Announcing the appointment of Dr. Brian Schwartz as the new Associate Chair for Education in the Dept. of Medicine

Dear Colleagues:

I’m thrilled to announce that Brian Schwartz has accepted our offer to become the Associate Chair for Education for the Department of Medicine. Brian will begin on July 1, taking over for Pat Cornett, who is stepping down after 21 exceptional years in the role.

The Associate Chair for Education oversees all of the DOM’s educational programs, including our medical student rotations, residencies, fellowships, and CME. Managing a budget of $36M for trainees and $7.3M for central administration, and a staff of 31 (including fellowship administrators), the Associate Chair is responsible for ensuring that our educational programs deliver a superb experience to our trainees, meet myriad regulatory and accreditation requirements, and continue to be viewed as some of the most highly regarded and innovative programs in the nation.

Brian’s background makes him uniquely qualified for this role. He attended the University of Michigan as an undergraduate and medical school at Rush. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Mass General before coming to UCSF for his fellowship in infectious diseases. He joined our faculty in 2008, and rapidly distinguished himself as an extraordinary clinician-educator and leader. He currently serves as course director for the microbiology/immunology block in the School of Medicine and as Program Director of our Infectious Diseases Fellowship. From 2014-2019 he held the Gold-Headed Cane Endowed Teaching Chair for Internal Medicine. He and his fellow Endowed Teaching Chair, Anna Chang, developed the DOM Program for Clinician-Educator Success (PRO-cess), which launched this year to provide mentoring, faculty development, community building, and support for educational scholarship. Brian’s teaching and educational leadership have been recognized by his election to the Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators; he has chaired the organization’s membership committee since 2018. He has received several teaching awards, including the Henry J. Kaiser Award for Excellence in Classroom Teaching and the UCSF Excellence and Innovation Award in Graduate Medical Education.

Nationally, he has worked tirelessly to support infectious diseases clinician-educators. Brian served as the inaugural chair (2019-2021) of the Medical Education Community of Practice for the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), work for which he was awarded the IDSA Society Citation Award. He was also a Committee Member (2013-2017) and then Chair (2018-2019) of the Microbiology and Immunology Item Writing Committee for the National Board of Medical Examiners.

In addition to his roles in education, Brian is also Vice Chief for Clinical Affairs for the Infectious Diseases Division at UCSF Health. This role has given him an important perspective into clinical operations, funds flow, and the integration of trainees into inpatient and ambulatory clinical services. His commitment to DEI is impressive, as evidenced by the increasing diversity of the Infectious Disease fellowship under his leadership (over the past three years, approximately 40% of ID fellows are from underrepresented groups). Brian also has a strong track record of scholarship, as author or co-author on 60 papers in the peer-reviewed literature, including many on topics in medical education.

Brian has very large shoes to fill. Pat Cornett has served in the role of DOM Associate Chair for Education since 2001, transforming both the role and our educational programs in the process. She will hand off a well-functioning educational enterprise with strong administrative infrastructure, world-class programs, and superb leaders in all the educational domains: UME, GME, and CME. Luckily, Pat will remain on our faculty, focusing on her work in hematology.

A huge thanks to the search committee, led by Sandrijn van Schaik, Vice Chair of Education for the Department of Pediatrics, for doing a wonderful job in what was a very competitive process. Thanks too to the other superb educators who applied for the role.

Please join me in welcoming Brian Schwartz to his new role as Associate Chair for Education for the Department of Medicine.

Sincerely,

Bob Wachter, MD
Chair, UCSF Department of Medicine
Holly Smith Distinguished Professor of Science and Medicine
Lynne and Marc Benioff Endowed Chair in Hospital Medicine