Academic and Faculty Affairs

The Office of Academic and Faculty Affairs is responsible for both faculty and curricular issues.  Academic Affairs develops, manages, and coordinates the curriculum; sets yearly academic and course schedules; and sets student schedules for third and fourth-year clinical rotations and electives.

• Academic and Faculty Affairs:

  Curricular administrative support is provided through this office, including for the Medical Student Education Committee, its four subcommittees and ongoing compliance with LCME accreditation and curriculum standards.  Additional support includes faculty recruitment and development, staff support for electives and interdisciplinary courses such as the Doctoring Course series, and assessment of the curriculum through analysis of student evaluation and feedback of courses and faculty.  This office administers all National Board of Medical Examiners subject exams delivered at the College of Medicine; provides support for career selection guidance, the residency application process, and preparation of the Medical School Performance Evaluation.
• Our Mission:

  To provide leadership in fostering a vital, active learning community that enables students and faculty to achieve excellence and develop a commitment to lifelong learning.

Curriculum Overview

Find out more about the curriculum.

View the academic calendar. 

• Video Transcript: Quillen students give their input on the Quillen experience.

  [Music]

  [Speaker: Dr. Ramsey McGowen]
  Aspects of the Quillen environment that stand out to me have to do with the very close relationship that our students are able to establish with faculty. We have a very dedicated faculty, student-centered, interested in helping every student become the best physician and succeed at the highest level that they can. That in part is facilitated by our small class size. And so students get to know their faculty very well and faculty get to know their students.

  [Speaker: Imani Chapman]
  Aspects of the Quillen curriculum that stand out to me are really strong clinical focus and that when you graduate from here you know how to talk to patients and communicate. You have history and physical exam skills and you'll really be a standout in residency as far as that's concerned. Also our integrated Grand Round experience really stands out to me in that we get to go through a case with an entire group of M1s and M2s and learn about a patient from start to finish. And we get to do that with the help of upper class mentors and faculty.

  [Speaker: Omar McCarty]
  If I were talking to someone considering attending Quillen about the educational program here, I would tell them that it will prepare you well both for the wards and the boards, which isn't always the same thing even though ideally you hoped it would be. And also that the teachers, instructors, the faculty administration all really care about you not only as a physician but also as a person. Another beneficial aspect is the relatively small class size and small institution size overall which allows for some pretty rapid changes whenever they're indicated. And they also allow a great amount of student input into the curriculum, including four different students on the curriculum committee. It's a faculty committee, but each class has a representative on the committee.

  [Speaker: Dr. Ramsey McGowen]
  I believe applicants to Quillen or someone considering Quillen should be aware of how the innovative programming that includes internationally renowned interprofessional education, state-of-the-art simulation and technology, and interesting innovative educational approaches that we have here.

  [Speaker: Omar McCarty]
  The Quillen faculty and administration also make tremendous efforts to structure the curriculum in such a way to benefit the students including protected step one study time at the end of the second year also the inclusion of the portfolios which track our development as physicians again the art of medicine by reflecting on experiences we've had during the clinical years.

  [Speaker: Imani Chapman]
  Really the focus on patients here and patient-centered approaches to medicine as well as the involvement in the community. Other things that are really important and that I've taken part in are opportunities for leadership across the board that really get our students involved in the healthcare experience, but also involved in helping out their community and their classmates as productive members of the community. And I think Quillen does a great job supporting us all and doing anything that we want to do to better ourselves and to better this institution.

  [Speaker: Omar McCarty]
  Another thing that's unique about Quillen and the educational program here is the opportunity to work in different hospitals in the area, which allows students to explore different systems and different approaches to medicine. They're all slightly different in different institutions. And I think that helps prepare students for residency where they may be practicing in a hospital that does things pretty differently than the way they learned in medical school. I think Quillen students are uniquely prepared for that challenge.

  [Speaker: Imani Chapman]
  In general, I think I've had a wonderful time. I've met some really great people. I think that Quillen is a great place because it's a small school and you get to know everyone really well. They get to know you and really are able to help you learn and grow. And as someone who's looking into going into something like OBGYN, which sometimes fits into primary care and sometimes doesn't, I really feel like Quillen has been able to prepare me for just about anything. And while I have a really great knowledge of primary care medicine and basic medicine that I can use in a specialty, I think I'm going to be really well prepared for my specialty as well. and we've seen a lot of people go do amazing things in specialty areas. So while this place is going to teach you how to do the basic primary care and teach you how to do rural medicine and all those great things, you can also be competitive on a national scale with people from all over the country. And I think that's really amazing and also something that probably a lot of people just don't know about when applying to Quillen.

  [Music]