Senthil Kumar Rajasekaran, M.D., MMHPE, has been appointed senior associate dean for Curricular Affairs and Undergraduate Medical Education in the Office of Medical Education, and as professor of Pharmacology at the Wayne State University School of Medicine.

Vice Dean of Medical Education Richard Baker, M.D., who announced the appointment Oct. 29, said Dr. Rajasekaran’s recruitment was the result of an extensive nationwide search. He will join the administration in February 2020.

He will provide leadership and will have primary responsibility for the design, continuing development and implementation of the curriculum leading to the medical degree, Vice Dean Baker said.

“Dr. Rajasekaran has a proven track record as an innovating educational leader and will undoubtedly be a driving force and major catalyst of the exciting curricular transformation occurring at our School of Medicine,” Dr. Baker said.

Dr. Rajasekaran is the associate dean for Academic Affairs at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Va., where he led a major curriculum reform that resulted in improved learning outcomes. That effort won national recognition for its innovative design and focus on social determinants of health and chronic disease prevention and management.

He was a founding co-director of the Center for Excellence in Medical Education at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, where he was instrumental in establishing the Fellowship in Medical Education and Residents as Teachers programs. He also served as dean of Basic Sciences, and professor and chair of Pharmacology and Clinical Therapeutics at St. Matthew’s University in Grand Cayman, where he successfully led a major curricular revision and restructuring.

Dr. Rajasekaran has won multiple institutional and national awards of excellence, including the 2017 Teaching Value Award from the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation and Costs of Care, and multiple Golden Apple Awards for teaching excellence. He has received honorary fellowships in the American College of Clinical Pharmacology and the Academy of Medical Educators in the United Kingdom.

He is engaged in the regional, national and international medical education landscape. He was selected to serve on the steering committee of the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Southern Group on Education Affairs and oversees that organization’s Special Interest Groups. He was elected by the member schools to serve as a member of the Executive Committee of American Medical Association Accelerating Change in Education consortium. He is a member of the Executive Council of World Federation for Medical Education, and represents the organization in the World Health Organization’s medical education related-meetings.

He has written and co-written multiple publications, and has been invited to present and chair sessions at national and international meetings. He also serves as a deputy editor of the Teaching and Learning in Medicine journal.