for which he also serves as reviewer. He has presented at both regional and national AAMC meetings, as well as at the American Association of Educational Research meetings. In addition, Dr. Ficklin was a conference planner and presenter at the AAMC Education Leadership Workshops. He is the PI on NIH grants and Howard Hughes Medical Institute grants with budgets exceeding $500,000.

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Alberto Galofre, M.D., M.Ed. 1998 Laureate

Currently, Dr. Galofre is Emeritus Professor at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, having retired as Associate Dean in 2003. Dr. Galofre is currently in Chile helping start an Office of Medical Education at one of the medical schools there and also to develop a Center for Teaching and Learning at his Alma Mater in Chile.

An active participant in CGEA activities since the early '80s, Dr. Galofre became Vice Chair of the Central GEA (then called Group on Medical Education) in 1986 and assumed as Chair in 1987. He served as GEA's Chair during 1990-1991 and member of GEA's Executive Committee between 1987 and 1992.

Dr. Galofre's Central GEA leadership was characterized by his belief (and energy) that CGEA could become the best regional group in medical education. He is proud to have accomplished this goal through its reorganization, which included the first regional GEA group to have its own bylaws and a process of leadership ascension that prepared future leaders through gradually increases in responsibility. By facilitating numerous regional projects, Dr. Galofre continued to bring visibility to the CGEA as those projects were adopted nationally.

More specifically, during his GEA Executive Committee membership, Dr. Galofre proposed the present name change, individual memberships, and update of GEA bylaws. Also, during his Chair tenure, graduate medical education was initiated as a section of GEA. Working closely with CAS on joint projects, The products of this collaboration include a handbook describing CAS activities of interest to GEA.

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Terrill A. Mast, Ph.D. 1999 Laureate

Terrill A. Mast, PhD was a professor of medical education at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. During his tenure at Southern, he served as the coordinator for international relations, the assistant dean for continuing education and the editor of Teaching and Learning in Medicine, an International Journal (TLM). He was actively involved in a number of professional organizations, including the Central Group on Medical Education and was co-chair of the Generalists in Medical Education and vice-president of the American Educational Research Association. Terry's work included contributions in curriculum development and student assessment design, understanding the development of expertise in the physician as well as developing insights into the nature of the physician as learner. More recently, he devoted substantial time encouraging and assisting professional colleagues in the preparation and publication of their manuscripts. This included work with the CGEA Fellowship in Medical Education Research (F-MER) program. As evidenced by this initiative as well as his creation and editorship of TLM, Terry believed strongly in sharing what is learned. One of his last contributions to the literature was Sharing The Final Journey: Working With The Dying.

He was the recipient of a number of awards, including the Merrel Flair Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Medical Education, the Generalists' Servant Leadership Award for Enduring Service and Leadership, and most recently he was named a CGEA Medical Education Laureate in March 1998. In his acceptance speech for the Laureate award that "the Central Group has been one of the most rewarding professional groups with which I have had the privilege to serve." Terry died in May 1998.

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Robert Winter, M.D.

Robert J. Winter was born in Toledo, Ohio, and raised in St. Charles, Illinois. He graduated from Amherst College in 1967 and from Northwestern University Medical School in 1971. Following pediatric residency training at Hartford Hospital and Boston Children's Hospital, Dr. Winter completed a pediatric endocrinology at John Hopkins Hospital. He returned to Northwestern in 1975 as Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Children's Memorial Hospital, rapidly establishing a reputation as an outstanding teacher. The recipient of the Teacher of the Year Award at Children's in 1976, Dr. Winter later received the medical school-wide teacher of the year award four times.

In 1982, Dr. Winter became Associate Director of Pediatric Education at Children's Memorial; he then served as Director from 1985 through 1994, overseeing both residency and medical student education in pediatrics. He was involved in Northwestern's curriculum reform efforts from their initiation in 1986; in 1990 he became chairman of the Executive Curriculum Committee, and he saw to the creation of Northwestern's revised curriculum, implemented in 1993. In 1994, he became Associate Dean for Medical Education and Jacob R. Suker Professor of Medical Education.

The CGEA was an important component of Dr. Winter's professional activities for many years. He became a member of the CGEA and of its Executive Committee in 1989, and continued as a member of the Executive Committee until his health forced him to resign in 1997. In 1990, he founded the Clinical SIG, and continued as its chair until 1993. He was Vice Chair of the CGEA in 1991-92, Chair Elect in 1992-93, and Past Chair in 1994-95.

