Vineet Arora,MD, the Herbert T. Abelson Professor of Medicine (General Internal Medicine) has been appointed as Dean for Medical Education of the Biological Sciences Division effective July 1, 2021.
Dr. Arora received a BA from Johns Hopkins University and MD from Washington University Medical School. She completed her residency in internal medicine, a year as chief resident, and fellowship in general internal medicine at the University of Chicago, and received a master’s from the Harris School of Public Policy. In 2005, she joined the UChicago faculty. Dr. Arora is currently the Herbert T. Abelson Professor of Medicine, Assistant Dean for Scholarship and Discovery, Associate Chief Medical Officer for Clinical Learning Environment, and a Master of the Academy of Distinguished Medical Educators— a lifelong membership that honors University of Chicago faculty for extraordinary contributions to medical education. She is also an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and serves on the Board of Directors of the American Board of Internal Medicine and the Joint Commission.
Throughout her career, Dr. Arora has demonstrated profound personal and academic investment in the quality of medical education. With a particular focus on the learning environment for medical trainees, she works to simultaneously improve the quality of learning and clinical care delivered by trainees in academic hospitals. Dr. Arora led pioneering work on resident sleep, fatigue, and handoffs that have informed changes in residency duty hours. She is the Principal Investigator of an AMA Accelerating Change in Medical Education grant to integrate health systems science into medical education and is a Josiah Macy Faculty Scholar for her work improving the interprofessional clinical learning environment at UChicago Medicine.
Dr. Arora is also an expert in sleep loss and has received NIH funding to study and improve sleep for patients as they transition from hospital to home. Her academic work has been cited over 10,000 times.
Dr. Arora’s dedication to the highest standard of medical care and training is deeply connected to her commitment to equal opportunity in medicine. She has received NIH R-01 funding to study novel methods for using social media to expose minority youth to medical research careers, and leads an NIH grant funded by the Diversity Program Consortium to improve mentor training for women and minority medical students at eight medical schools. She is a member of many groups working for gender equity in medicine, including Women of Impact, and the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s Action Collaborative on Ending Sexual Harassment in Higher Education.
Dr. Arora will succeed Halina Brukner, MD, who has held the position of Dean for Medical Education since 2018. Dr. Brukner joined the University of Chicago faculty in 1985, after completing her residency in internal medicine here as well, and since then has held a number of leadership positions. As Dean for Medical Education, Dr. Brukner remained steadfast in her commitment to fairness and to the highest quality medical education for our trainees.