Announcement: New School leadership structure announced
On October 2 at the School’s Executive Committee of the Schulich Council, Dr. John Yoo announced the school’s new decanal structure. The changes being made come after months of meeting and working with leaders and departments across the School to hear more about their ideas and the opportunities and challenges before the School.
“Those conversations have served as a great resource to draw upon as we consider how to enhance the School’s strong foundations and our future course,” said Dr. Yoo. “They also reinforced and augmented many of the ideas that I had coming into my role as Dean. This is the first step in our work to achieve excellence and differentiation is to create an enhanced leadership structure that supports and emphasizes the things that matter to us.”
As part of the reorganization, two new Vice Dean roles have been created.
The Vice Dean, Education Strategy and Scholarship is charged with advancing the scholarship of faculty members and students. The role will be responsible for developing and sustaining a robust program of research, innovation and continuous quality improvement of various education programs at the School. They will also build systems and strategies that ensure the institution and its faculty can thrive and deliver high-quality, forward-thinking medical education. Reporting into that role are the Associate Deans, Faculty Development, Learning with Technology and Simulation and the Director of the Centre for Education Research and Innovation.
Dr. Chris Watling has been appointed as the Acting Vice Dean, Education Strategy and Scholarship.
The new position of Vice Dean, Undergraduate Medical Education emphasizes the importance of undergraduate medical education. They will be responsible for the strategy, curriculum and implementation of the entire spectrum of undergraduate medical education at the School. This includes all aspects of the London and Windsor campuses, distributed education and the international undergraduate medical education activities. Reporting into that role are the Associate Deans of Admissions and the Windsor Campus. The Assistant Dean of Distributed Education (formerly known as Assistant Dean, Rural & Regional Community Engagement) also reports in to this position.
Dr. Gary Tithecott has been appointed as the Acting Vice Dean, Undergraduate Medical Education.
With the change to the Vice Deans, the Associate Deans for Postgraduate Medical Education and Learner Experience now report directly into the Dean’s Office.
Part of this reorganization has included several title changes and a name change for the Learner Equity & Wellness (LEW) Office. LEW will now be known as Learner Experience. The titles for all leaders supporting that portfolio will reflect that change. In the coming week, more information about the Office name change will be shared across the School and with our partners. And while the Office name has changed, it’s important to know that the role of the Office remains the same.
The new structure also provides for two new Assistant Deans in Research. The Assistant Dean, Awards and Research Chairs will provide strategic leadership and oversight for the portfolio of research chairs held within the School and for research awards within and external to the faculty.
The Assistant Dean, Pre-Clinical Research will provide strategic leadership and representation for animal-based research on behalf of the research community within the School.
Both assistant dean roles focused within research have been posted and more news of the successful candidates are expected to be announced soon.
In order to improve role clarity for our organization, the Vice Dean, Faculty Affairs title has been changed to Vice Dean, Clinical Faculty Affairs. More than 1,400+ clinical faculty will also be supported by the newly established Assistant Dean, Professional Affairs and Assistant Dean Faculty Wellbeing, who will report to the Vice Dean of Clinical Faculty Affairs. The recent appointees are Drs. Bill McCauley and Laura Foxcroft, respectively.
“This decanal reorganization is the first step in our work to achieve excellence and differentiation,” said Dr. Yoo. “This enhanced leadership structure supports and emphasizes the things that matter to us.”
