Two top deans in the WashU Medicine Office of Education have been promoted to take on more expansive roles leading the education and training of the next generation of health and science professionals during a time of rapid change and emerging technologies.
Eva Aagaard, MD, the Carol B. and Jerome T. Loeb Professor of Medical Education, has been named the school's vice dean for education and will continue her university role as vice chancellor for medical education. She has been the senior associate dean for education since 2017.
Nichole Zehnder, MD, the associate dean for educational strategy, will become the senior associate dean for undergraduate medical education.
Their promotions take effect Nov. 1.
"WashU Medicine has been a world leader in medical education, home to the most talented students, and we have been fortunate to recruit the best possible leaders for this important part of our mission," said David H. Perlmutter, MD, executive vice chancellor for medical affairs, the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Distinguished Professor and the George and Carol Bauer Dean of WashU Medicine. "Drs. Aagaard and Zehnder have utilized the scientific principles of education to modernize our curriculum and provide state-of-the-art coaching and mentoring to advance the learning experience. Remarkably, they've accomplished this amidst enormous challenges from the changing world around us."
A national leader in medical education, Aagaard spearheaded the medical school's highly regarded Gateway Curriculum, which launched in 2020 at the height of the pandemic.
As associate dean for educational strategy, Zehnder has overseen multiple learner and faculty success programs, partnerships with WashU Disability Resources, dual-degree programs and EXPLORE, an immersive and longitudinal program created as part of the Gateway Curriculum. EXPLORE aims to help aspiring doctors find their niche in academic medicine.
