CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The Carle Illinois College of Medicine has announced nearly 100 inaugural faculty members. The list includes prominent researchers, administrators and medical professionals with a broad range of expertise invaluable to building the world’s first engineering-based college of medicine.
“The goal of our new college of medicine is to help re-engineer the entire health care process alongside medical education,” said Dr. King Li, the dean of the Carle Illinois College of Medicine. “This is a place where researchers from across specialties are brought together to address grand challenges, and that is a very special atmosphere.”
The college is a partnership between the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Carle Health System, based in Urbana. The college will welcome its first class of 32 students in 2018.
“To have a world-class university with diverse expertise form a partnership with a top-notch health system that is vertically integrated, with the joint ambition to revolutionize health care delivery – this is the opportunity of a lifetime,” Li said.
The inaugural faculty includes members representing eight colleges and schools across the Urbana campus, including the school of social work and the colleges of agricultural, consumer and environmental sciences; applied health sciences; education; engineering; liberal arts and sciences; media and veterinary medicine. The Illinois faculty will teach alongside medical professionals from Carle Health System and the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine and nursing program.
A full list is available at go.illinois.edu/First100MedFaculty.
The unique curriculum combines clinical medicine and biosciences with engineering and technology principles, offering day one immersion in clinical settings and an emphasis on problem-solving approaches and creativity.
Under Li’s ongoing leadership, an interim team of vice and associate deans will guide the college through its formation and lay its foundation. The team includes:
Interim vice dean: Rashid Bashir, a professor and head of bioengineering.
Interim associate dean of research: Dr. Martin D. Burke, a professor of chemistry.
Interim director of biomedical science and engineering: Susan Martinis, a professor and head of biochemistry and medical biochemistry.
Interim director of clinical science and interim associate dean for clinical affairs: Dr. Blair Rowitz, a bariatric surgeon at Carle Foundation Hospital.
Interim associate dean for academic affairs: James Slauch, a professor of microbiology and director of the medical scholars program.
“With these faculty and this leadership team, we are uniquely poised to shape the future of health care delivery, technology and medical education,” Li said.