Dr. Lisa Grill Dodson to Step Down From Leadership Role at MCW–Central Wisconsin

Lisa Grill Dodson, MD, Sentry Dean and founding dean of MCW-Central Wisconsin (MCW-CW), will step down from her executive leadership role on June 30, 2025, after nearly 11 years at the helm. She plans to live in Wausau, Wisconsin, after the transition, and will remain on the faculty as a professor of family and community medicine. Following approval of the MCW board of trustees, she will be named founding dean emerita of MCW-Central Wisconsin.

(pictured right) Dr. Dodson, 2015

Dr. Dodson loves attending community events and is thrilled to be a member of the Wausau Curling Club. These are the types of activities that have made the practice and teaching of rural medicine in remote areas so appealing to Dr. Dodson throughout her career.

“I like living in small towns where I know everyone and have the opportunity to interact with the community,” says Dr. Dodson. “It is uplifting to be surrounded by people whom I see regularly.” It was the opportunity to live in such an area and to build an academic program from scratch focused on rural medicine that led Dr. Dodson to take the role of founding dean of MCW-CW in 2014. She was named the Sentry Dean in 2019.

As founding dean, Dr. Dodson has provided overall leadership and management of MCW’s regional medical school campus in Central Wisconsin – but she is adamant that the successes the campus has experienced are the result of a team effort. “Another reason I like living in a smaller town is that the smaller the place, the more impact you can have,” she notes. “The faculty, staff and I didn’t just start a medical school – we worked to address the healthcare needs of an entire community.”

For this reason, Dr. Dodson is proud of everyone with whom she has worked. “Every person who works here could work elsewhere, but they bought into our mission. They want to train amazing doctors who can help improve the health of an incredible community,” Dr. Dodson adds.

Reflecting on her time at MCW-CW, Dr. Dodson also is proud that many of the students have returned to the area after residency. “We are seeing our graduates get their training and then come back,” she remarks. “When I first came here, people would say to me, ‘My doctor just retired. Can you recommend anyone I can see?’ At the time, I didn’t have any names. Now, I have a growing list of doctors we trained whom they can see.”

(pictured left) Dr. Dodson and Dr. John R. Raymond, Sr., at the inaugural MCW-Central Wisconsin White Coat Ceremony, 2016

MCW-CW welcomed its first class of students in 2016, celebrated its first graduating class in 2019 and to date has graduated 113 physicians. More than 80 percent of the graduates from the earlier classes have returned to practice in rural and non-urban areas of the state – fulfilling the regional campus’s mission and filling a crucial need in northern and central Wisconsin.

Dr. Dodson says that being founding dean has had its challenges, some of which included the availability of preceptors. “When the campus opened, people in the community were not used to medical education – so some of the community doctors required coaxing to become preceptors because they hadn’t had experience teaching,” she says.

“But it all worked out. My time at MCW-Central Wisconsin has been a gift, and I can’t think of a better way to have spent the last 10 years,” Dr. Dodson muses. “I am so thankful for the community that accepted us, and for the MCW folks who hired me.”

Dr. Dodson with MCW-Central Wisconsin medical students Miriam Sanchez and Tommy Vos, 2024

– Anthony Braza