UNM School of Medicine

Dr. Joanna Fair Named Senior Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education

Joanna Fair, MD, PhD, has been named Senior Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education (GME) at The University of New Mexico School of Medicine, effective February 1.

Fair's office oversees the training of more than 630 residents and fellows in more than 60 clinical programs to ensure that they comply with requirements of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and other accrediting organizations.

Fair, who has served as associate dean for the past two years, will report directly to Martha Cole McGrew, MD, executive vice dean for the School of Medicine.

"Dr. Fair has done an outstanding job in leading the GME office," McGrew said. "Our residency and fellowship programs are well served by the guidance and oversight she provides."

"We're working on augmenting our resources here in the office to be able to better able to support graduate medical education at UNM," said Fair, who is an associate professor in the Department of Radiology.

"We have recognized that the intensity of efforts required to make sure that we are creating the best educational experience for our GME learners - residents and fellows - with burgeoning accreditation requirements is growing our role."

The GME office oversees salaries and benefits for residents and fellows, Fair said, adding, "More important is oversight over all of their educational and clinical training programs."

As UNM's "designated institutional official," Fair serves as the university's primary point of contact with the ACGME. Her office ensures that each residency and fellowship program maintains compliance with accreditation standards, including compiling a required annual report to the ACGME.

In the past year, the School of Medicine added a new residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and fellowships in the vascular neurology (stroke), addiction medicine and complex general surgical oncology, she said.

Fair, who graduated medical school at Washington University in St. Louis before coming to UNM in 2003 for her radiology residency, joined the faculty in 2009.

"GME at UNM has been a major part of my passion, because I trained here and this place made me who I am as a physician today," she said.