Kaiser Permanente, the largest integrated health care system in the nation, announced in 2015 that it planned to open a new medical school. In 2017 the city of Pasadena was chosen as the location for the new medical school and a founding dean was named. The school plans to enroll its first class of students in 2019.
Recently the new medical school announced the appointments of 11 individuals who will have senior leadership roles at the medical school. Three of these of these appointments went to African Americans.
Walter D. Conwell has been named associate dean for equity, inclusion, and diversity. He was the physician director of diversity, equity, and inclusion and the medical director of sleep medicine and outpatient sleep diagnostics at the Colorado Permanente Medical Group.
Dr. Conwell holds a bachelor’s degree from Florida A&M University, an MBA in healthcare administration from the University of Colorado, and a medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.
Walter Harris has been named senior vice president for administration and finance. He was senior associate dean for administration and operations and associate vice president for operations and chief operating officer at George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, D.C.
Harris holds a bachelor’s degree from Concordia University and an MBA from Regis University.
Lindia Willies-Jacobo has been named associate dean for admissions. She was assistant dean for diversity and community partnerships, professor of pediatrics, director of the program in medical education-health equity and member of the recruitment and admissions executive committee at the University of California, San Diego.
Dr. Willies-Jacobo holds a bachelor’s degree and a medical doctorate both from the University of California, San Diego.