Bob was also a member of numerous other professional organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Federation for Clinical Research, the Endocrine Society, the Institute of Medicine of Chicago, and the Society for Pediatric Research. His research publications span a wide range of topics in pediatric endocrinology, including various aspects of Type I diabetes, and growth hormone deficiency.

Complications with his own battle of Type I diabetes mellitus forced his retirement as Associate Dean in May 1997. He died at home on December 10, 1997, survived by his wife Willa and son Andrew, who accepted the CGEA Laureate Award on behalf of the Winter's family.

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Deborah E. Simpson, Ph.D. 2000 Laureate

Deborah E. Simpson, PhD received her BA in American History and Cultural Anthropology from the University of California at Santa Barbara and her MA in Student Personnel work from the Ohio State University. In 1983 she received her doctoral degree in Educational Psychology (cognition and learning) from the University of Minnesota while working as a faculty development specialist in the College of Pharmacy and later the Department of Family Medicine at the University. Upon graduation, Dr. Simpson accepted the position of Director of Faculty Development and subsequently Director of the Office of Educational Services at the Medical College of Wisconsin, in Milwaukee, WI. Her current positions include Associate Dean for Educational Support and Evaluation & Professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine at MCW.

Long active in faculty development, advancing educators as scholars, and clinical teaching, Deb has been an active member of the AAMC's Central Group on Educational Affairs. From 1991-1993 she served as the Member-at-Large for the CGEA during which time she collaborated with other experienced medical educators in the central region to develop the CGEA's Fellowship in Medical Education Research (F-MER) program. From 1999-2001, Deb is serving as the CGEA Chair, focusing her energy on advancing the organization as a community of educational scholars.

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Ernest Yoder, M.D., Ph.D. 2001 Laureate

Ernie Yoder, MD, PhD, is currently Chair, Department of Internal Medicine, Providence Hospital and Medical Centers in Southfield, MI. For four years prior to this appointment, he was Associate Chair for Education in the Department of Internal Medicine at Wayne State University and had responsibility for internal medicine educational programs across the continuum. Ernie received his MD in 1978 and his PhD in Education in 1997, both from Wayne State University. Current faculty appointments include Clinical Associate Professor in the College of Health Sciences at Oakland University and Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at Wayne State. Research interests focus primarily on evaluation (reliable and valid methodology) with other scholarly work in instructional design and curriculum development (especially in evidence-based medicine). A primary area of academic interest is in Health Care Process Improvement and Evidence Based Medicine. Another area of interest is the application of Mission-Based Management methodology in the medical school, particularly at the departmental level. Dr. Yoder has presented workshops on the Application of Mission-Based Management Methodology in Health Care. He is also the immediate past chair of the GEA Undergraduate Medical Education Section and was Chair of the Central Group on Educational Affairs 1997-1999..

Ernie has served the CGEA as Member-at-Large, Chair-Elect, Chair, and Past-Chair. He is currently the National Chair of the GEA Section on Undergraduate Medical Education. He feels that the CGEA serves a critical role in the development of faculty and as the initiator and developer of programs for the greater GEA.

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Ilene Harris, Ph.D. 2002 Laureate

Ilene Harris, Ph.D., is currently Professor and Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago, IL. She is also Professor in the Department of Pathology, in recognition of her role on the education leadership team in the Department. She received her B.A. in Political Science, her M.A. in History and Social Studies Education, and her Ph.D. in Education from the University of Chicago.

Dr. Harris has had regional and national leadership roles in the AAMC. She completed a four-year term as member of the annual meeting Research in Medical Education (RIME) Conference Steering Committee in 2000, and served as its Chair in 1999. She was the first Convener of the Central Region RIME Section in 1997, and led the section in developing an organizational structure and bylaws. In this role, she served as Program Chair for the RIME portion of the Central Region spring meeting. She served as Chair of the local host group for the CGEA regional spring meeting in Minneapolis in 2001. Dr. Harris has also had leadership roles in the American Educational Research Association (AERA), Division of Education in the Professions (Division I), which has become a major venue for presentation of research on medical education. She was President of the Division in 1995-1997, and prior to that Division Secretary, and annual meeting Program Chair.

Dr. Harris' research interests include clinical performance assessment, teaching in ambulatory settings, curriculum reform, and qualitative research methods. This research has been reported in over 85 papers in leading peer-reviewed journals in medical education, several book chapters, and over 250 peer-reviewed or invited presentations at regional or national meetings. She received the RIME conference Outstanding Paper Award in 1997 for her longitudinal study of a foundation-sponsored fellowship program.

