Seetha U. Monrad, M.D.
The Board of Regents on Feb. 16 approved the appointment of Seetha U. Monrad, M.D., as associate dean for medical student education in the Medical School, effective February 1.
In her new role, Dr. Monrad will guide the medical student education program, including continual evaluation and improvement of the curriculum and medical student admission process, and activities related to maintaining accreditation through the Liaison Committee on Medical Education. Additional responsibilities include fostering the MHome student learning community and oversight of student services (including academic counseling and career services).
A clinical professor of internal medicine and learning health sciences, she has held numerous leadership positions in the Medical School, including assistant dean for assessment, evaluation and quality improvement since April 2018, and interim assistant dean for curriculum since January 2021. Additionally, she has served on several institutional committees including the Anti Racism Oversight Committee, the Advisory Committee on Clinical Track Appointments and Promotions, and peer review committees for the Office of Clinical Affairs.
Dr. Monrad received her M.D. from Washington University in St. Louis. After an internal medicine residency at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, she completed a rheumatology fellowship at the University of Michigan and subsequently joined the faculty in 2003 as a clinical lecturer/research fellow in the Department of Internal Medicine. She received an additional appointment in the Department of Learning Health Sciences in 2016, and was promoted to clinical professor of internal medicine in 2022.
She joined the medical school curriculum team in 2007 as a preclinical course instructor, and was heavily involved in the development and implementation of the current UMMS educational program, including serving as director of the foundational basic and clinical science years (the Trunk). She worked tirelessly with faculty, staff and students on the conceptualization, design and implementation of the Trunk for our medical students, as part of our curricular transformation.
Dr. Monrad has received multiple awards in recognition of her excellence in patient care and teaching. She was the 2014 recipient of the Kaiser Permanente Excellence in Teaching Award (pre-clinical), the most prestigious teaching award given by the Medical School. In 2015, she was inducted into the Department of Internal Medicine Clinical Excellence Society and the Medical School League of Educational Excellence. She also is a member of the Gold Humanism and Alpha Omega Alpha honor societies.