Jenny Van Kirk, MD, currently the chief medical resident for Duke University Hospital, will serve as the associate director of Undergraduate Medical Education (UME) for the Department of Medicine as well as assistant program director for the Internal Medicine Residency Program, effective July 1, 2019.
The residency program role is a new position. Dr. Van Kirk will be responsible for a quarterly review of Duke inpatient rotation evaluations and bi-annual discussion of evaluations with divisional education leads. She also will collaborate with Aimee Zaas, MD, MHS, program director, and Murat Arcasoy, MD, associate program director, to develop one- and five-year maps of inpatient conference schedule and content.
"Jenny is a natural leader and we are excited that she is choosing to build her career in medical education," said Dr. Zaas.
For the UME role, Van Kirk will be course director for the Internal Medicine Subinternship, a course that has 60-70 medical students enrolled yearly. She will serve as associate director of the Medicine clerkship.
"Jenny is a star, and we are thrilled to have her join the UME team," said Saumil Chudgar, MD, MS, director of Undergraduate Medical Education for the Department of Medicine.
Van Kirk completed medical school at Georgetown University, where she was elected to both Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society and the Gold Humanism Honor Society. She came to Duke for her residency training, during which she was given the Haskel Schiff award, a peer-selected award for the house staff member who best exemplifies excellence in the practice of clinical medicine. She also was voted by the Duke medical students to receive the Appleseed Award twice during her three years as a resident. For this past year, she has been a small group leader in the Clinical Skills Course. She is also completing the Duke AHEAD Certificate program in HPE.
Van Kirk joined the Hospital Medicine team in 2017 and will resume work as a hospitalist after her chief resident year.