Ilene is privileged to serve as Chair of the CGEA for 2003-2005, and following that Past-Chair. She views the CGEA as an important venue to identify and share best practices in medical education; to foster and reward scholarship in our educational activity; to test solutions to the problems we all confront; and to collaborate in multi-institutional studies. She hopes, through her leadership in the CGEA, to continue to make it a vibrant regional professional organization, that serves as a resource for developing and renewing our professional skills as leaders and educators, for our most seasoned members, as well as our new faculty members, where we have opportunities to be informed, to contribute, to be inspired, to form enduring relationships with valued colleagues, and to achieve our highest goals as leaders and educators.

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Fredrick A. McCurdy, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., F.A.A.P. 2003 Laureate

Fred McCurdy is currently the Associate Chair for Pediatric Education in the Department of Pediatrics at the University Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). In addition, he is also the Associate Director for Compliance of University Medical Associates (the medical provider practice plan) at UNMC.

Dr. McCurdy is a board certified Pediatrician and Pediatric Nephrologist. He pursued his graduate and medical education at the University Nebraska Medical Center graduating with Distinction in May 1976 with both an MD as well as a PhD degree. His completed his Pediatric training at Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. He also took fellowship training in Pediatric Nephrology at the University of Minnesota Hospitals in Minneapolis. Being a continual learner, Dr. McCurdy chose to return to graduate school again in 1999, but this time it was to pursue a business education completing an MBA in 2001.

Dr. McCurdy had a distinguished career in the U.S. Air Force rising to the rank of Colonel prior to his retirement in 1993. His two major post-graduation assignments were to academic teaching centers – Wilford Hall (1981-1986) and the F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) (1986-1993). During this time period he was a practicing general pediatrician and pediatric nephrologist; a pediatric residency program director; and finally, the Director of Pediatric Undergraduate Education (USUHS). Upon his retirement, Dr. McCurdy joined the faculty in the Department of Pediatrics at UNMC as an Associate Professor and as the Pediatric Clerkship Director.

Dr. McCurdy served as a Member-At-Large on the Executive committee of the CGEA and during his term of service began the CGEA Educational Leadership and Management Certificate Program that develops the administrative and leadership skills of the emerging CGEA leaders. He is currently serving the CGEA as convener for the CGEA Faculty Development Special Interest Group. Dr. McCurdy has also been on the Research in Medical Education (RIME) Planning Committee of the AAMC that oversees the RIME Conference portion of the AAMC's Annual Meeting.

Dr. McCurdy is nationally recognized as a superb educator. Under his direction, the USUHS Department of Pediatrics was awarded the Ambulatory Pediatric Association Outstanding Teaching Award in 1990. At UNMC, he has been instrumental in leading the Departments of Pediatric, Internal Medicine and Family Medicine in acquiring two HRSA funded interdisciplinary curriculum grants. He has designed and implemented faculty development programs at the University of Nebraska in the areas of clinical teaching as well as administrative skills development. He has published numerous peer-reviewed papers and presented many times on curriculum design for clinical teaching and on the methods to develop programs for improving faculty's administrative skills/leadership capacity. Dr. McCurdy is currently the course director for two administrative skills development courses at UNMC. They are both centered on the concept of administrative skills/competencies for faculty and staff can be learned. In his "spare time", Dr. McCurdy is a Boy Scout Leader teaching youth to become skilled leaders in their organizations.

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John (Jay) Xenia Thomas, Ph.D. 2004 Laureate

John X. Thomas, Jr., PhD is professor of physiology (medical education) and senior associate dean for medical education. He holds the endowed chair and professorship, "Jacob R. Suker Professor of Medical Education". In the role as senior associate dean, he is responsible for the Undergraduate Medical Education Program, Student Programs, Registration and Records, and Continuing Medical Education. He is also responsible for the Office of Medical Education, which includes the Clinical Education and Evaluation Center. Previous to joining the administration and faculty at Northwestern, he served as Associate Dean for Educational Affairs at Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine from 1993 - 1999, with primary responsibility for the development of the integrated medical curriculum and the new education building. During the last 10 years he has been active as one of the steering committee members of the QIMED group, Quality Improvement in Medical Education and has presented at the AAMC and Central Region meetings for the last 9 years. He is a Harvard-Macy Fellow and has served as a faculty member for their programs. He has been involved in the training of medical students, residents, and fellows since 1977, as lecturer, course director, faculty research sponsor, and academic dean. He has been the recipient seven "professor of the year" awards during his career

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Larry Gruppen, Ph.D. 2005 Laureate

Larry Gruppen is Chair of the Department of Medical Education at the University of Michigan Medical School where he holds an endowed chair as the Josiah Macy, Jr., Professor of Medical Education. His research interests center around the development of expertise, knowledge and performance assessment, self-regulated learning, evidence-based medicine and educational leadership development. He is currently past-president of the Society of Directors of Research in Medical Education and chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges Central Group on Educational Affairs. He is also the Chair of the AAMC's Medical Education Research Certificate (MERC) program. He has over 60 peer-reviewed publications on a variety of topics in medical education and presents regularly at national professional meetings. He has directed the University of Michigan Medical School's Medical Education Scholars Program since its inception in 1998.

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Terri Cameron, M.A. 2006 Laureate

Terri Cameron, MA, retired as Director of Educational Resources and Technology in December 2005 after 30 years of involvement in educational technology and curriculum development at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, with a diverse set of responsibilities that included clerkship coordination, residency program coordination, Continuing Medical Education coordination, computer education and support, and oversight of educational space, technology, and resources for the undergraduate medical curriculum.  As Director of Educational Resources and Technology, her responsibilities included oversight of the staff and educational resources necessary for the implementation of instructional and assessment computer systems; designing and implementing programs that helped faculty and staff effectively use educational resources; making recommendations regarding educational space, facilities, and equipment; and administration of the AAMC curriculum database, CurrMIT.  She also served as tutor and master tutor for the Problem-Based Learning Initiative and worked with that group to develop distributed learning resources for use in problem-based and small group learning.  She served as member-at-large for the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Central Group on Educational Affairs (CGEA) Executive Committee from 2002-2005 and is past convener and member of the GEA and CGEA Computers in Medical Education Special Interest Group. 

 Her community interests include historic preservation, neighborhood preservation, and history, particularly related to the Civil War, and she has done numerous presentations on these topics to community and professional groups.  Her articles on these topics have been published in Illinois Magazine, Illinois Times, and the State Journal-Register.

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Brian Mavis, Ph.D. 2007 Laureate

Brian E. Mavis, Ph.D., is Associate Professor and Director of the Office of Medical Education Research and Development (OMERAD) He received his Ph.D. in Psychology from Michigan State University while a Research Associate in the Department of Psychiatry. Since joining OMERAD in 1992, he has been involved in development and evaluation of educational programs supported by the College, including coordinating the annual CHM Graduate Follow-up Study as well as maintaining the Student Performance and Outcomes Database. In 2004, he became the director of OMERAD.

Dr. Mavis developed and maintains an international listserv for medical educators (DR-ED). His research interests are in performance-based competency assessment and non-cognitive factors related to student selection, academic success and specialty choice. He was awarded the College of Human Medicine Outstanding Teacher-Scholar Award in April 2000. Dr. Mavis has served on various college and university committees, and is co-chair of the CHM Committee on Admissions. He served on the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Research in Medical Education conference program committee and is currently chair of the AAMC Medical Education Research Certificate (MERC) Program. Dr. Mavis also is a representative on the National Board of Medical Examiners Advisory Committee for Medical School Programs.

Dr. Mavis has provided consultation to other medical and professional schools related to student admissions and selection as well as student assessment and curriculum evaluation. He has contributed to over 100 conference presentations related to medical education and has published over 40 papers related to issues of medical and professional education.

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Kristi Ferguson, Ph.D. 2008 Laureate

Kristi Ferguson has been a staff member at the Office of Consultation and Research in Medical Education since 1983 and was named its Director in August of 1996. She received her M.S.W. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Michigan. Kristi directs a new Master in Medical Education degree program. Her current research projects include validity studies of assessment methods, two projects related to learning communities, evaluating the use of small groups in the admissions process, and attitudes about skills laboratories among surgery residents. Her teaching interests include small group facilitation, test item writing, evaluating learners and teaching procedural skills. Kristi served as local host for the CGEA Program in 2003 and was elected member-at-large the following year. She has presented posters or oral abstracts at several recent CGEA meeting. Her term as CGEA Chair will conclude in 2009.
 

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This page last updated by WMA on May 06, 2008