About Our Dean
Holly J. Humphrey, MD, FACP
Professor of Medicine
Dean for Medical Education
Dr. Holly Humphrey is Dean for Medical Education at The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. In this role, she oversees medical education for students in the Pritzker School of Medicine and for all residents and fellows in graduate medical education programs at The University of Chicago Medical Center. Since her appointment in 2003, Dr. Humphrey has launched a series of innovative programs to encourage faculty development, enhance medical professionalism, and improve student-faculty diversity. Most notably, in 2005 she launched a comprehensive curriculum reform effort entitled “The Pritzker Initiative: A Curriculum for the 21st Century,” which will be unveiled in the fall of 2009. In 2003, she launched The University of Chicago’s Roadmap to Professionalism to support and enhance the highest professional standards for students, residents, and faculty. As part of this program Dr. Humphrey oversaw the development of the University of Chicago’s chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society. And in 2006, she established the University’s Academy of Distinguished Medical Educators to support and promote research, innovation, and scholarship in medical education at the University of Chicago. Dr. Humphrey has also launched both the Pritzker Advising and Mentoring Societies and the Bowman Society. The latter organization explores issues of health care disparities and provides mentoring for minority students, residents, and faculty. It is named in honor of the University’s first tenured African-American physician. In addition, two new pipeline programs, focusing on preparing under-represented minority students for careers in medicine and promoting a diverse physician workforce were unveiled in 2007. In concert with these initiatives, the Pritzker School of Medicine has recruited one of the most diverse student bodies among American medical schools. While the percentage of matriculants who are underrepresented in medicine is under 10% nationally, that percentage of matriculants at the Pritzker School of Medicine is approximately 18–22% annually. Under Dr. Humphrey’s guidance and leadership, the Pritzker School of Medicine has also soared in its selectivity, as reported by US News and World Report, rising from #41 to #3.
After earning an MD degree with Honors from The University of Chicago, Dr. Humphrey continued her training at this institution in an internal medicine residency and a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine. She was Chief Medical Resident before joining the faculty as an Assistant Professor in 1989, which began a 14-year appointment as Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program. Dr. Humphrey co-edited the first Chief Residents Manual in 1993.
A Professor of Medicine, Dr. Humphrey is a nationally recognized leader in medical education and a sought after visiting professor. In 2005, Dr. Humphrey became the first sitting faculty member from The University of Chicago to deliver the Lowell T. Coggeshall Memorial Lecture. In 2008, Dr. Humphrey delivered the Miller Lecture at Johns Hopkins University and served as the Gretchen S. and Edward A. Fish Visiting Scholar in Medical Education at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
For her curricular reform and work—through the Pritzker Initiative—to create more robust opportunities for experiential learning among medical students, Dr. Humphrey was named one of Crain’s Business Journal’s 2009 “Women to Watch.” She is the winner of numerous teaching awards including the 2005 Dema C. Daley Founders Award from the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine for recognition as an educator, innovator and leader. In 1999, she received the Laureate Award from the American College of Physicians. She was twice honored by students at the University of Chicago with the Hilger Perry Jenkins Teaching Award, recognizing the most outstanding teaching and patient-oriented service. Graduating students have honored her 17 times as one of their favorite faculty-teachers.
Dr. Humphrey has served as Chair of The American Board of Internal Medicine and as President of the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine.
