Dear HMS Community:
I’m delighted to share that Dr. Sarah Wood will assume the role of faculty director of the Harvard Macy Institute (HMI) on May 1.
Dr. Wood will return to Harvard Medical School from Florida Atlantic University (FAU), where she has most recently served as vice dean for medical education for the Schmidt College of Medicine. She was with FAU’s medical school since its founding in 2011 and held several leadership positions that helped the school advance its profile and impact.
Dr. Wood graduated magna cum laude in Psychology from Yale University in 1989 and earned her MD degree at Harvard Medical School in 1995. She completed her residency in pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital, including an additional year where she served as chief resident. After working for several years on the HMS faculty at Longwood Pediatrics, in 2002 Dr. Wood relocated to Boca Raton, Florida, and in 2008 she was appointed the pediatric clerkship director for the regional campus of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
In 2011, FAU launched its own freestanding medical school, and Dr. Wood designed, launched, and directed the innovative third-year longitudinal integrated clerkships. She has led FAU’s undergraduate medical education program since 2015 and FAU’s graduate medical education programs since 2019. Dr. Wood served as interim dean for the College of Medicine from 2021 to 2022 and was appointed as the founding interim chair of the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health in February of 2022. She has worked collaboratively with FAU faculty, students, residents, fellows, staff, and community partners to enhance the curriculum and bring greater national visibility to FAU’s College of Medicine. Having built a new medical school from the ground up, she has gained extensive experience in curricular innovation, faculty development, partnership development, and educational leadership.
A 2015 participant in the Harvard Macy Program for Educators in the Health Professions, Dr. Wood cites her experience as a Macy scholar as one of the most impactful and influential of her career. She returned as an HMI faculty member, leading microteaching groups for a few years and subsequently has made it a priority to support FAU faculty members in attending HMI courses.
Dr. Wood’s career has been devoted to developing, implementing, and strengthening innovative educational programs and leading collaborative, synergistic teams. As director of HMI, she will unite diverse teams of stakeholders to envision an inspiring, compelling future for HMI and formulate a prioritized strategic plan in alignment with the values and goals of HMS. She will ensure that HMI continues to have a participative leadership structure that fosters collaboration, trust, and innovation and uses data-driven, evidence-based decision making to advance the Institute’s courses, programs, and reputation. In addition to her role as faculty director of HMI, Dr. Wood will return to the HMS faculty at Boston Children’s Hospital so that she can contribute to the HMS community through education, administration, and service.
We are grateful for the robust interest in this HMI leadership position from current HMS faculty, prior members of the HMS community and others from outside HMS, and would like to thank John Dalrymple, Holly Gooding, Edward Hundert, Alan Leichtner, Ajay Singh, and Valerie Ward for their service on the search committee.
Lastly, please join me in thanking Dr. Liz Armstrong for her years of extraordinary service to HMS. Dr. Armstrong will be stepping down after an exceptional and transformative 29-year tenure as the founder and faculty director of the Harvard Macy Institute and has our sincerest appreciation. Since 1994, the HMI through its programs has trained more than 7,000 educators across the globe. The HMI community is unique, vibrant, and special in large part due to Dr. Armstrong’s leadership and contributions to HMS and the field of medical education.
Please join me in welcoming Dr. Wood back to HMS in this important new role where she will build on HMI’s rich history and legacy while leading it through the next phase of growth and impact.
Best regards,
David H. Roberts
Dean for External Education
Harvard Medical School
HMI Staff
