BOWLING GREEN, Kentucky (WBKO) – The University of Kentucky College of Medicine has announced that new leadership will oversee the continued development of its satellite campus in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Caroline Paul, MD, has been named the new associate dean of the UK College of Medicine-Bowling Green Campus.
Paul’s extensive experience includes leadership roles in the development and implementation of medical education programs, faculty supervision, teaching, and contributions to medical research and scholarship.
“I’m very excited,” she said. “I’m a pediatrician. I’m an academic pediatrician, and I’ve really focused on medical education for the last two decades while continuing to provide direct care to patients.”
Paul comes to UK College of Medicine from NYU Grossman School of Medicine and NYU Langone Health, where she served as a pediatrician, associate professor, and co-director of faculty development in the NYU Department of Pediatrics, and as a medical education researcher at the NYU Institute for Innovations in Medical Education.
“The joy and duty of teaching came to me quite early, and that has developed in different directions, whether I was teaching in the clinic, teaching in the hospital or teaching faculty how to teach,” Paul said.
Prior to NYU, Paul was an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. She was also a pediatrician at the University of Wisconsin Health West Clinic.
She earned her bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the University of California, Davis, and her doctor of medicine from Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. She completed her residency in pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Michigan and Wayne State University School of Medicine.
As Associate Dean, Paul will be responsible for the overall direction, implementation, and administration of the Bowling Green campus. She will work closely with leadership, faculty, staff, community organizations, and health systems to support all aspects of the medical education program.
“I want to continue to provide them (the students) with the first-class education that they received under the leadership of Dean Griffith, Dr. White and Dr. Cheever, the first dean, and provide them with that nurturing, positive and stimulating learning environment during the four years that they are there.
One of her mottos that has been a driving force in her career is improving patient care.
“If we improve medical education, we will get better doctors and then better patient care,” she said.
Dr. Paul was selected in part because of her vision to create a supportive and enriching environment for students, both personally and professionally.
She added that one of the reasons she chose the Bowling Green campus was the idea of a medical school that would serve the community with students who wanted to do so.
“One of my goals is the idea of the community preceptor, the doctor who is out in the community and also teaching,” said Dr. Paul. “So they’re not necessarily sitting there with pearls and a black blazer talking, but they’re a central part of the students’ education, and I believe that every student, no matter what specialty they go into, has that interface with the community preceptor at some point in their education.”
Although she will not start her new position until October 14, Paul has already had the opportunity to attend the ceremony to hand over the white coats to the first-year students.
“I felt so privileged and honored to be able to visit these students because I’m going to be with them on our journey. They’re starting and I’m starting with them and I was able to say a few words and I was looking forward to that,” she said.
The UK College of Medicine opened its Bowling Green campus as a regional, four-year medical campus in 2018. The first class of medical students graduated in spring 2022.
The Bowling Green campus accepts up to 30 medical students per year.
For more information about the campus, click here.
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