Nutrition Education Program

Gail Morrison, MD

Morrison Dr. Gail Morrison, Professor of Medicine, is Vice Dean for Education (1995-present) and Director of the Office of Academic Programs at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. For 20 years, she has been actively involved in directing educational programs in the Department of Medicine, the School of Medicine and nationally, in the Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine (CDIM) organization. She has served as the associate chairman of the Department of Medicine for medical student education (1986-1995), and the associate dean for clinical curriculum (1991-1995), in the School of Medicine.

Dr. Morrison earned her medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania and completed her internship/residency from Beth Israel Hospital in Boston and Georgetown University Hospital. After serving as Staff Associate at the NIH in the NHLBI (National Heart Lung and Blood Institute) for one year, she completed a fellowship in nephrology at the University of Pennsylvania. She was appointed Assistant Professor of Medicine in 1976, was promoted to Associate Professor in 1982 and to Professor in 1994. She is a board certified nephrologists.

Her role as a visionary leader in medical education resulted in her appointment in 1995 as the Vice Dean for Education and Director of Academic Programs for the School of Medicine. She was responsible for the successful implementation of an innovative, integrated and modular four year curriculum (Curriculum 2000™) in 1997 for the School of Medicine. In addition, she implemented an electronic adjunct to Curriculum 2000T, called Virtual Curriculum 2000T that allows students to access all of their lectures (audio and video), images and slides on demand, seven days a week, 24 hours a day, via the internet. An on-line evaluation system, Simulation Suite, and Standardized Patient Program, have added additional breadth to the new curriculum.

Since 1990, Dr. Morrison, has been the PI or Co/PI on seven educational grants/contracts totaling $3.5 million. Her Nutrition textbook, innovative for its case-based approach, was the result of grants from the Heinz Endowment and National Cancer Institute and is being used by more than 50 medical schools in the U.S. to teach their nutrition curriculum.

She served on advisory panels for the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the Association of Professors of Medicine (APM), and the Federated Council for Internal Medicine (FCIM), the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME), and the Society for General Internal Medicine (SGIM). She presently is the chair of the advisory committee for the Medical Student Performance Evaluation committee (MSPE), for the AAMC and a member of the newly appointed AAMC Institute for Improving Medical Education (IIME).

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