Dear College of Medicine community,
I am pleased to announce that Mary D. Patterson, M.D., M.Ed., has been selected to serve as Chair of the UF College of Medicine Department of Emergency Medicine, effective immediately. She steps into this role after providing steadfast leadership as the department’s interim chair since July 1, 2021.
Dr. Patterson joined the College of Medicine in 2018 as Associate Dean of Experiential Learning and the Lou Oberndorf Professor of Healthcare Technology. She is an accomplished medical educator and a pediatric emergency medicine physician who is internationally recognized for her expertise in experiential learning and simulation in the health sciences. As a federally funded investigator, Dr. Patterson has demonstrated excellence in advancing the use of medical simulation to understand and improve systems and team performance within health care. She is a past chair of the Healthcare Safety and Quality Improvement Research Study Section of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. She was inducted as a fellow of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare Academy in 2018.
In addition to her roles at the UF College of Medicine, Dr. Patterson has held a number of leadership positions at her former institutions, including founding medical director of the Cincinnati Children’s Center for Simulation and Research and former associate vice chair for medical education and executive director of simulation at Children’s National Medical Center. Her national appointments include past president of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, and she has served as a member of the board of directors for the Society of Simulation in Healthcare and the International Pediatric Simulation Society. In addition, she serves as the chair of the executive committee of the Resilient Health Care Society.
Please join me in congratulating Dr. Patterson on her appointment to lead the Department of Emergency Medicine.
Best,
Dean Koch