Alice Fornari, Ed.D., R.D.
Associate Dean for Educational Skills Development,
Professor of Science Education, Occupational Medicine, Epidemiology and Prevention, and Family Medicine
Zucker School of Medicine
Vice President, Faculty Development, Northwell Health
Dr. Fornari is the Associate Dean of Educational Skills Development Zucker Som at Hofstra/Northwell and is the Vice President of Faculty Development for the 23 hospitals of the Northwell Health organization. Her faculty development role at both institutions is designed to align the UME, GME and CME continuum. Serving in these roles for the past 8 years allows her to bring UME curricular innovations to the GME programs and recruit educators from GME to participate in faculty development and teaching at the Zucker School of Medicine. Recognizing a need for additional faculty development to align UME and GME education, in 2016 she created and admitted the inaugural cohort to a Masters of Health Professions Pedagogy and Leadership program. As Program Director, she supports high level faculty development for faculty who teach in Northwell Health's GME programs and desire an advanced degree in education. She has developed and implemented "Learning Drives Teaching and Assessment" workshops, an educational research curriculum, and system-wide "Resident as Teacher" and "Chief Resident" curriculum courses, all of which include interactive didactics and experiential components to assure skill-building is occurring in real-time. Dr. Fornari is co-editor of a manual published by the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE), entitled Active Learning Strategies for Large Group Teaching. This is a web-based manual available to the medical education community that has been very well received nationally and internationally. An interest in health humanities and reflective practice as a core competency has supported successful implementation of health humanities curriculum across UME, GME, and CME at the SOM and Northwell Health Organization.
Dr. Fornari is actively engaged in obtaining external funding and implementing novel programs to transform medical education across the continuum. In 2014, Dr. Fornari was awarded a 2 year grant, Mentoring and Professionalism in Training (MAP-IT), funded by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation that focuses on developing mentoring skills in clinicians to achieve humanistic relationships with trainees, colleagues and ultimately patients across the continuum of medical education. In 2015 the Department of Internal Medicine was awarded a 5 year HRSA Primary Care Training and Education grant, Improving Patient Access and Care Through Training (IMPACcT). Dr. Fornari is Co-Principle Investigator on this grant, and has oversight of implementation of grant activities which seek to transform delivery of education to students and residents in ambulatory clinical care environments and impacting care delivered in those settings.
Dr. Fornari obtained her EdD, Higher Education, College Teaching and Academic Leadership at Columbia University, Teachers College in 2001. Her research interest was focused on curriculum to support ethical decision making for healthcare professionals