Elisa Zenni, MD, has been appointed interim senior associate dean for educational affairs and Designated Institutional Official for the University of Florida College of Medicine – Jacksonville. Zenni, a professor of pediatrics, had served as the college’s associate dean for educational affairs since 2011.
Zenni oversaw the accreditation of the College of Medicine – Jacksonville’s residency and fellowship programs via the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. She has also led the college’s faculty development initiatives. Under her leadership, the college’s training programs are fully accredited and its faculty development program has become a sought-after resource by UF faculty, as well as by faculty from other academic health centers across the state and nation.
“I have had the opportunity to work closely with Dr. Zenni in the Office of Educational Affairs for the past eight years, and she is extremely well qualified to assume this role,” said Linda R. Edwards, MD, dean of the UF College of Medicine – Jacksonville. “She has been dedicated to ensuring our residents and fellows receive an exceptional education and that our faculty have the tools they need to be excellent clinician educators.”
Zenni received her undergraduate degree in child study and her medical doctorate from Tufts University in Massachusetts. After an internship in pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania, she completed her residency in pediatrics and a fellowship in academic general pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard University. After serving on the faculty at Stanford University School of Medicine, she joined the faculty at the UF College of Medicine – Jacksonville in 1995.
Zenni has won numerous teaching awards and is a member and former chair of the University of Florida Society of Teaching Scholars. She has facilitated numerous workshops on teaching skills at local, regional and national levels. She holds current or past leadership positions on several local and national committees, including the Academic Pediatric Association’s Board of Directors, Education Committee, Educational Scholars Program and School & Community Health Special Interest Group. She is a senior faculty member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Young Physicians Leadership Alliance. She received the Northeast Florida Pediatric Society Educator of the Year award in 2015 and was selected as an inaugural member of the National Academy of Distinguished Educators in Pediatrics in 2020.
Zenni’s research interests focus primarily on medical education. She has published numerous peer-reviewed papers on curriculum evaluation, teaching residents in the community, faculty development, peer review of teaching, mentoring and assessment of medical educators. She has also given many oral and poster presentations on medical education topics at regional and national conferences and has moderated plenary sessions on medical education.
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