Geisel School of Medicine Dean Duane Compton, PhD, has named Alison Volpe Holmes, MD, MPH, the school’s new associate dean for student affairs. Holmes is an associate professor of pediatrics, medical education, and of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, and has led the school’s residency advising program, focused on preparing third- and fourth-year medical students for the National Residency Match Program (aka “The Match”) since 2018.
“I am very pleased that Alison has agreed to take on this important role,” said Dean Compton. “Her experience and dedication as an educator, student advisor, and practicing clinician will ensure that Geisel’s students have both the right educational tools and environment to ensure their success. Additionally, her work overseeing educational programs here at Geisel provides her with the insights and experience necessary to achieve the goals set out for this position.”
In this role, Holmes will report to the senior associate dean for medical education and will be responsible for leading the Office of Student Affairs, advancing programmatic initiatives, and providing support to students to enable their success in all phases of their education. She will work closely with faculty, staff, and medical students to promote a positive, equitable, and inclusive learning environment.
For Holmes, a critical objective for this new role will be to bolster career advising services to help students identify and achieve their professional goals. As part of these efforts to facilitate student professional development, she will continue to direct Geisel’s residency advising program and plans to integrate residency advising and career planning across all years of the curriculum.
“I am very excited that this new role will allow me to spend more of my professional effort working directly with Geisel medical students,” said Holmes. “This is a wonderful opportunity to create a career-advising continuum spanning medical school matriculation through graduation and beyond. In addition to spending more time with first- and second-year students, I will make it a priority to work across the health professions on optimizing our learning environments.”
A pediatrician at the Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock (CHaD) since 2012, Holmes joined the Dartmouth faculty in 2007 as an assistant professor of community and family medicine at Concord Hospital.
Her research interests focus on clinical quality and value improvement, particularly in the newborn nursery, in areas such as breastfeeding, jaundice, circumcision, and neonatal abstinence syndrome. Her CHaD team's work on neonatal abstinence syndrome has attracted national attention for achieving the “triple aim” of healthcare improvement by tackling a clinical issue prevalent in the local population and providing a better family experience of care at lower cost.
Last year, Holmes and her colleagues with the Center for Addiction Recovery in Pregnancy and Parenting received the Academic Pediatric Association's Health Care Delivery award for their work with mothers and newborns with opioid dependence. The award recognizes innovative and effective programs that provide healthcare in the context of a teaching setting involving medical students and/or residents.
In 2016, Holmes was inducted into Geisel’s Academy of Faculty Master Educators, a distinguished group of faculty nominated by their colleagues at Geisel for their demonstrated commitment to excellence in teaching and medical education. In addition, she serves on the General Examination Committee of the American Board of Pediatrics and is co-director of the Academic Pediatric Association's faculty development program in quality and safety scholarship.
Founded in 1797, the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth strives to improve the lives of the communities it serves through excellence in learning, discovery, and healing. The Geisel School of Medicine is renowned for its leadership in medical education, healthcare policy and delivery science, biomedical research, global health, and in creating innovations that improve lives worldwide. As one of America’s leading medical schools, Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine is committed to training new generations of diverse leaders who will help solve our most vexing challenges in healthcare.