Dr. Adina Luba Kalet named Director of the Kern Institute

This announcement is from Joseph E. Kerschner, MD, Dean, School of Medicine, Provost and Executive Vice President

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Adina Luba Kalet, MD, MPH, as Director of the Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Institute for the Transformation of Medical Education, effective September 1, 2019, pending approval by the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) Board of Trustees. Dr. Kalet currently serves as Professor of Medicine and Surgery with tenure at the New York University (NYU) School of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine and Clinical Innovation (New York, NY) Dr. Kalet also will be awarded the Stephen and Shelagh Roell Endowed Chair.

The Kern Institute was established as an academic department within MCW in 2017 with a substantial gift of $37.8 million from the Kern Family Trust and Kern Family Foundation. The Institute is working to transform medical education and aims to create a community of leaders who will be guided by the principle of the Triple Aim for Medical Education which focuses on character, competence and caring.

As Director of the Kern Institute, Dr. Kalet will take the helm of a highly innovative and collaborative institute which is a standalone department within the School of Medicine. She will build on the upward trajectory of this innovative institute and continue to lead and strengthen key areas that include transforming faculty, students, curriculum, culture and systems. Dr. Kalet will ensure that the Institute boldly and creatively responds to the ever-changing environment of healthcare and its connection to medical education. Her responsibilities will include leadership for strategic planning and implementation, curriculum and program development, faculty and student recruitment and retention, budgeting, fundraising and general administration. Additionally, Dr. Kalet is expected to be appointed to a leadership role in the Office of Academic Affairs.

Dr. Kalet has more than 25 years of experience leading innovation, scholarship and research to prepare excellent physicians, and was identified as the top candidate for this role after a comprehensive national search process. I would like to extend my gratitude to Jon Lehrmann, MD, chair of the search committee – as well as to the full committee membership – for their unwavering dedication of time, insights and thoughtfulness in undertaking this key recruitment effort.

Dr. Kalet earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the Sophie Davis School for Biomedical Education, City College of New York (New York, NY) in 1982. She received her MD degree from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine (New York, NY) in 1984 and a Master of Public Health degree in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC) in 1990. Dr. Kalet trained in Primary Care Internal Medicine from 1984-1987 at New York University/Bellevue Hospital (New York, NY). Dr. Kalet was awarded a Bowen-Brooks Fellowship by the New York Academy of Medicine to study medical education innovation in Israel and Holland from 1987-1988. From 1988-1990, she was a Fellow in Health Services Research in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at the University of North Carolina.

Dr. Kalet has been a member of the NYU School of Medicine faculty since 1991, serving as an Instructor in Clinical Medicine (1991-1994), Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine (1994-2004) and Associate Professor of Medicine and Surgery with tenure (2004-2012). Dr. Kalet was promoted to her current role in 2012.

Dr. Kalet was a Master Scholar, Walter Reed Society for Health Policy and Public Health, Masters Scholars Program, NYU School of Medicine, from 2000-2007. She was a Fellow in the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) Program from 2009-2010 and held the Arnold P. Gold Professorship in Humanism and Professionalism from 2010-2013.

Since 2014, Dr. Kalet has served as Founding Scholar at the NYU School of Medicine’s Institute for Innovation in Medical Education and advisor to the educator community. She is a member of the NYU School of Medicine Educator Community Steering Committee; NIH/National Library of Medicine advisory, Literature Selection Technical Review Committee (of which she was appointed Chair in 2018); the International Academic Review Committee at the Joyce and Irving Goldman Medical School, Ben Gurion University of the Negev (Israel); the Arnold P. Gold Foundation Medical and Professional Advisory Council; and many more. Additionally, Dr. Kalet is Evaluation Lead for the Doris Duke Fund for Retention of Clinical Scientists (NYU site). In 2015, Dr. Kalet became the co-Director of the US site of the University of Maastricht Master’s in Health Professions Education (MHPE); she will continue in that role after joining MCW. Dr. Kalet also sits on a number of Medical Education PhD dissertation committees.

