The William Maul Measey President’s Distinguished Professorship of Medical Education

William Maul MeaseyThe Professorship was established in 2015 by the Benjamin and Mary Siddons Measey Foundation. The Chair honors William Maul Measey (1875–1967), an alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania Law School Class of 1898, and will be awarded preference toward physicians and/or scientists focusing significantly on medical education.

William Maul Measey, a distinguished corporate attorney in Philadelphia, created the Benjamin and Mary Siddons Measey Foundation in 1958 to honor the memory of his parents. Since the Foundation supports several colleges, universities, schools of medicine, and hospitals in the Philadelphia area, the Measey name has become synonymous with the furtherance of medical education in the region.

President’s Distinguished Professorships are awarded to eminent faculty members with research and teaching expertise in areas identified by the President of the University as high priorities. The creation of President’s Distinguished Professorships at the Perelman School of Medicine has been supported by the challenge gift of Penn University Trustees and Penn Medicine Board members George A. Weiss and Richard W. Vague.


 

Gail MorrisonCurrent Chairholder
Gail Morrison, MD

Gail Morrison, MD is Executive Director of the Innovation Center for Online Medical Education (ICOME), Special Advisor to the EVP/Dean, and the William Maul Measey President’s Distinguished Professor in Medical Education, an honor she has held since 2016.  

Dr. Morrison received her BA from Boston University and her MD from the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania. After serving in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the NIH, she completed a fellowship in nephrology at the University of Pennsylvania. She was appointed to the faculty as Assistant Professor of Medicine in 1976. Since then, she has held numerous leadership roles, including Senior Vice Dean, Associate Chair of the Department of Medicine for Student Education, Chair of the Admissions Committee, and Associate Dean for Clinical Curriculum. 

For the past 30 years, Dr. Morrison has actively shaped the development of medical education both at Penn Medicine and at the national level. As Vice Dean for Education, Dr. Morrison led the Perelman School of Medicine to its eminence in medical education, ranking consistently in the top five medical schools in the country. She led the 1997 design and implementation of Curriculum 2000®, an innovative, modular four-year curriculum that integrates basic sciences, clinical medicine, and humanism and professionalism with a pedagogy that emphasizes case-based learning in small group settings. It has since become a model adapted nationally. In addition, she developed the award-winning Perelman School curriculum “Learning for Life,” which groups major ideas by theme rather than academic discipline. 

From 2010-2017, Dr. Morrison became the first woman to hold the title of Senior Vice Dean at the Perelman School. With an additional focus on increasing medical student diversity and opportunities for success, she went on to champion the “MD plus” degree, allowing medical students to earn additional accreditations, such as the Wharton MBA, MPH, Master's of Translational Research or a Certificate in Global Health. Today, more than half of Perelman School students graduate with an “MD plus” degree. During her tenure as Senior Vice Dean, Dr. Morrison also spearheaded the development of the 60,000-square-foot Henry A. Jordan M’62 Medical Education Center, embedded in UPHS’s active clinical care and translational research facilities. This 21st century medical education facility has resulted in significantly closer collaboration between students and the researchers and physicians of Penn Medicine. 

In her current role as Executive Director of ICOME, Dr. Morrison now leads efforts to develop and implement innovative online medical education offerings that meet students’ evolving needs. ICOME seeks to transform medical education through efforts such as online anatomy classes to help prepare post-baccalaureate and graduate students for health sciences careers or provide continuing education for physicians and other health care providers. 

During her academic career, Dr. Morrison has served as Principal Investigator and Co-Principal Investigator for grants and contracts totaling close to $11 million. She has received many notable education and teaching awards, including the Association of American Medical Colleges 2018 Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Award, the Perelman School’s Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award, the Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine (CDIM) Outstanding Education Program Development Award, the Daniel C. Tosteson, MD Award for Leadership in Medical Education from the Carl J. Shapiro Institute for Education and Research, and the Perelman School’s Lifetime Achievement Award.