About Us Office of the Dean Education Student Services Departments Hospitals Research Admissions Financial Aid Alumni Parents

The Office of Curriculum Affairs was established in 1992 to ensure the continuous improvement of the quality of the medical curriculum. Curriculum development and evaluation, as well as faculty-development issues, lie within the purview of this office.

In particular, the office oversees our competency-based curriculum, the patient advocacy programs, and the preclinical peer tutoring programs. The office administers the standardized patient program and the Fourth-year Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE).

The Office of Curriculum Affairs is also responsible for curriculum integration and coordination for first- and second-year courses, for reviewing courses and faculty evaluations, and for carrying out the initiatives of the Medical Curriculum Committee.  

Richard Dollase, EdD
Director, Curriculum Affairs
BioMed Center Rm. 215
(401) 863-3198
Richard_Dollase@brown.edu

  • Facilitates the coordination of our integrated, interdisciplinary, competency-based curriculum
  • Serves as coordinator of the Medical Curriculum Committee, including developing monthly agendas, coordinating substantive reviews of preclinical courses and core clerkships, and serving on the preclinical and core clerkship subcommittees.
  • Coordinates the substantive reviews of preclinical courses and core clerkships
  • Reviews the student evaluation of faculty to determine teaching effectiveness, including faculty recipients of  the Dean’s Teaching Excellence Awards; works with preclinical faculty to improve their teaching; organizes faculty-development workshops
  • Oversees the student-led Teaching Academy that provides tutoring help to students in the first-year of the Doctoring course; and oversees the content tutoring program that provides tutors to first- and second-year students in their basic science courses.

Luba Dumenco, MD
Associate Director. Preclinical Curriculum
BioMed Center 216
(401) 863-3992

  • Oversees the coordination and integration of the preclinical curriculum
  • Serves as course leader for  first-year integrated basic science courses, including developing course syllabi, creating and administering examinations, determining grades, and planning faculty-development initiatives
  • Develops the academic calendar for the first-year curriculum, including scheduling examinations and exam reviews
  • With the curriculum director, reviews course and faculty evaluations and provides feedback to course faculty on their teaching effectiveness

Deborah Gutman, MD
Associate Director, Preclinical Curriculum
BioMed 216
(401) 863-3992

  • Serves as course leader for second-year integrated basic science courses, including reviewing course syllabi, creating and administering examinations, determining grades, and planning faculty-development initiatives
  • Develops the academic calendar for the second-year basic science curriculum, including scheduling examinations and exam reviews
  • With the curriculum director, reviews course and faculty evaluations and provides feedback to second-year basic science course faculty on their teaching effectiveness

Edward Feldmann, MD
Associate Director, Clinical Curriculum
Rhode Island Hospital
(401) 444-8806

  • Oversees the coordination and integration of the clinical curriculum, particularly the core clerkships and the subinternships
  • With the curriculum director, reviews course and faculty evaluations and provides feedback to clinical course leaders on  course effectiveness
  • With the associate dean for medical affairs and other administrators, plans and implements a redesign of the clinical curriculum

Marie Rose
Preclinical Course Coordinator
BioMed 214M
(401) 863-2006

  •  Works with course leaders in preparing  and distributing course syllabi, scheduling faculty and students for Problem-Based Learning (PBL) small-group sessions, and printing and disseminating faculty PowerPoint presentations 
  • Grades multiple choice examinations and distributes the final grade results to course leaders and to students
  • Develops and disseminates course and faculty evaluation forms to students, and tracks student completion rate

Dionne Gomez
Budget and Clinical Curriculum Coordinator
BioMed 214
(401) 863-9383

  • Coordinates the day-to-day financial management of  the budgets of the Office of Curriculum Affairs, the Patient Advocacy Coordinating Council (PACC) and the Medical Senate
  • Administers the Fourth-Year OSCE budget, including paying standardized patients and course faculty
  • Provides administrative coordination for  the clinical curriculum and administrative support to the Associate Director of Clinical Curriculum

Michael Belue
Coordinator, Doctoring Course
BMC 232
(401) 863-2881

  • Works with course leaders in preparing  and distributing course syllabi and faculty handbooks, schedules faculty and students for Doctoring small-group sessions, and communicates and distributes information and handouts to students and faculty
  • Manages the Doctoring budget, including developing small-group faculty professional service contracts and paying faculty for their professional services
  • Videotapes students clinical performance on the OSCEs
  • Distributes and collects OSCE evaluation forms completed by standardized patients
  • Develops and disseminates course and faculty evaluation forms to students

Bettye Williams Clanton
Fourth-Year OSCE Coordinator and Patient Advocacy Coordinator/Mentor
BioMed 213M
(401) 863-1751

  • Schedules and administers the Fourth-Year OSCE
  • Collects evaluation data from the standardized patients on student performance in the OSCEs
  • Coordinates the Patient Advocacy Coordinating Council(PACC), Community Health Advocacy Program (CHAP) and the Student National Medical Association (SNMA) Community Health Fair
  • Mentors under-represented minority students in the Medical School and in the College

Marcia Brown
Standardized Patient Trainer
(Fourth-Year OSCE and Doctoring)
BioMed 2
(401) 863-9593

  • Recruits standardized patients representing the ethnic, racial,  gender, and socio-economic diversity of Rhode Island
  • Trains Standardized Patients (SPs) for a variety of Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) stations involving history taking and the physical examination; also trains SPs to assess the clinical performance of medical students taking OSCEs.
  • Evaluates the effectiveness of SPs in their OSCE roles and provides feedback to them on how to improve their performance
  • Works with the director of the Fourth-Year OSCE and the Doctoring course leaders to develop new OSCE cases.

Erik Lachaga (Temp)
Administrative Assistant
BioMed 213
(401) 863-6234

  • Provides clerical assistance to the Office of Curriculum Affairs
  • As a receptionist, addresses student and faculty questions; answers telephone and emails
  • Helps prepare course syllabi and photocopies and distributes  copies course faculty PowerPoint presentations
  • Arranges for food for students and faculty meetings
  • Arranges room requests
  • Photocopies and distributes Problem Based Learning (PBL) case materials