Western Michigan University Homer Stryker MD School of Medicine, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA

Cheryl A Dickson, MD, MPH FAAP is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Department of Pediatrics at Western Michigan University Homer Stryker MD School of Medicine. She is also the Associate Dean of Health Equity and Community Affairs and created the longitudinal Professions of Medicine course, which includes clinical skills, principles of medicine and active-citizenship, serving as the course director for four years. A well respected faculty member, she has won numerous awards for teaching at her former institution, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and awards from students at her present medical school WMed. She was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society as a faculty member in 1996. Her honors include being a three-time recipient of the Gold Humanism Honor Society Faculty award in RWJ Medical School and serving as the faculty white coat speaker three times at New Jersey Medical School. Students at WMed voted her as faculty white coat speaker for the class of 2023.

She currently serves as the course director for the active-citizenship course component, partnering with community organizations to place students for service-learning projects all over the city. Dr. Dickson serves on multiple board of directors organizations across the city. She is respected and well known for her expertise and work in cultural humility, diversity and health equity teaching and trainings and has been an invited as key-note speaker and workshop leader for multiple organizations. She was honored by the city of Kalamazoo, State of Michigan and community organizations for her contributions to health of the community and partnerships in 2018. Her interest in reducing health disparities is long standing, and she continues to have a key role in the health equity collective impact for reducing infant mortality disparity with Cradle Kalamazoo. She serves as director for the Safe-Sleep committee, and co-chair for the governance committee. She has authored numerous grants and serves as the principal investigator for several grants related to increasing diversity and inclusion for medical school education and workforce. She has served on a national committee with the AAMC for Academic partnerships with community organizations, and for her work in population health she has recently been recognized as a leader and appointed to the governor’s advisory committee for public health to represent a nationally recognized medical school on December 11, 2020 for a four-year term.

Email: Cheryl.dickson@med.wmich.edu