Leadership

Sarah Hollingsworth “Holly” Lisanby, MD, DLFAPA

Incoming founding dean

Dr. Lisanby is the founding dean of the ASU School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering. She is currently professor emeritus at Duke University and director of the Division of Translational Research at the National Institute of Mental Health. At NIMH, Dr. Lisanby has been responsible for a portfolio of approximately $400 million to support research and she co-led a team within the NIH BRAIN Initiative. While at the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Lisanby founded and directed the National Institute of Mental Health Noninvasive Neuromodulation Unit and served as the director of the Division of Translational Research at the NIMH. Dr. Lisanby has received numerous national and international awards, including the Distinguished Investigator Award from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, the Max Hamilton Memorial Prize, the Gerald R. Klerman Award from the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, and the Eva King Killam Research Award from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.

Sherine Gabriel, MD, MSc

Planning dean

Dr. Gabriel leads the ASU Health team and is the planning dean for the School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering, leveraging her vast experience in health care. Dr. Gabriel is a physician-scientist who was the dean of the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine, the dean of the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey, and was president of Rush University in Chicago, a noted academic medical center that includes a medical college, college of nursing, college of health sciences and graduate college. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

Randy Burd, PhD

Vice dean

Dr. Burd serves as the vice dean for the School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering. He is a senior academic leader and executive who has spearheaded large strategic efforts to advance excellence in higher education by guiding strategy development, leading implementation, and scaling of academic and solutions-based research programs around the globe. Dr. Burd previously led The University of Arizona’s Global Research Alliances and served as the senior vice president for academic affairs at Long Island University. Trained in molecular and cellular biophysics, he earned a doctorate at the University at Buffalo, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Institute Division.

Priya Radhakrishnan, MD

Vice dean, clinical affairs and graduate medical education

Dr. Radhakrishnan serves as the vice dean for clinical affairs and graduate medical education at ASU’s School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering. She is also the chief academic officer and vice president of health equity at HonorHealth; outgoing chair of the Board of Governor and current regent of the American College of Physicians; and professor at The University of Arizona College of Medicine, Phoenix. In addition to helping to shape the next generation of physicians, she continues to see patients.

David Sklar, MD

Senior associate dean, medical education (interim)

Dr. Sklar is an emergency medicine physician and senior associate dean at ASU’s School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering. He teaches courses in health humanities and high-value patient-centered health care. He is former editor in chief of Academic Medicine, the leading journal in health professions education scholarship. He has authored or co-authored over 200 articles in medical literature in areas such as medical education, health services, emergency medicine, disaster medicine, global health, patient safety and quality improvement. He has written a memoire, “La Clínica,” and two novels, “Atlas of Men,” and “Moonstone Hero.” He was a Robert Wood Johnson Fellow serving on the U.S. Senate Finance Committee in 2011–12. He is former president of the Society for Academic

Deborah Clarke, PhD

Senior associate dean, faculty affairs

Dr. Clarke is senior associate dean of faculty in the School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering. She has extensive experience in the area of faculty governance, development and faculty advancement. Her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Penn State Institute for the Arts and Humanities, and she has served as a Beatrice Bain Research Fellow at University of California at Berkeley. She joined ASU in 2008, after spending 20 years at Penn State University. Dr. Clarke is currently working on her third book.

Heather Clark, PhD

Senior associate dean, engineering integration

Dr. Clark is the associate dean, engineering integration for ASU's School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering. In addition, Dr. Clark serves as professor and director of the School for Biological and Health Systems Engineering, where her lab works at the interface of chemistry and biology to develop and apply novel nanoscale probes for biological measurements. Her nanosensor research focuses on the brain and the nervous system and she has multiple ongoing research projects funded by the National Institutes of Health Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies, and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, one of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Clark’s work has earned numerous honors, including a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. She is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and has numerous U.S. patents for work related to her research.

Tony Avellino, MD, MBA

Associate dean, clinical faculty affairs
Department chair, clinical science

Dr. Avellino is the associate dean, clinical faculty affairs, and department chair, clinical science for ASU's School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering. Dr. Avellino is a seasoned leader with a track record of success as assistant vice president for health sciences and chief clinical and medical officer at Michigan State University, chief executive officer at Illinois Neurological Institute for OSF HealthCare, chief of neurological surgery and director of neurosciences institute at University of Washington Medical Center, and chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Seattle Children's hospital. He was selected for Becker’s Hospital Review “88 Chief Medical Officers of Hospitals and Health Systems to Know” in 2022, and “100 Hospital and Health System Chief Medical Officers to Know" in 2020.

Karen Anderson, MD, PhD

Associate dean, research

Dr. Anderson is the associate dean, research for ASU's School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering. Dr. Anderson is a medical oncologist. Dr. Anderson is board-certified in internal medicine and medical oncology. She serves as committee co-chair of the National Cancer Institute’s Early Detection Research Network Breast/Gyn Cancers Collaborative Group and is a member of NCI’s Cancer Biomarkers Study Section, the American Association for Cancer Research and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Dr. Anderson and her collaborators use molecular techniques, such as in vitro protein arrays, next-gen sequencing, and high-throughput functional genomics, to study early alterations in cancer development and how the immune system can be harnessed to detect and alter cancer development.

Alan Rawls, PhD

Associate dean, foundational education

Dr. Rawls is the associate dean, foundational education for ASU’s School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering. In addition, Dr. Rawls serves as the executive director of clinical partnerships in the Office of the University Provost, which promotes the strategic development of academic collaborations between ASU faculty and students with health care systems and health professional schools at the county, state and national levels. He also is an associate professor of genomics, evolution and bioinformatics in ASU’s School of Life Sciences.

