Charlene Dewey, MD, MEd, MACP, professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has received the 2025 Presidential Award for medicine from the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA).
“Dr. Charlene Dewey’s leadership and innovations in medical education, particularly through the Educator Development Program (EDP) and Residents as Teachers and Leaders (RATL), have transformed how physicians are trained as leaders and educators,” said AMWA president Susan Hingle, MD.
Dewey joined Vanderbilt in 2007 with joint appointments in the Department of Medical Education and Administration, now the Office of Health Sciences Education, and the Department of Medicine Division of General Internal Medicine and Public Health.
“I am honored to receive this notable award from the AMWA, an organization that reflects many of my own values,” said Dewey. “It has been my life’s mission to understand and then support the medical educational needs of all learners, at all levels, and it is humbling to be acknowledged for those efforts. I stand in great company.”
Dewey is assistant dean for Educator Development and director of the Center for Professional Health at VUMC. She is the chair of the Faculty Wellness Committee and past chair of the Faculty Senate at Vanderbilt University.
“A dedicated advocate for health care professional wellness, Dr. Dewey has addressed stress management, burnout prevention and resilience at a critical time for the medical community,” Hingle said.
“Dr. Dewey exemplifies AMWA’s values of leadership, service and [has] a passion for education and well-being. Her work has enriched the lives of countless medical professionals and continues to shape the future of medicine.”
Dewey is a national expert and sought-after educator in the proper prescribing of controlled prescription drugs/opioid management and the professional health and wellness of the health care provider including overall well-being, stress management, burnout and impairment prevention.
Dewey is a member of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine’s Academy for Excellence in Education and the YWCA Academy for Women of Achievement (2015). She received the 2013 ATHENA International Award.
She was honored by Bradley University with the Distinguished Alumni Award and the Bradley University Orville Nothdurft Lifetime Achievement Award. She has two named scholarships in her honor and is a three-time recipient of the Vanderbilt 5-Star Award for 100% Patient Satisfaction.
Dewey is a graduate of Morehouse School of Medicine where she received the Ciba-Geigy Award for Academic and Community Leadership and the departments of Medicine and Psychiatry achievement awards.
She completed her residency and chief residency at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center. Dewey then joined the faculty of the Baylor College of Medicineand was designated as a T. T. Chao Scholar. At Baylor, she served as the assistant director for the Division of General Internal Medicine.
Dewey received her MEd in curriculum design and evaluation from the University of Houston and developed two model programs: the Educator Development Program (EDP) and the Residents as Teachers and Leaders (RATL) Program.
The EDP enhances the medical education, knowledge and skills of faculty members, students, residents and fellows and other administrators and department leaders who teach in the medical graduate or nursing school environment. The RATL Program is designed to help residents develop nonclinical skills critical to their success as senior-level residents and practicing physicians.
Dewey serves on the National Academy of Medicine Action Collaborative Countering the U.S. Opioid Epidemic Education and Training Working Group and was an invited participant in the ACGME opioid education program in 2021. She served on the American College of Physicians (ACP) Physician Well-Being Taskforce and the ACP Education Committee.
She was elected to the ACP Board of Regents in 2023 and served on the Governance Committee, the Ethics, Professionalism and Human Rights Committee, the Professional Development and Fulfillment Committee, and chaired the Education Committee.
Dewey received her award at the AMWA’s annual meeting on March 29.
