Assistant Dean Scholarly Affairs, School of Medicine

Position: Assistant Dean for Scholarly Affairs, School of Medicine
The Assistant Dean for Scholarly Affairs (or Director for Scholarly Affairs) is a full-time academic leadership position responsible for advancing a cohesive, inclusive, and productive culture of scholarship across the School of Medicine. The role emphasizes the development of people first-faculty, mentors, and emerging scholars-by building mentoring capacity, supporting high-quality scholarly activity, and ensuring that all medical students acquire foundational research skills and complete a meaningful scholarly project.

The Assistant Dean/Director collaborates with Graduate Medical Education (GME) leadership to align scholarly expectations, mentoring capacity, and research skill development across the UME-GME continuum. The role works in close collaboration with Methodist University research administration, clinical partners, and the health system to strengthen research governance, ethical oversight, and scholarly infrastructure. A key focus of this position is supporting, in partnership with the University, the development of a robust and responsive Institutional Review Board (IRB) process that effectively serves School of Medicine educational, clinical, and community-based scholarship as the institution advances toward an integrated academic medical system.

This position provides both strategic leadership and operational oversight of faculty and student scholarly activity and serves as a central integrator across departments, clinical partners, and community settings. Appointment at the level of Assistant Dean or Director will be determined based on demonstrated scope of leadership experience, institutional responsibility, and readiness for school-wide leadership.

Appointment and Rank

* Full-time position with a faculty appointment in the Department of Health Systems Sciences, which will serve as the academic home for this role.

* Faculty rank at the level of Associate Professor (academic or comparable non-tenure track), commensurate with background, experience, and institutional policies.

* Terminal degree required: MD, DO, PhD, EdD, or equivalent.

* For MD/DO appointees: limited, ongoing clinical practice is expected to maintain professional expertise and inform clinically relevant scholarship.

Primary Responsibilities

1. Faculty Scholarship and Mentor Development

Lead the development of a school-wide scholarly ecosystem that supports all SOM faculty across their career stages, with particular attention to clinician-educators, community-based faculty, and novice scholars. This responsibility includes:

* Creating and maintaining a faculty scholarly interests and mentoring capacity directory

* Designing and implementing faculty scholarship development pathways (e.g., works-in-progress sessions, writing groups, novice scholar programs)

* Providing individualized coaching in project scoping, study design, scholarly writing, and dissemination

* Establishing clear expectations and guidance for faculty mentors, including roles, timelines, and recognition mechanisms

* Collaborating with GME leadership and residency program directors to identify shared faculty mentors, align scholarly interests, and support faculty mentoring students and residents across training levels

Deliverable outcomes: expanded mentor pool; increased faculty participation in scholarship; improved completion and dissemination of faculty scholarly work.

2. Teaching and Development of Foundational Research Skills

Provide leadership for teaching foundational research and scholarly skills to medical students and faculty, ensuring learners are prepared to engage meaningfully in scholarly work. This responsibility includes:

* Teaching or overseeing instruction in core research competencies (e.g., research design, ethics, IRB/QI distinctions, basic data interpretation, dissemination)

* Integrating research skill development longitudinally across the curriculum in collaboration with educational leadership

* Developing or curating standardized educational materials and workshops supporting research literacy

* Coordinating, where appropriate, with GME research education efforts to align foundational research skills taught in undergraduate and graduate medical education

Deliverable outcomes: defined research skills curriculum; documented teaching sessions; learner preparedness for mentored scholarly projects.

3. Medical Student Scholarly Activity Leadership

Provide leadership for the medical student scholarly activity requirement, ensuring every student has access to a feasible, mentored scholarly project and appropriate academic support. This responsibility includes:

* Establishing and overseeing a structured scholarly activity framework with defined milestones and timelines

* Implementing a mentor-student matching process aligned with faculty expertise and student interests

* Supporting project completion and dissemination through posters, presentations, or manuscripts

* Coordinating an annual student scholarly showcase or symposium

Deliverable outcomes: on-time project…