Tanisha Price-Johnson, PhD

Associate dean, admissions

Dr. Price Johnson is the associate dean, admissions for ASU’s School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering. She holds the WGSA secretary chair position in the Association of American Medical Colleges Western Group on Student Affairs. She served for 13 years as executive director of admissions and financial aid at The University of Arizona College of Medicine and served as associate dean of student affairs at The University of Arizona College of Veterinary Medicine and Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. She has appeared in Tucson businessedge.com’s Top 40 Under 40, 2008 and Southern Arizona’s 25 Most Influential African Americans, 2010, 2011 as well as being awarded the YWCA Women on the Move Award Recipient, 2007.

Kristen Will, PhD

Associate dean, community relations and interprofessional communication

Dr. Will is the associate dean, community relations and interprofessional communication for ASU’s School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering. Prior to her tenure at ASU, she worked clinically as a senior physician assistant in the Division of Hospital Internal Medicine at Mayo Clinic Hospital. Along with her clinical duties, she was the program director of the Mayo Clinic in Arizona postgraduate PA Fellowship in Hospital Internal Medicine and assistant professor in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. She also served on the Mayo Clinic Arizona Education Committee and led the Mayo Clinic Arizona taskforce for interprofessional education and collaborative practice.

Amalia Pallares, PhD

Associate dean, inclusive excellence (interim)

Dr. Pallares serves as the associate dean, inclusive excellence. In her role, Dr. Pallares provides leadership to ensure individuals from all backgrounds, identities and perspectives can thrive. Prior to ASU she was at the University of Illinois Chicago. Her responsibilities directing UIC included faculty recruitment and development, student belonging and equity, cultural and experiential programming and education, community collaboration and engagement, legislative advocacy, and strategic planning.

Jordan Coulston, MD

Assistant dean, clinical education

Dr. Coulston serves as assistant dean of clinical education at ASU's School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering, leading the development of a transformative clinical curriculum that integrates innovation and promotes humanistic practice. With over 13 years of experience as a clinician-educator, Dr. Coulston has a distinguished career in clinical education and curriculum development. He is dedicated to rethinking clinical curricula to embrace novel interprofessional alignments, deep learning strategies and cutting-edge digital technology. At The University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix, Dr. Coulston directed award-winning clinical skills and simulation curriculum, implemented competency-based assessments across undergraduate medical education, and developed an individualized simulation curriculum for residency readiness. Dr. Coulston served as an academic hospitalist at the Phoenix VA Health Care System for 13 years.

Dana Sall, MD, MEd, FACP

Assistant dean, assessment and evaluation

Dr. Sall is the assistant dean, assessment and evaluation for ASU's School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering. She is the program director of the Internal Medicine Residency program at HonorHealth in Scottsdale after being associate program director for the Internal Medicine Residency program at University of Cincinnati, while completing her master's degree in education. She has been published on topics including rater cognition, Clinical Competency Committees, adult learning theory, procedural competence, change management, and assessment with feedback garnering national and international recognition.

Rebecca Fisher, PhD

Anatomy education director

Dr. Fisher is the anatomy education director for ASU’s School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering. In addition, she is a professor in the School of Life Sciences at ASU. Dr. Fisher analyzes the functional anatomy of vertebrates and cephalopods and collaborates with engineers to design bio-inspired robots. She also studies the use of artificial intelligence, extended reality, and other emerging technologies in medical education. Dr. Fisher is a Fellow of the American Association of Anatomy, the recipient of ten teaching awards, and was inducted into the Gold Humanism Honors Society in recognition of her leadership in fostering empathy in the anatomy lab and humanism in the practice of medicine. Prior to joining ASU, she was a founding faculty member and director of the Gross Anatomy Laboratory at the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix.

Cora Fox, PhD

Associate Dean, Health Humanities

Dr. Fox is the Associate Dean, Health Humanities for ASU's School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering. She is also the Director of Humanities Integration for ASU Health. She has been leading an interdisciplinary initiative developing research capacity and curriculum in the health humanities at ASU since 2014, when she was the Associate and then Interim Director of the Institute for Humanities Research (now the Humanities Institute). She has also been a visiting faculty member in the Centre for the Humanities and Health at King’s College in London and was selected as a Resilience Fellow in the Knowledge Exchange for Resilience at ASU. Specializing in early modern literature (including Shakespeare) and vernacular medicine, she works at the intersection of narrative medicine, affect theory, and the history of emotions—particularly positive emotions and wellbeing—and focuses on how healthy and happy communities were imagined in early modern Europe, as well as how those cultural formations shape current health practices and values.

Douglas Lake, PhD

Department chair, foundational science

Dr. Lake is a tumor immunologist who has been at ASU since 2006 and teaches immunology and microbiology at the undergraduate level and advanced cell biology at the graduate level. Lake was the first to show that this enzyme is important in tumor cell growth, invasion and metastasis. His laboratory is developing chemical and biological inhibitors of QSOX1 with strong therapeutic potential. To address the needs of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Lake developed a specialized rapid antibody test that measures levels of protective neutralizing antibodies that prevent SARS-CoV-2 from infecting cells.

Melanie Dean, EdD

Senior director, LCME accreditation

Dr. Dean is the senior director for Liaison Committee on Medical Education accreditation at ASU’s School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering. She ensures compliance with accreditation standards, oversees self-study processes and site visits, and advises leadership on accreditation matters. Previously, Dr. Dean led accreditation initiatives at The University of Arizona, College of Medicine-Phoenix. She holds an EdD in educational leadership with a focus on gender in academic medicine leadership and is known for her collaborative approach and expertise in educational processes and policies.