WashU Medicine elevates Aagaard, Zehnder to expanded education leadership roles
Promotions reflect leadership in advancing medical education amid rapid change and new technologies
WashU Medicine(Left) WashU Medicine deans Eva Aagaard, MD, and Nichole Zehnder, MD, have been promoted to assume greater roles leading the Office of Education’s efforts to train the next generation of health and science professionals. Aagaard has been named the school’s vice dean for education and will continue her university role as vice chancellor for medical education. Zehnder will become the senior associate dean for undergraduate medical education. The titles take effect Nov. 1.
Two top deans in the WashU Medicine Office of Education have been promoted to take on more expansive roles leading the education and training of the next generation of health and science professionals during a time of rapid change and emerging technologies.
Eva Aagaard, MD, the Carol B. and Jerome T. Loeb Professor of Medical Education, has been named the school’s vice dean for education and will continue her university role as vice chancellor for medical education. She has been the senior associate dean for education since 2017.
Nichole Zehnder, MD, the associate dean for educational strategy, will become the senior associate dean for undergraduate medical education.
Their promotions take effect Nov. 1.
“WashU Medicine has been a world leader in medical education, home to the most talented students, and we have been fortunate to recruit the best possible leaders for this important part of our mission,” said David H. Perlmutter, MD, executive vice chancellor for medical affairs, the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Distinguished Professor and the George and Carol Bauer Dean of WashU Medicine. “Drs. Aagaard and Zehnder have utilized the scientific principles of education to modernize our curriculum and provide state-of-the-art coaching and mentoring to advance the learning experience. Remarkably, they’ve accomplished this amidst enormous challenges from the changing world around us.”
A national leader in medical education, Aagaard spearheaded the medical school’s highly regarded Gateway Curriculum, which launched in 2020 at the height of the pandemic. In addition to the MD program, she also oversees all the school’s offerings in graduate medical education, including 199 esteemed residency and fellowship programs, allied health professions programs and WashU Medicine’s PhD programs in the Roy and Diana Vagelos Division of Biology & Biomedical Sciences (DBBS). Regarding the latter, Aagaard is supporting a renewal of the curriculum and organizational structure led by DBBS director Steven Mennerick, PhD, associate dean for graduate education and the John P. Feighner Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology.
Aagaard’s efforts have extended beyond students and trainees through multiple initiatives promoting faculty success. Among them is the Academy of Educators, which offers programs, workshops, grants and awards that support professional growth.
“Dr. Aagaard is a true visionary whose impact on the students, faculty and staff at the medical school, and across the university, has been life-changing in the most positive way,” Perlmutter said. “Her courage and creativity have been essential in catalyzing the changes that were necessary to continue the legacy of WashU as a powerhouse in medical and scientific education and training.”
While Aagaard will continue to support graduate and undergraduate medical education, her new title recognizes her broader responsibilities across the university and Medical Campus.
“We’re in a time of significant change in graduate and professional education,” Aagaard said. “My new role allows me to proactively assess risks and provide support and resources to ensure the ongoing success of all our excellent programs.”
Aagaard joined WashU Medicine in 2017 after serving as a professor of medicine and associate dean for educational strategy at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and as director of the University of Colorado’s Academy of Medical Educators and its Center for Advancing Professional Excellence.
As associate dean for educational strategy, Zehnder has overseen multiple learner and faculty success programs, partnerships with WashU Disability Resources, dual-degree programs and EXPLORE, an immersive and longitudinal program created as part of the Gateway Curriculum. EXPLORE aims to help aspiring doctors find their niche in academic medicine.
Zehnder also led the launch of the new curriculum’s coaching program, which many students have cited as one of their favorite parts of their education. The program involves faculty coaches — trained by Zehnder in topics such as navigating difficult conversations — who meet with students in small groups and individually throughout their time at WashU Medicine. Coaching sessions encourage students to share thoughts about communal experiences encountered in medical school and medicine in general. Students also talk about academic and personal victories and struggles.
“Along with her medical expertise and teaching talents, Dr. Zehnder has an incredible gift for connecting with both the students and the faculty,” Perlmutter said.
In her new role, Zehnder will assume greater oversight of medical student education, including supporting the integration of artificial intelligence into the curriculum, advancing student success and ensuring admissions continue to align with WashU Medicine’s core mission of education, patient care and research.
Zehnder joined WashU Medicine in 2020 after serving as the assistant dean of admissions, assistant dean of student affairs and clerkship and sub-internship director in internal medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
