HERSHEY, Pa. — Four Penn State College of Medicine faculty members have been appointed as assistant deans by Dr. Craig Hillemeier, dean, Penn State College of Medicine; CEO, Penn State Health; and senior vice president for health affairs, Penn State, effective July 1:
— Nancy Adams currently serves as the director of Foundational Sciences and will become the assistant dean for Foundational Sciences. She holds a doctorate in adult education from Penn State, a master’s degree in library and information science from Wayne State University in Detroit and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. She has more than 20 years of experience as an educator, beginning as a science educator at the high school and college levels and most recently at the College of Medicine as co-thread leader for evidence-based medicine.
— Dr. Todd Felix has served as the director of Core Clinical Medicine. In his new role as assistant dean for Clinical Medicine, he will oversee clinical training for the Hershey curriculum, the University Park curriculum, and Penn State Health’s affiliate sites in York, Reading, Harrisburg and Chambersburg. Felix joined the Department of Family Medicine at Hershey in 2008 after graduating from the College of Medicine in 2005 and completing his residency at Lancaster General Hospital.
— Dr. Shou Ling Leong is the director of Accelerated Pathways and Longitudinal Integrated Clerkships (LIC) and will take on a broadened role as the assistant dean for Pathways Innovation. She has expanded the accelerated pathways and the LICs within the College of Medicine and achieved national prominence for her work. The college now has five accelerated pathways and four distinct LICs. Leong graduated from New York University School of Medicine and trained at the Swedish Hospital Family Practice Residency in Seattle. She joined the College of Medicine in 1994.
— Ira Ropson is currently the director of Medical Student Research and will become the assistant dean for Medical Student Research. Under his leadership, the medical student research project transformed from a requirement to an academic exercise in discovery and scholarship for 150 students annually. Since Ropson became director in 2012, the number of publications and meeting presentations with medical students as an author has increased by 50 percent.