Joseph C. Kolars, MD

Joseph C. Kolars is the Josiah Macy, Jr., Professor of Health Sciences Education and Senior Associate Dean for Education and Global Initiatives at the University of Michigan Medical School. He oversees medical student, graduate, resident/fellow, and post-doctoral education as well as continuing professional development/CME. He has served as Program Director Internal Medicine Residency and fellowship programs at UMHS and at Mayo Clinic.  A major focus of his career is focused on global health and strengthening education systems in low-resource settings. In addition to serving on the Fogarty International Center Advisory Council, he is Co-Principal Investigator on one of five NIH Fogarty Center-funded Global Health Fellows Program: the Northern Pacific Global Health Research Fellows Training Consortium. Since 2010, he has been the co-director for the Joint Institute for Translational and Clinical Research with Peking University of Health Sciences. He has been extensively involved with the NIH Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI). He lived with his family in Shanghai from 1996-1999 to help establish one of China’s first western-based health care systems. From 2007-11 he served as a consultant to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. A practicing gastroenterologist, he obtained his M.D. degree in 1982 from the University of Minnesota Medical School and completed his post-graduate training at the University of Michigan.