Jed Gonzalo to join VTCSOM as Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education
July 12, 2022
Dear VTCSOM Community,
It is my distinct pleasure to announce that Dr. Jed Gonzalo will join the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine as our senior associate dean for medical education on September 1, 2022.
Dr. Gonzalo succeeds Dr. Rick Vari who joined VTCSOM in 2008 and led the development of our innovative 4-domain problem-based learning curriculum for 13 years until retiring sooner than he had planned due to the challenges of ALS. We thank Dr. Rebecca Pauly for her outstanding service as interim senior associate dean for medical education since November 15, 2021.
Dr. Gonzalo is currently a professor of medicine and public health sciences at Penn State College of Medicine, where is also the associate dean for health systems education. He attended college at the University of Scranton graduating in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in biology/philosophy, received his MD degree from the Penn State College of Medicine in 2006, and completed his internal medicine and chief residency at the Beth Israel Deaconess in Boston, where he was Instructor at the Harvard Medical School. While in medical school he was inducted into the AOA Honor Society and chosen as the “classmate you would most want as your physician.” In residency he received the Lowell McGee Award, given to the resident who most demonstrates the “fundamental importance of teaching and to the spirit and substance of being a physician.” He returned to Pennsylvania after residency to complete a fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh in General Internal Medicine/Medical Education while earning a Master of Science in Medical Education and Clinical Research. In 2012 he joined the Penn State College of Medicine as an assistant professor of medicine and public health sciences.
Over the past 10 years Jed has served in multiple and progressive leadership roles supporting medical education at Penn State. His contributions span strategic planning, curriculum development, direct teaching, clinical site development, accreditation preparation, and dissemination. He has directed courses across all phases of the curriculum, provided oversight of all clerkships, and led teams focused on medical student education, graduate medical education, and curriculum leadership. He has led strategic initiatives to re-envision the Interprofessional Education Office, create an assessment plan across curricular phases, facilitate the creation of the College of Medicine education strategic plan, and develop a plan for master’s degree programs. He contributed to the development of Penn State’s University Park Regional Campus curriculum and the internal medicine residency program’s coaching program 3+3 accelerated program.
As associate dean for health systems education Jed led the design, implementation, and assessment of the medical school’s 4th pillar of education – Health Systems Science (HSS), which complements the basic and clinical sciences and health humanities. This work included the development and implementation of >20 curricular innovations spanning the continuum of UME, GME and CME, including courses in social determinants and population health, high-value care, health system improvement, clinical skills, and systems thinking. One innovation – the Patient Navigation Program – was the first in the US to link medical students with patients to achieve better health outcomes. To date this program has improved the health experience of >6,000 patients in Pennsylvania. Another innovation was a year-long professional development program aimed at advancing the team-based, systems skills for interprofessional learners, including faculty, nurses, therapists, pharmacists, residents, and students. The program served as a prototype for the AMA's National HSS Academy, which has graduated >100 leading US educators over the past 6 years.
As a national thought leader in medical education Dr. Gonzalo has served on several AMA committees, on the ACGME’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force, and as a consultant and invited speaker for multiple US medical schools and residency programs. He has led the development of the HSS framework that unifies the academic missions of education, research, and clinical operations for the improvement of patient and population health. Jed’s research portfolio includes over $3 million in extramural grants from organizations fueling innovations in medical education: the AMA (co-PI – Accelerating Change in Medical Education Initiative, PI - Reimagining Residency Initiative), AAMC (including the Herbert Nickens Faculty Fellowship Award awarded to faculty who are committed to addressing inequity in healthcare and education), HRSA (co-PI on a primary care education grant), and the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation (Macy Faculty Scholar Award). He has co-authored over 70 peer-reviewed publications and 4 textbooks (5th being completed this Fall) that together have been cited over 2,000 times, with 26 publications cited at least 26 times (h-index) and 48 publications cited at least 10 times (i10-index).
Dr. Gonzalo has been honored with department and institutional awards for excellence in medical education at Penn State including the College of Medicine Distinguished Educator Award (2018), medical student-nominated Excellence in Teaching Award (2019), Outstanding Medical Education Researcher Award (2019), Department of Medicine Exceptional Mentor Award (2021) and Exceptional Provider Award (2021), Assistant Marshal of Graduation Ceremonies at the medical student graduation (2021), and outpatient clinic preceptor award for the internal medicine residency (2022).
Jed's immediate and extended family live in Pennsylvania, while his wife, Tiffany, is from Virginia – her grandfather, sister and sister's husband all live in the Roanoke area and her parents live in Williamsburg. Tiffany has been working as a family practice nurse practitioner for the past 10 years, and will join Carilion Clinic at our Community Care Site in Roanoke. They have three children – Sam (8), Eleanor (5), and Caroline (3).
We are excited to welcome Dr. Gonzalo and his family in the near future, and delighted that he will be supporting, developing and implementing cutting edge innovations in medical education at VTCSOM for many years to come!
Lee A. Learman, MD, PhD
Dean, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine