College of Medicine – Phoenix names associate dean of educational affairs

Kirsten Brown, PhD, MA, will be joining the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix as the new associate dean of educational affairs within the Office of Undergraduate Medical Education. She will also hold a faculty title with the Department of Basic Medical Sciences.

Dr. Brown, a medical education researcher, collaborates on projects focused on teaching and learning in the anatomical sciences, faculty development and AI. She has presented her work at national and international conferences, and she has published her work as book chapters, curricular innovations and open educational resources.

Dr. Brown serves as an associate professor and is the vice chair for education in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. As the vice chair for education, Dr. Brown provides oversight for all anatomy-related educational programs for various student populations.

Since her appointment in 2011, she has taught anatomy and neuroanatomy to over 400 students in undergraduate, graduate, health science and medical programs on a yearly basis. Over the past 15 years, she has also held major medical curricular leadership roles — including serving as course director for two integrated preclinical courses, overseeing vertical and horizontal integration of gross anatomy and neuroanatomy.

Since 2022, Dr. Brown has worked in the GWSMHS Center for Faculty Excellence as the associate director for Teaching and Learning Resources and Career Development. In this role, she has developed programming to support excellence in teaching, mentoring and career advancement for more than 2,000 faculty members across GW Medicine. With a history of innovation in faculty development and technology, as evidenced by recent efforts on developing programming around best practices for using artificial intelligence for faculty and students, Dr. Brown helped develop the peer-led monthly faculty development “Artificial Intelligence Technology Workshop Series," a new clinical elective, “Artificial Intelligence Applications in Healthcare” and served on the working group to develop AI guidelines for the MD program.  

Outside of GWSMHS, she has served in leadership roles in regional, national and international organizations that focus on developing academic medical faculty members and students. She serves on the American Association for Anatomy Board of Directors and recently completed her tenure as the 2026 Conference Chair for the Northeast Group for Educational Affairs. She is a past recipient of the SMHS Distinguished Teacher Award, four Golden Apple Teaching Awards and the 2020 Morton A. Bender Teaching Award. She is the second recipient of the Endowed Frank N. Miller Distinguished Teaching Professorship (2021-2025).

Dr. Brown earned her doctorate in functional anatomy and evolution from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 2011. She completed a master of arts in education and human development from GWU in 2018. And she completed the Fundamentals of Leadership Program in 2022.

Dr. Brown will assume her new role on July 20.