Health professions education innovation and research is the central theme of Dr. Kalet’s career. She has worked collaboratively for decades across medical disciplines and professions to serve the health of the public, especially its most vulnerable populations. Dr. Kalet’s major research interests and contributions include: health professions education research to ensure an excellent primary care workforce; medical education and technology; ensuring the clinical competence of the physician workforce through development of rigorous and meaningful measurement of clinical skills, faculty teaching skills and effective strategies to remediate poor performers; and advancing the science and impact of research mentoring and career development to increase the capacity for health services, medical education and clinical translational research to meet the growing demands.

A dedicated educator, Dr. Kalet is a member of many faculty mentoring committees at the NYU School of Medicine, and has extensive medical student, resident and fellow teaching experience. Similarly, she has mentored a host of learners over the course of her academic career – many of whom have gone on to successful professional endeavors in academic medicine. She is the founding Director of the Mentor Development Programs for the NYU/H&H Clinical Translational Science Institute and the NIH Programs to Increase Diversity Among Individuals Engaged in Health-Related Research (PRIDE).

Dr. Kalet has received numerous awards and honors, including the Mannix Award for Excellence in Medical Education from the New York State Medical Society (2002); the Society for General Internal Medicine Mid-Atlantic Regional Award for Excellence as a Clinician-Teacher (2003); the Society for General Internal Medicine National Award for Scholarship in Medical Education (2008); the American Academy on Communication in Health Care, Lynn Payer Award for outstanding contributions to literature on the theory, practice and teaching of effective healthcare communication and related skills (2012); and the Distinguished Teaching Award, AOA Delta Chapter (2017). Dr. Kalet was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society in 2017. She recently was awarded the prestigious National Board of Medical Examiners Edward J. Stemmler Medical Education Research Fund Award as part of a collaborative international team of researchers to study the direct link between medical education and patient outcomes. On May 10, Dr. Kalet received the Society for General Internal Medicine’s Career Achievements in Medical Education Award, which recognizes an outstanding clinician-educator whose lifetime contributions have profoundly advanced, and have widespread impact on, the art and science of medicine and medical education.

From 2004-2009, Dr. Kalet was Deputy Editor, Journal of General Internal Medicine. Currently, she is a reviewer for Teaching and Learning in Medicine; Substance Abuse, Journal of the Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse; Journal of the American Medical Association; Annals of Internal Medicine; Journal of General Internal Medicine; Academic Medicine; Annals of the Academy of Medicine; Medical Teacher; Medical Educator; Health Education and Behavior; Biomed Central; and Pediatrics. Dr. Kalet was appointed to the editorial board of the Journal of General Internal Medicine in May 2019.

She has participated in more than 60 invited lectures, workshops and presentations, both nationally and internationally. Dr. Kalet’s bibliography includes 117 peer-reviewed articles, 10 peer-reviewed brief reports; seven peer-reviewed educational materials; 15 manuscripts in progress; three books; 11 book chapters; over 200 peer-reviewed abstracts presented; and numerous other articles and abstracts.

Dr. Kalet will be relocating from New York. Her husband, Mark D. Schwartz, and children, Sara and Zachai Kalet-Schwartz, will be frequent visitors to the MCW community.

I want to express my sincerest gratitude and deepest appreciation to Cheryl A. Maurana, PhD, Senior Vice President for Strategic Academic Partnerships, who has been serving as Stephen and Shelagh Roell Endowed Chair, Professor and Founding Director of the Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Institute for the Transformation of Medical Education since its launch in June 2017. Through her leadership, the Kern Institute has progressed enormously and has achieved the initial goals set in place at a rapid pace. As Vice President for Strategic Academic Partnerships, Dr. Maurana will continue to develop new initiatives that leverage her wonderful leadership including work to expand the relationships we have developed with partner institutions. In her capacity as continuing Director of the consortium of seven schools of medicine, I look forward to Dr. Maurana’s leadership for this important work.is from Joseph E. Kerschner, MD, Dean, School of Medicine, Provost and Executive Vice President