Klara Papp has been appointed as associate dean for assessment and program evaluation in the Office of Medical Education at Penn State College of Medicine. In this role, Papp will serve as a resource for medical and graduate education programs as well as for residency training. Her areas of expertise include program evaluation, learner assessment, and educational research and scholarship. Papp, who began her new duties Oct. 15, brings a national research perspective and programmatic experience to the importance of outcomes-based education.
Papp joins the College of Medicine after serving as the associate dean for assessment at SUNY Downstate Medical Center. Prior to her tenure at Downstate Medical Center, Papp was the director of the Center for the Advancement of Medical Learning at Case Western Reserve University and chair of program evaluation for the Case Western Reserve University-Cleveland Clinic CTSA Collaborative. She earned her doctorate in educational psychology from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
A deputy editor for the Journal of General Medicine and guest editor for its 2013 Education issue, Papp is also on the medical editorial board for the International Journal of Medical Education. She served as editor for the American Board of Internal Medicine Maintenance of Certification Modules for the American College of Rheumatology. In addition, she has served on the National Council of the Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine (CDIM) and chaired its Research Committee. She is a recipient of the CDIM’s prestigious Charles H. Griffith III Educational Research Award.
Papp is a leader in competency-based assessment design that includes both qualitative and quantitative assessments of learner performance. In her work she collaborates closely with course and clerkship faculty to guide the preparation of test questions and to ensure fairness in scoring. In addition, she provides expertise in the design of methods to collect curriculum feedback and inform improvements that are made in real time and from year to year.