After a year of planning, research and gathering feedback from the UF College of Medicine’s faculty, staff and learners, Dean Colleen Koch, M.D., M.S., M.B.A., has introduced her strategic plan that will guide the college over the next five years. Koch developed seven pillars of the UF College of Medicine’s 2021-2026 Strategic Plan: Engage, Innovate, Excel, by seeking feedback and input from various college stakeholders.

At the town hall, videos introduced the college community to the seven pillars of the plan — education, research, people, value, system integration, diversity and inclusion and patient care — along with initial projects launched under each of the pillars by College of Medicine faculty. Each pillar will be led by an accountability advocate to ensure the progression of the plan’s various projects.

Join us for the 2022 College of Medicine Research Day, taking place Feb. 15 from 4-8:30 p.m. at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center.

With the theme "Fast forward: Advancing discovery through innovation, collaboration and inclusive excellence in research," the event will feature a research poster session and reception; an AI and technology forum to spotlight collaboration and demonstrations of technical ideas; a keynote address by Marina Sirota, Ph.D., associate professor at the University of California San Francisco Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute; and more.

The Lauren and Lee Fixel Foundation established a professorship with a $1 million gift to support a faculty member focused on brain mapping and neuromodulation, which uses neuroimaging and neurophysiology techniques to better understand the structure and function of the human brain to advance both research and patient care.

Aysegul Gunduz, Ph.D., an associate professor in University of Florida’s J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, was named the inaugural Fixel Brain Mapping Professor.