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Today’s episode of the Faculty Factory is a chat with Alice Fornari, EdD, RD. Dr. Fornari is Vice President for Faculty Development, Northwell Health, Office of Academic Affairs. Dr. Fornari is a passionate educator with a litany of responsibilities in her faculty development role with Northwell Health.
As we learn in the opening minutes of today’s podcast, Dr. Fornari holds many roles in addition to her work as Vice President for Faculty Development.
These titles include:
- Associate Dean for Educational Skills Development
- Professor of Science Education, Occupational Medicine, Epidemiology and Prevention, and Family Medicine
With all these different hats and titles involved with Dr. Fornari’s responsibilities, I was curious as to the career path she took to get her to where she is today. For twenty years, Dr. Fornari taught nutrition at the college level and this is where the foundation of her passion for education, curriculum, and learning was built. These are also some of the key pillars of faculty development.
Dr. Fornari next earned her doctorate with the goal of pursuing university education and administration. At this point, her goal was to ultimately work at a college, and along her educational journey she met a physician who encouraged her to pursue a role in medical education.
She trusted this individual enough that she indeed did pursue a career in medical education after receiving this advice.
Creating a Medical School
The Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell opened its doors in 2008 and Dr. Fornari had the privilege to be a part of that institution’s launch.
“If you have the opportunity to logistically help start a new medical school… it will be one of the highlights of you career,” she said. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to start something from scratch.”
More than 10 years since its launch, Dr. Fornari commented that the impact the Zucker School of Medicine has had on the 23 hospitals of the Northwell Health system has been very significant.
There are plenty of other extremely useful takeaways that Dr. Fornari leaves us with after this nearly one hour long interview. Make sure you get a chance to take it all in by listening to today’s entire episode through the podcast player embedded above, or by visiting our Podcast Homepage.