Bill Cutrer, MD, MEd, has been named Vanderbilt University School of Medicine’s next associate dean for Undergraduate Medical Education (UME), effective Aug. 1.
His appointment follows the departure of current associate dean Kim Lomis, MD, who held the position since 2010 and is leaving Vanderbilt to become the vice president of Undergraduate Medical Education Innovations at the American Medical Association. In this role, she will lead the AMA’s transformation efforts for UME and will have the opportunity to influence the future of medical education on the national and international levels.
“I am honored and humbled by the opportunity to step into this role at our amazing school.
“The Office of Undergraduate Medical Education has an outstanding team, and I look forward to diving in to the work ahead with them,” Cutrer said. “The Vanderbilt medical students consistently impress me with their level of passion, interest and dedication to the process of becoming doctors. I am excited to partner with our amazing staff, residents and faculty to innovate and improve Curriculum 2.0 in ways that nurture student development as expert learners and compassionate physicians.”
Cutrer earned his MD from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. He completed his pediatrics residency, chief residency and pediatric critical care fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital, and received a Master of Education degree from the University of Cincinnati. In 2010, he joined the VUSM faculty as an assistant professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine.
In addition to his clinical practice in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Cutrer has demonstrated a consistent interest in medical education. He served as assistant pediatric clerkship director from 2011 to 2014, and is widely regarded as a gifted small group teacher, mentor and key contributor to the success of the School of Medicine’s Curriculum 2.0, an innovative medical education model that was implemented in 2013.
As advisory college mentor for Batson College — one of four advisory colleges within the School of Medicine — Cutrer is responsible for providing wellness guidance, career advising and professional development for more than 100 medical students. He has taught several courses, ranging from the first-year Foundations of the Medical Profession to critical care medicine for third- and fourth-year students.
Cutrer directs the Learning Communities, a professional development component of Curriculum 2.0 and the advisory colleges. He has been responsible for curriculum development and expansion of the Learning Communities from a one-year course to a four-year series, and for their successful integration with concurrent foundational science and clinical activities. He co-directs the Immersion Phase of Curriculum 2.0, the two-year, post-clerkship phase that advances fundamental knowledge in the context of clinical settings. For his exceptional skills as teacher and mentor, Cutrer was elected in 2012 to the School of Medicine’s Academy of Excellence in Teaching. He received the John S. Sergent Award for Teaching Medical or Graduate Students in the Small Group Setting in 2015.
Cutrer is interested in understanding how students learn in the workplace and how to help them more effectively. He has published and presented widely on these topics. He co-leads the AMA’s Accelerating Change in Medical Education initiative’s Master Adaptive Learner Working Group. Cutrer also is a member of a core team from Vanderbilt that participates in the Core Entrustable Professional Activities for Entering Residency (Core EPA) national pilot, an initiative developed by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) to better prepare students for their roles as clinicians. Additionally, Cutrer works with the National Transformation Network’s MedEdNext initiative to focus on Character, Competence, and Caring within medical education.
“Through these roles Bill has received excellent preparation for his new responsibilities,” said Bonnie Miller, MD, Senior Associate Dean for Health Sciences Education and
Executive Vice President for Educational Affairs, VUMC. “Bill has garnered national recognition for his contributions to the ‘master adaptive learner’ model, an important conceptual framework for understanding how expert physicians learn in the context of their practices, and for how we can promote these skills and habits in our students.
“He is also widely recognized by his local and national colleagues for his intellect, compassion and humanity. We are so fortunate to have him take on this critically important role for our school.”