About our Deans and Directors

dean-for-meded@bsd.uchicago.edu

Vineet Arora, MD, AM'03 is a Professor of Medicine and the Dean for Medical Education at the Pritzker School of Medicine. In this role, she oversees medical education across the continuum of education, including for students in the Pritzker School of Medicine and for all residents and fellows in graduate medical education programs at the University of Chicago, as well as faculty continuing medical education and leadership for the simulation center at the University of Chicago Medicine. Dr. Arora previously served as Assistant Dean of Scholarship and Discovery, for more than a decade overseeing all aspects of research training programs for MD students, including the popular NIH-funded Pritzker Summer Research Program. She is committed to mentoring students in scholarly work and has herself contributed research that has improved the landscape of medical education. Through AHRQ, NIH, and ABIM Foundation funding, she has developed and evaluated novel interventions that combine systems change with adult learning theory to improve care and learning in teaching hospitals. She has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications, often with medical students, with coverage in the New York Times, NPR, and the Associated Press. 

Dr. Arora also previously served as Associate Chief Medical Officer, Clinical Learning Environment at University of Chicago. In that role, she bridged educational and hospital leadership to integrate residents and fellows into the quality, safety, and value missions of the institution. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the American Board of Internal Medicine.  As the Director of Educational Initiatives at Costs of Care, she co-chaired the Teaching Value Choosing Wisely Challenge and co-authored Understanding Value-Based Healthcare, from McGraw Hill.  For her work, she has received the American College of Physicians Walter J. McDonald Young Physician Award, the Society of Hospital Medicine’s Excellence in Hospital Medicine Research Award, and the Society of General Internal Medicine’s Fred Brancati Leadership and Mentorship Award.  In 2011, she was named to “20 People Who Make American Healthcare Better” by HealthLeaders Magazine. 

Dr. Arora earned her medical degree at the Washington University in St. Louis and completed her residency, chief residency, and Masters in Public Policy at the University of Chicago. Dr. Arora regularly tweets about medical education, technology, and health policy at @futuredocs.

As the Associate Dean for Admissions, Keme Carter, MD, works closely with the Admissions team and helps to oversee all aspects of the admissions process at Pritzker. Dr. Carter’s role in admissions includes the recruitment and support of prospective students throughout the Pritzker application process, as well as working with faculty and students of the Admissions Committee in forming each medical school class.

Dr. Carter is a Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine, Section of Emergency Medicine. She obtained her undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University in 1999 and graduated from the University of Alabama School of Medicine in 2003. Dr. Carter completed her residency training in Emergency Medicine at the University of Chicago and served as Chief Resident from 2005-2006.  She subsequently joined the faculty at the University of Chicago. In addition to her role as the Associate Dean for Admissions, Dr. Carter currently serves as the Director of Undergraduate Medical Education for the Section of Emergency Medicine and the Emergency Medicine Clerkship Director.

Dr. Carter's work in undergraduate and graduate medical education has been recognized through her induction as a fellow in the Academy of Distinguished Medical Educators and by several awards including the Doroghazi Outstanding Clinical Teaching Award, the Emergency Medicine Clinical Teacher of the Year Award, and the Biological Science Division's Distinguished Educator/Mentor Junior Award. In recognition of her empathy towards patients and service as a role model for medical students, Dr. Carter was the recipient of the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award. Dr. Carter's scholarly interests focus on developing and evaluating curricula in undergraduate medical education and studying communication practices in the Emergency Department in an effort to optimize patient care.

