Academic Advisory Board

Charles Prober, MD

Charles Prober, MD is the Founding Executive Director of the Stanford Center for Health Education and Senior Associate Vice Provost for Health Education at Stanford University. He is an expert in pediatric infectious diseases with an academic career focused on the epidemiology, pathophysiology, prevention, and treatment of infections in children. Some of his seminal work has resulted in the improvement of international blood transfusion practices through the selection of cytomegalovirus negative donors for immunocompromised hosts; the optimal duration of antibiotic therapy for serious bacterial infections, including osteomyelitis and meningitis; the use of antiviral agents in the management of serious herpes virus infections; and the standardization of care in the management of pregnant women with herpes simplex virus infections and their newborn infants.

Dr. Prober has published extensively in peer-reviewed subspecialty, specialty, and general medical journals. He is the editor of Principles and Practice of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, one of the major textbooks in the field of pediatric infectious diseases.

Dr. Prober has been involved in medical education throughout his career, and has received numerous awards for teaching, including the Henry J. Kaiser Teaching Award for Outstanding and Innovative Contributions to Medical Education in 2016 and the Oscar Salvatierra Award for Exceptional Service to Stanford Medical Students and the School of Medicine in 2022. He has directed a number of undergraduate and graduate student courses, served as Associate Chair for Education for the Department of Pediatrics, and as Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education at Stanford from 2007 to 2017.

Dr. Prober holds a medical degree from the University of Manitoba in Canada. He completed his pediatric residency at the Children’s Hospital in Winnipeg and the University of California, San Francisco. His fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases was completed at Stanford.

Alissa Craft, DO, MBA

Dr. Craft is the Vice President of Accreditation at the American Osteopathic Association. In this role, she serves as Secretary for the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation (COCA), the only accrediting agency for the 40+ training locations for doctors of osteopathic medicine in the United States. Prior to joining the AOA, Dr. Craft served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine. She is currently Director of Curricular Outcome and Improvements at Western University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific.

Robert Duvivier, MD, PhD

Robbert Duvivier is a medical doctor with a background in international health professions education. Dr. Duvivier is a psychiatrist and holds academic appointments at Maastricht University, the Netherlands and Newcastle, Australia. Robbert holds an MD and PhD in medical education from Maastricht University, and he recently earned an MBA in higher education management at University College London. His research interests include equity in health professions education, workforce issues and career trajectories.

Ronald Harden, MD

Professor Harden’s illustrious career spans decades and is marked by groundbreaking contributions that have revolutionized medical education worldwide. Notably, he pioneered the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), a globally adopted method for assessing clinical competency in medical students. Dr. Harden has championed the development of medical curricula that are Student-centered, Problem-based, Integrated, Community-based, Elective-rich, and Systematic (SPICES).

Stuart Flynn, MD

After 20 years as a professor and director of the residency program at Yale University School of Medicine, Dr. Flynn moved to Phoenix to become the founding dean of the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix. In 2016, Dr. Flynn joined Texas Christian University and The University of North Texas Health Sciences Center as founding Dean of the new medical school in Fort Worth. He has received numerous honors, including The Bohmfalk Teacher of the Year Award from Yale and The Averill A. Liebow Award for Excellence from Yale’s pathology residents.

Hossam Hamdy, MBCHB, FRCSEd, PhD

Prof. Hossam Hamdy is Professor of Surgery and Medical Education at Gulf Medical University and is an internationally known medical educator and active Pediatric Surgeon. A scholar, professional and leader in higher education in the Middle East and renowned internationally. He has established, contributed and led several Medical Colleges, Suez Canal University, Egypt, Arabian Gulf University, BahrainandGulf Medical University, UAE. He has served in different senior academic and administrative positions as Chancellor, Gulf Medical University, Vice Chancellor Medical & Health Science Colleges, Sharjah University, Director of the Institute of Leadership in Higher Education, Sharjah University and Dean College of Medicine, Arabian Gulf University, Bahrain.

Prof. Hamdy has served as WHO Temporary Advisor ‘Consultant’ in Medical Education. His PhD in Medical Education from University of Groningen, Netherlands was on “Measurements in Medical Education: Implications for Quality”. He is active in medical education research and has published more than 70 studies in education and surgery and introduced several innovation and best practices in Medical Education. He is member of several editorial Board Journals in Medical Education (Medical Educator Medical Teacher, AMEE MedEdPublish, Korean Journal of Medical Education etc.) He is a member of the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) Assessors team.

His work and contribution to Medicine and Medical Education over more than 40 years has been acknowledged and has won him many awards: The Sheikh Khalifa Award for Higher Education for “Distinguished Professor in Teaching”, led the College of Medicine, Arabian Gulf University to win the “Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award” for Best Medical College in the Arab world, “Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England “By Election”, and “Fellow of the Royal College of Physician of England”. He was awarded the honorary Fellow of Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) in 2021.

Adi Haramati, PhD

Aviad “Adi” Haramati, PhD, is Professor of Integrative Physiology and co-director of the Graduate Program in Integrative Medicine & Health Sciences at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC). He received a PhD in Physiology from the University in Cincinnati, and came to Georgetown 36 years ago, after 5 years at Mayo Clinic. In 2013, he was named the Founding Director of the Center for Innovation and Leadership in Education (CENTILE) at GUMC. His research interests for over 25 years addressed renal and electrolyte homeostasis, but in the past two decades he has focused on medical education and rethinking how health professionals are trained. Dr. Haramati teaches physiology to medical and graduate students and has been recognized with multiple awards including the Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teaching Award from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the Master Scholar Award from the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE), and named Distinguished Educator by the GUMC Teaching Academy for Health Sciences. He is Chair-elect of the Council of Faculty and Academic Societies of the AAMC and currently serves on the AAMC Board of Directors. Dr. Haramati has advocated that mindful practices be integrated in the training of health professionals to foster resilience and improve well-being in the learning and work environments at academic health centers. He has been a visiting professor at over 100 medical schools worldwide.

David Sklar, MD

Dr. Sklar attended medical school at Stanford, and trained in both Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine at the University of New Mexico and University of California San Francisco. At the University of New Mexico, he has been a program director for the emergency medicine residency, Chair of the Emergency Department, Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs, and most recently Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education. He has authored or co-authored more than 150 articles on topics such as medical error, quality improvement, medical education, international health, and literature and medicine.

From a leadership standpoint, he has served as President of the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors, President of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, and Chair of the Board of Directors of the American College of Emergency Physicians. Most recently, he was Editor-in-Chief of Academic Medicine, the leading journal in medical education, sponsored by AAMC.

Nicole (Nikki) Woods, PhD

Dr. Woods is a cognitive psychologist who received her PhD at McMaster University in 2005. Dr. Woods leads an internationally recognized research program that uses methods and principles from cognitive psychology to advance medical education theory and practice. Her research has significant implications for education across the developmental continuum and for a variety of health disciplines. Although most closely linked to undergraduate education, her work has implications for the development of expertise along the entire spectrum of professional education. In 2021, Dr. Woods was named one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women. 

Dr. Woods currently serves as Scientist & Associate Director of Operations at The Wilson Centre, a member of the University of Toronto and the University Health Network (UHN). She is also:

• The Richard and Elizabeth Currie Chair in Health Professions Education Research at UHN
• Director, The Institute for Education Research (TIER) at UHN
• Associate Professor – Department of Family and Community Medicine