Dr. Marcy Verduin is the College of Medicine’s new associate dean for students. The search committee that interviewed candidates to replace retiring Associate Dean Dr. Randolph Manning recommended Dr. Verduin’s appointment unanimously.
Dr. Verduin’s team is busy working on Student Orientation and other preparations for the college’s second class of 60 medical students who will arrive in August and the first year of classes in the new medical education building at Lake Nona. For example, they are starting a “Big Sibling” program matching every first-year student with a “Big Brother” or “Big Sister” from the charter class. The students will be paired based on common interests. The inaugural class students are marketing the mentoring program with the slogan, “We may not be as good as eHarmony, but we’ll do our best.” “We’re very excited about adding this second class,” Dr. Verduin said. “Everything is going to be even more vibrant and exciting.”
Dr. Verduin joined the College of Medicine in 2007 as the Module Director for the Psychosocial Issues in Healthcare Module and Director of the Psychiatry Clerkship. She has been the assistant dean for students since 2008. A psychiatrist by specialty, Dr. Verduin is an attending psychiatrist at the Orlando VA Medical Center’s Substance Abuse Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program. She serves in leadership positions with the American Psychiatric Association, and is the Association for Academic Psychiatry Liaison for The American College of Psychiatrists’ Psychiatry Resident-In-Training Examination (PRITE). In 2009, she was selected for the Alcohol Medical Scholars program and is a member of the Council on Medical Education and Lifelong Learning for the American Psychiatric Association. She is also principal investigator for a project developing a role-playing video game for recovering alcoholics, which is funded by a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Grant. The video allows participants to practice skills in staying sober in a realistic setting.
In April, Dr, Verduin was honored at a “Women Making History” event by the UCF Women’s Center. The center honored 15 UCF women faculty members for their research, creative activities and leadership. College of Medicine Dr. Ella Bossy-Wetzel and Dean Deborah German were also honored at the event.
A College of Medicine thank you and best wishes to Dr. Manning as he begins retirement. We hope he will send us a post card from his visits to Australia. Godspeed, Dr. Manning.