Aron Sousa, senior associate dean for academic affairs in the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, will be recommended as interim dean of the medical college, succeeding Dean Marsha Rappley, who has served in the position since 2006.
If approved by the MSU Board of Trustees, the appointment would be effective August 15.
“With Dr. Sousa’s history of leadership in the college, I am confident he will step into this interim position with the skills needed to provide continuity during this time of transition,” said MSU Provost June Pierce Youatt.
Sousa has served as the senior associate dean since 2007 and has been on the faculty since 1999. His primary responsibilities include overseeing undergraduate medical education initiatives such as admissions, post-baccalaureate programs, student and academic affairs operations, curriculum, graduate studies and the Office of Medical Education Research and Development. His work also covers the seven community campuses across the state and he serves as a practicing physician at the MSU Clinical Center.
Along with fulfilling leadership roles for national medical education and professional organizations, Sousa has co-directed two successful LCME accreditation institutional self-studies and site visits at MSU in 2006 and 2014, and managed academics for the medical school’s class expansion from 2007 – 2010, where the college doubled its enrollment to 800 students. The LCME, or Liaison Committee on Medical Education, is an accrediting body for medical educational programs across the United States. He has also served as a member of the committee’s site visit teams.
Sousa received his bachelor’s in chemistry from Indiana University and his medical degree from Indiana University School of Medicine. He then served as both a resident and chief resident in internal medicine at MSU and also participated in a Primary Care Fellowship at the school during the 1999-2000 academic year.
It was announced in June that Rappley would be leaving her position to serve as vice president for health sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University and CEO of the VCU Health System.
A search for the next dean will begin in the fall.