Kimberly Dean Schenarts, Ph.D., is among the many new faculty members at UNMC. Here’s a brief rundown of her background and the expertise she brings to UNMC.
- Name: Kimberly Dean Schenarts, Ph.D.
- Hometown: Grand Rapids, Mich.
- New title and department at UNMC: Professor, department of surgery
Research/Professional Interests:
Career development issues of academic surgeons, surgical residents and medical students. I have conducted research in these areas and continue to have them as personal and professional interests.
Degrees:
B.A, M.A. and Ph.D. from Michigan State University.
Previous Positions:
- Assistant professor and assistant director, surgical education (November 1986 to May 1993) and associate professor and director, surgical education, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine (May 1993-June 2002)
- Professor of surgery and director, surgical education, University of Texas-Houston (August 2002 to August 2005)
- Affiliate professor of surgery, East Carolina University School of Medicine (November 2005 to May 2012)
- Director, Association for Surgical Education Surgical Education Research Fellowship (2008 to present)
Memberships:
Association for Surgical Education, Association of Program Directors in Surgery
How I fell in love with surgical education:
I loved my position as a surgical educator and through it was able to work closely with my students, residents and junior faculty. As a non-clinician, I was given an insider’s view of their lives and challenges. At the time, as one of a handful of surgical educators in the country, my goal was to make a meaningful difference in the quality of their education, as well as to empower them to be educated educators.
Three things you don’t know about me:
- For at least a decade, I was the only Ph.D. Surgery Clerkship Director in the country.
- I took Mandarin Chinese my freshman year of college with the intent of being a foreign correspondent from the Great Wall. At the end of my first semester, I realized that I would have to dedicate myself to at least 13 years of study before I didn’t insult someone. I abandoned those studies.
- I became engaged to my husband of eight years, PJ, after three dates. (In the spirit of full-disclosure, we were email pals for a year while he was deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.)