Issue link: https://kusm-wichita.uberflip.com/i/1545861
If he didn't get into medical school, Mark Harrison, M.D., had a backup plan — teaching high school science. So it's safe to say the associate professor of pediatrics and new associate dean for undergraduate medical education has long been drawn to teaching and learning about how people learn. Harrison, a graduate of KUSM-Kansas City, joined the faculty after finishing residency in Wichita in 2003. Since then, he's steadily broadened his knowledge about medical education by serving as pediatrics clerkship director, working on the ACE and earlier curriculums, and serving as an assistant director of the Jager Society, an academic society named for Thor Jager, M.D., Wichita's first pathologist. Harrison is excited by the challenge of a new, broader role, working "with younger faculty eager to get involved" and keeping both volunteer and full-time faculty apprised about the evolving curriculum, all while continuing to practice at the KU Wichita Pediatrics outpatient clinic. "I'm looking forward to learning all the pieces of the curriculum I have not been involved with before and getting to see the big picture, while making sure we uphold the educational and professional standards of KU and meet the accrediting requirements," Harrison says. With a half-dozen years directing residency programs in South Dakota and a dozen more in charge of the University of Missouri's internal medicine residency, Turi McNamee, M.D., was interested in overseeing graduate medical education on a broader scale as the new associate dean. Wichita fit the bill, with 12 — now 13 — residency and four fellowship programs overseen by the Wichita Center for Graduate Medical Education. That adds up to a responsibility for about 320 residents and fellows, numbers that will grow to around 350 trainees by 2029 with the recent approval of an emergency medicine residency and as the pediatrics and obstetrics and gynecology programs expand. McNamee feels fortunate to find a "well-oiled machine" at WCGME, where she succeeded Gretchen Irwin, M.D., who now leads the Department of Family & Community Medicine. As the "designated institutional official," McNamee says her role includes ensuring programs have the resources they need to maintain accreditation and working with hospitals where training occurs. One thing that drew her to Wichita was the community-based training model, which she'd seen on a smaller scale in South Dakota. "Academic medical centers of the United States are not going to be able to produce physicians to practice all over the country," she says. "We're going to need community models to get physicians in the areas they're needed. Programs like this are a unique opportunity to see how we make this work." DEPARTMENT HEADS NEW AND DEPARTING DEPARTMENT OF FAMILY & COMMUNITY MEDICINE It's easy to conclude that Rick Kellerman, M.D., the retired chair of the Department of Family & Community Medicine, has had a sizable impact on students, residents and practicing physicians, and on medical care in Wichita, the state and well beyond Kansas. Teaching awards from KU and national organizations, service as president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, and numerous research and book articles are just a bit of the evidence. Kellerman became department head in 1996, following eight years directing the KUSM-Wichita Smoky Hill Family Medicine Residency in Salina and a half dozen practicing in Plainville. Raised in Hays by two educators, he'd been drawn to teaching while completing a KUSM-Wichita residency at Wesley Mark Harrison, M.D. Turi McNamee, M.D. Rick Kellerman, M.D. 10