mclark@medicine.bsd.uchicago.edu

Marcus Clark, MD joined the University of Chicago in 1993 and is currently Professor of Medicine, Director of the University of Chicago Autoimmunity Center of Excellence, and Chief of the Section of Rheumatology. Dr. Clark was appointed to Director of the Medical Scientist Training Program in 2011. Dr. Clark is a nationally recognized authority in B cell biology, having made several substantial contributions to our molecular understanding of how B cells develop in the bone marrow and how they are regulated in the periphery. He also has an active research program focused on how B cell activation contributes to the pathogenesis of human lupus nephritis. Dr. Clark has had extensive experience with the recruitment and training of graduate students. He has taught extensively in the Immunology graduate program, chaired the Immunology Recruitment and Curriculum Committees, and served on more than 50 thesis committees.

dayle.davenport@bsd.uchicago.edu

As the Associate Dean for Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Dr. Davenport provides support and programming for student affinity groups and leads initiatives dedicated to groups who are underrepresented in medicine. She provides guidance to further the recruitment and selection of a diverse group of students via her work with the Admissions team and through the Pritzker summer pathway programs. She also acts as the course director for the Health Equity, Advocacy and Anti-racism course.  

Dr. Davenport is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Section of Emergency Medicine. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and graduated with a medical degree from Harvard Medical School. She completed her residency training in Emergency Medicine at the University of Chicago. Following residency, she received an academic appointment in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Rush University Medical Center and served as the Assistant Dean for Diversity and Inclusion at Rush Medical College.

Dr. Davenport brings a breadth of knowledge and experience in health equity, diversity, and inclusion as an educator and researcher. She has been a popular lecturer in various courses and clinical experiences throughout the curriculum and served as a clinician educator to medical students and residents. Dr. Davenport has numerous peer-reviewed publications with a specific focus on gender and racial bias in medical student Standardized Letters of Evaluation as well as on improving the diverse recruitment of residents and faculty in emergency medicine. She is the recipient of the Marcus Martin Scholarship Award, given to faculty members with significant contributions in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the 2022 Rush Excellence in Mentoring award, given yearly to one faculty member who effectively and consistently mentors other faculty, trainees, students, and staff in their professional development and career advancement.

cdorsey@surgery.bsd.uchicago.edu

As Pritzker’s first Director of Preclinical Advising, Dr. Dorsey is responsible for expanding and ensuring a robust career advising program for our MS1 and MS2 students. In addition to meeting individually with all first- and second-year students, Dr. Dorsey works to connect them with faculty for mentorship and shadowing experiences and is expanding the number and types of interdisciplinary opportunities for medical students.

Dr. Dorsey is a graduate of the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. She went on to complete an integrated residency in Vascular Surgery at Stanford and returned to the University of Chicago in 2016 as faculty in the Section of Vascular Surgery. In addition, she completed the MERITS Medical Education Faculty Fellowship in 2020.  She currently serves as a career advisor for the Lewis Society, one of Pritzker’s four advising societies.  With respect to surgical education, she is often students’ first contact with the Department of Surgery and meets frequently with students considering this career path.  She is also the Faculty Director of the MS3 Vascular Surgery Rotation and Co-Course Director for the Surgical Simulation experience for our MS3 students.   

From a clinical standpoint, Dr. Dorsey is a practicing vascular surgeon and serves as the Director of the UChicago Vein Clinic. Outside of her clinical interests, Dr. Dorsey has also devoted much of her time to better understanding health inequities and issues related to workforce diversity.  In 2020, she was appointed Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Department of Surgery - a role that allows her to directly improve the work and learning environment at this institution.

jfarnan@uchicago.edu

As the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Medical Education, Dr. Farnan is responsible for the overall development, implementation, and ongoing renewal of the PSOM medical students’ educational program, their performance within the program (testing and assessment), program evaluation, staffing, and accreditation. The Associate Dean provides leadership and guidance to the Assistant Dean, faculty course and clerkship directors, and the staff of the Office of Medical School Education.

As Associate Associate Dean for Undergraduate Medical Education and an experienced qualitative researcher at the University of Chicago, Dr. Farnan has focused her career on research and scholarship in health professions education. She has used qualitative research methods to examine patient safety issues (handoffs, supervision), and also study the relationship between social media and professionalism. Her work has resulted in more than 50 publications—including several book chapters—and numerous invited speaking presentations. 

With her Masters in Health Professions Education, she has received formal training in adult learning theory and designing and evaluating educational interventions. As the Director of Clinical Skills Education at the Pritzker School of Medicine, she has extensive experience in the implementation of educational technology and simulation as well as in the shepherding of students in their learning of history and physical examination skills.

Clinically, Dr. Farnan practices as an academic hospitalist and works with Internal Medicine housestaff.

hfromme@peds.bsd.uchicago.edu

As Associate Dean for Faculty Development in Medical Education, Dr. Fromme collaborates with other educational leaders in UME and GME to ensure that faculty development efforts relate to existing medical education needs and strategies across the continuum of medical education. She develops and expands faculty development endeavors as well as developing new and innovative programs through the Academy of Distinguished Medical Educators. Since being appointed as Director of Faculty Development and Associate Director of the Academy in 2014, Dr. Fromme has already been instrumental in growing Academy programs, including the FAME faculty development programs, the Teaching Consultation Service, and the Residents Are Teachers Steering Committee. Dr. Fromme is a Master in the Academy of Distinguished Medical Educators and a Senior Faculty Scholar of the Bucksbaum Institute of Clinical Excellence.  Dr. Fromme is also Section Chief of Pediatric Hospital Medicine and Vice Chair for Faculty Development in the Department of Pediatrics. She has received many national honors including the 2016 Pediatric Hospital Medicine Award for Educational Achievement and Innovation, and appointment as the Chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Hospital Medicine.  

tkostas@medicine.bsd.uchicago.edu

Dr. Kostas serves as Director of Interprofessional Education in addition to her role directing Clinical Skills & Reasoning including the Ambulatory and Inpatient Mentorship (AIM) Program at the Pritzker School of Medicine. She has significant experience developing and implementing unique curricular opportunities at the University of Chicago to support our students’ effectiveness in the clinical environment as part of an interprofessional care team.

Dr. Kostas developed her skills as a medical educator through completion of the Harvard Macy Program for Educators in the Health Professions as well as the Medical Education Research Innovation, Teaching, and Scholarship (MERITS) Fellowship here at the University of Chicago. 

Dr. Kostas is a graduate of Mayo Medical School in Rochester, Minnesota. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and a clinical fellowship in Gerontology at Harvard. She also completed an advanced fellowship at the Geriatrics Research, Education, and Clinical Centers at the Boston VA.

wlee3@medicine.bsd.uchicago.edu

As the Associate Dean of Students and Professional Development and Director of Wellness Programs, Dr. Lee directs the Wellness Programs, oversees the Free Clinic experiences for students and helps to direct career advising and mentoring programs.  Her work encourages students to reflect on their journey through medical training and empowers students to care for themselves in order to serve their patients and communities.

Dr. Lee is a graduate of New York University School of Medicine and completed her internal medicine residency at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center. She joined the faculty at the University of Chicago in 2010 and completed the MERITS Medical Education Faculty Fellowship.  She serves as a Core Faculty member and Assistant Director for Ambulatory Education for the Internal Medicine Residency program. She was selected as an Associate Junior Faculty Scholar for The University of Chicago’s Bucksbaum Institute for Clinical Excellence in 2012 in recognition of her dedication to improving the patient-doctor relationship.  Dr. Lee’s academic interests are focused on patient-centered strategies to improve patient-doctor communication, and developing interventions to improve physician wellness and resiliency. 

