Ann Lambros Named Assistant Dean for Education at WFU School of Medicine

July 20, 2005

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – M. Ann Lambros, Ph.D., has been appointed assistant dean for education at Wake Forest University School of Medicine by William B. Applegate, M.D., M.P.H., senior vice president and dean.

Lambros, assistant professor of public health sciences (social sciences and health policy), is also director of the Core Teaching Faculty and director of the Center for Excellence in Research, Teaching and Learning (CERTL).

“Dr. Lambros has been actively involved in the medical center’s education mission for more than two decades,” Applegate said. “She played a major role in the medical school’s innovative ‘parallel curriculum’ from its beginning in the mid-1980s.”

While the parallel curriculum involved only about one-fourth of the class, much of the methodology was adopted for all medical students with the advent of the new curriculum in 1998. The new curriculum scrapped the traditional medical school curriculum and its emphasis on memory and details in favor of an approach designed to prepare students for medical practice, emphasizing problem-based learning, early exposure to patients, and small-group discussions.

“She is widely recognized as a leading authority on problem-based learning and is the author of two books on the subject,” said Applegate.

Lambros sees her new position, a new deanship, as an outgrowth both of her work on the curriculum and as director of the core teaching faculty, a program to facilitate training of medical students with faculty who have made an extra commitment to teaching. Since the “new” curriculum is now eight years old, she anticipates making some changes.

“I appreciate this opportunity to focus on continuing to enhance the quality of the educational experiences for all of our students,” said Lambros. “My goals are to accomplish that enhancement by augmenting curriculum components, supporting faculty development and supporting students’ progress through their medical school experience.”

She added, “We have enjoyed a national reputation for innovation in education since the mid-80s and I look forward to helping to ensure that we keep that reputation intact.”

As director of CERTL, which is aimed at enhancing science teaching in elementary and secondary education in the region, Lambros has built a close relationship with the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools.

Lambros graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1979 and got a masters of education degree in 1982 from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she also earned her Ph.D. in 2000.

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Media Contacts: Robert Conn, rconn@wfubmc.edu, Shannon Koontz, shkoontz@wfubmc.edu, or Karen Richardson, krchrdsn@wfubmc.edu, at 336-716-4587.

About Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center: Wake Forest Baptist is an academic health system comprised of North Carolina Baptist Hospital and Wake Forest University Health Sciences, which operates the university’s School of Medicine. The system comprises 1,187 acute care, psychiatric, rehabilitation and long-term care beds and is consistently ranked as one of “America’s Best Hospitals” by U.S. News & World Report.


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