Brody names new chair of Family Medicine

The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University has announced that Dr. Chelley Kaye Alexander has been hired to chair the Department of Family Medicine, effective August 11.

Alexander

Alexander brings with her a wealth of teaching, clinical, administrative and research experience. She comes to Brody from the Department of Family Medicine in the College of Community Health Sciences at the University of Alabama, where she has served as department chair since 2006 and as assistant dean for Graduate Medical Education since 2005.

She earned her undergraduate degree in neuroscience from Davidson College in 1990 and completed her medical degree in 1996 at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. Her residency training was with Tuscaloosa Family Practice Residency in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Additional faculty development pursuits include a Rural Health Research Junior Investigator Program (2003-2004) and a National Institute Program Director Development Fellowship (2004-2005).

Alexander’s numerous academic and administrative appointments include serving as the Designated Institution Official, serving on the Board of Visitors Resident Education Committee and as the director of the Sports Medicine Clinic at the University of Alabama. Included among her teaching innovations and clinical work is the development of seven separate hands-on procedure workshops for residents to improve procedural training, and a medical home designed to reduce cost and improve quality of care for 30,000 Medicaid patients.

Her research efforts include several peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, national presentations and completed clinical trials.  In addition, she has a special interest in asthma, patient-centered medical homes, quality improvement and clinical teaching methodology.

Alexander will replace Dr. Kenneth Steinweg as leader of ECU’s Department of Family Medicine. Appointed chair in June 2009, Steinweg played a critical role in the department’s smooth transition into the new Family Medicine Center in 2011. Fully accredited programs in geriatrics and sports medicine were developed under his leadership and the Family Medicine residency program grew from 30 to 36 residents.

Steinweg will return full-time this fall to the department’s Division of Geriatrics. He called Alexander “a great fit for Brody.”

###