soyola@bsd.uchicago.edu

Sonia Oyola, MD has been a Family Medicine physician since 2000 after completing medical school at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in 1997 and residency at Cook County's Family Medicine Residency in 2000.  She completed further training at the Arizona Center’s Integrative Medicine fellowship in 2013 and am currently the Director of Medical Student Education, Director of the Family Medicine and Domestic Violence Electives and co-director of the Culinary Medicine Programs for the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine. She describes herself as fortunate to see patients at Tapestry 360 Health here in Chicago. Her specific interests are in Integrative Primary Care, Domestic Violence, Stress Disorders, Mind-Body Medicine (particularly Meditation, Yoga and Breathwork) and Culinary Medicine. And in 2009, founded a nonprofit organization called Be Alright which supports survivors of domestic violence and Chicago-area DV shelters. Her life's mission is to relieve suffering through mindfulness, kindness, joy and the promotion of compassion.

jtposton@bsd.uchicago.edu

As Assistant Dean for Medical School Education, Dr. Poston helps oversee the planning, implementation, evaluation, and continuous improvement of the curriculum of the Pritzker School of Medicine.

Dr. Poston is a graduate of the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and completed his residency at the University of Chicago’s Internal Medicine program. He served as Chief Resident and went on to a clinical fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care, also at the University of Chicago. He currently serves as the Director of the Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship and advises a cohort of students spanning all four years of medical school in his role as a career advisor for the Rowley Society.

Dr. Rosebush grew up in Michigan pursuing her undergraduate studies in Psychology at the Michigan State University Honors College and then attending medical school at the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine. Dr. Rosebush completed her pediatric residency at The Ohio State University and Doctor’s Hospital in Columbus, OH before joining the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative in Gaborone, Botswana, where she scaled-up antiretroviral therapy access for youth with HIV. After discovering her passion for HIV medicine, she returned to the US to pursue an infectious diseases fellowship at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. She then joined the University of Chicago faculty in the Section of Pediatric Infectious Diseases in 2014 where she has served as the Medical Director of Care2Prevent and the Director of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship Training Program.

In her role as Assistant Dean for Admissions, Dr. Rosebush works closely with Dr. Keme Carter, Associate Dean, and the Admissions team on the recruitment and support of prospective students throughout the Pritzker application process, as well as working with faculty and students of the Admissions Committee in forming each medical school class.

During her time as faculty, Dr. Rosebush has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to medical education and has worked closely with medical students, residents, and fellows in all phases of their training. She received the Richard M. Rothberg Faculty Award for Excellence in Patient Care and Resident Education in 2016 and was a MERITS Scholar in 2018. In 2021, she was the recipient of the Joel G. Schwab Faculty Mentorship Award from the Department of Pediatrics and was also named the 2021 Biological Sciences Division Faculty Peer Role Model Award. From 2018-2022 she served as the Faculty Advisor to the Pritzker School of Medicine’s Washington Park Pediatric Clinic and has presented numerous didactic lectures to medical students over the years. Her academic focus is on facilitators and barriers to care engagement and retention in youth of color living with HIV on Chicago’s South Side.

msaunder@medicine.bsd.uchicago.edu

As the Assistant Dean for Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, Dr. Saunders plays a key role in ensuring a diverse pipeline of students, both through her involvement in the Pritzker admissions process and through her work with the summer pathway programs sponsored by the Pritzker School of Medicine. Her research focuses on the impact of an intensive patient referral and education program prior to renal replacement therapy, and she is pilot-testing an interactive computer adaptive chronic kidney disease education program for hospitalized African American patients. Dr. Saunders is the principal investigator of an NIDDK R01 grant for the former project.

Dr. Saunders received her medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and her Master’s in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University before completing her residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Chicago. Dr. Saunders is a general internist who spent two years as a Hospitalist Scholar and a Fellow in the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics before joining our faculty in 2010. Dr. Saunders has also significantly developed her skills as a medical educator through completion of the MERITS Medical Education Fellowship.

rwolfson@bsd.uchicago.edu

As Assistant Dean of Medical School Research, Dr. Wolfson oversees of the Scholarship & Discovery curriculum and serves as the faculty lead for all scholarly opportunities for Pritzker medical students. Dr. Wolfson assesses the impact of Scholarship & Discovery and leads the school’s participation in multi-center evaluations of medical student research programs. Her work related to medical student research has been noteworthy: she developed a novel Authorship curriculum; directs the Scholarly Concentrations Collaborative, a group of medical education leaders who work together to grow opportunities for student research; and launched a new website for the Collaborative, designed to inform and engage medical educators on topics relevant to student research and scholarship. Dr. Wolfson’s work has led to regional and national recognition for our Scholarship & Discovery program. Dr. Wolfson conducts NIH-funded research that aims to improve mentor training for women and minority medical students, and was instrumental in the development of the University of Chicago Burroughs Wellcome Fund Early Scientific Training to Prepare for Research Excellence Post-Graduation (BEST-PREP) program funded by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Physician-Scientist Institutional Award.

 

Dr. Wolfson obtained her medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and continued here, completing both her Pediatrics residency and Pediatric Critical Care Medicine fellowship. She went on to complete our MERITS Medical Education Fellowship. In 2018, Dr. Wolfson was named a Fellow of the Academy of Distinguished Medical Educators.

jwoodruf@medicine.bsd.uchicago.edu

James N. Woodruff, MD, is the Dean of Students for the Pritzker School of Medicine. In this role, he supports medical students in their professional development, specialty selection, and residency application. A graduate of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Dr. Woodruff completed his internal medicine residency and Chief Residency in the Department of Medicine at the University of Chicago. His eight-year tenure as Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program and six-year tenure as the Department of Medicine’s Vice Chair for Education provide him with a broad perspective on the medical training pathway. Dr. Woodruff remains Associate Program Director of the Internal Medicine Residency with responsibility for managing 14 fellowship training programs.

Dr. Woodruff’s major educational focus has been on professional development in both student and resident medical trainees. Examples of initiatives he has led include novel programming to prepare students for their clinical clerkships, critical event counseling to harness transformative learning opportunities, aggressive longitudinal counseling to promote resident scholarship, and the creation of a formal physician-scientist residency training pathway. He co-authored a chapter in the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine Program Director’s Handbook on “Mentoring in Academic Medicine”. Other work has focused on the centralization and development of new administrative resources to enhance residency and fellowship training in the age of the Accreditation Committee of Graduate Medical Education’s “New Accreditation System”.

An important feature of Dr. Woodruff’s efforts to promote professional development in both residents and students is an emphasis on social justice. As a residency director, he enhanced diversity in the residency program through the implementation of a visiting clerkship program and the development of a minority resident organization. He created the University of Chicago Medicine’s first resident continuity clinic caring exclusively for uninsured patients. This clinic continues to be based in Englewood, one of Chicago’s most impoverished neighborhoods. He has enhanced quality and ethical standards of practice at the Pritzker School of Medicine’s five free clinics, at which over ninety percent of Pritzker students serve before graduation. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Provident Foundation, a community-based organization that strives to enhance opportunities for South Side youth interested in health careers.

Dr. Woodruff is a practicing General Internist, caring for patients in both ambulatory and inpatient settings. For the past two years, he has served as the director of a course at the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists on Primary Care for Women, a unique cross-specialty collaboration between the American College of Physicians and ACOG. Dr. Woodruff is the guest editor for an upcoming edition of the North American Clinics of Obstetrics and Gynecology focusing on primary care for women and is in the process of building out a nationwide primary care training program for Planned Parenthood.

Dr. Woodruff is a medical school graduate of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. In 1992, he came to Chicago to pursue residency training in Internal Medicine at the University of Chicago. Following his Chief Residency, he joined the faculty of the University of Chicago in the Section of General Internal Medicine. Dr. Woodruff eventually became the Internal Medicine Residency Program Director and Vice-Chair for Education. In 2011, he became the Dean of Students at the Pritzker School of Medicine. His scholarly focus is on career development, professional development, complexity in medicine and education, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.