New chair of Family and Community Medicine comes from rural roots
EVMS has tapped a nationally recognized physician and educator to lead EVMS Family and Community Medicine.
Alison Dobbie, MB, ChB, (equivalent to the MD degree) comes to EVMS from the Ross University School of Medicine in Miramar, Fla., where she most recently served as Associate Dean of Curriculum and Education. Prior to that, she served as Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education at Ross.
She is well-versed in both family medicine and medical education, having been awarded over $7 million in educational research grant funding for her studies on educational methodologies and interventions, cultural competence and community-oriented primary care.
Dr. Dobbie has had a long and successful career in academic medicine. Before joining the faculty at Ross, she spent six years at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas — a top 25 U.S. medical school in both research and education. There she served as a tenured Distinguished Teaching Full Professor and as the Perry E. Gross MD Distinguished Chair of Family and Community Medicine.
A dedicated family-medicine practitioner, Dr. Dobbie spent 10 years serving as a rural family-medicine physician and teacher in Scotland. Since moving to the U.S. in 1997, she has held faculty positions at several prominent institutions, including the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio; Imperial College, London, England; the University of Kansas School of Medicine; and UT Southwestern.
Dr. Dobbie comes to us with vast experience in spearheading change in academic medicine. She served on a variety of committees, including a national standards-setting panel for the implementation of the STEP 2 CS exam for all USMLE candidates. She also has served in a number of positions with the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine. Dr. Dobbie has more than 50 publications and over 200 national and international presentations.
Dr. Dobbie earned her medical degree at the University of Glasgow and completed a residency at the University of Edinburgh, both in Scotland. She completed a one-year Faculty Development fellowship at the Faculty Development Center, Waco, Texas, and was a Harvard-Macy Scholar.
Dr. Dobbie assumes the role of Chair of Family and Community Medicine as Christine Matson, MD, steps down. Dr. Matson, Professor of Family Medicine and the Glenn Mitchell Chair in Generalist Medicine, will return to the faculty and gradually decrease her time as she finalizes a variety of commitments at EVMS and concludes her leadership role with a range of professional organizations.