Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University have appointed two physician educators to executive leadership positions within Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University (CCLCM). J. Harry (Bud) Isaacson, M.D., has been named Executive Dean, and Neil Mehta, M.B.B.S., has accepted the role of Associate Dean for Curricular Affairs.

“Bud and Neil both have a long-standing enthusiasm for and commitment to educating the next generation of physician-scientists,” said James K. Stoller, M.D., M.S., chairman of Cleveland Clinic’s Education Institute. “Under their leadership, the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine will continue to provide a superb education to our medical students for years to come. The new deans will play a key role in the opening next year of our Health Education Campus which will transform medical education.”

Dr. Isaacson has served since 2010 as Assistant Dean for Clinical Education and co-directs the Art and Practice of Medicine curriculum for CCLCM.

Since joining Cleveland Clinic in 1993, Dr. Isaacson has been involved in numerous educational roles, including associate program director for the Internal Medicine Residency Program; chair of the Education Committee; associate professor of Clinical Internal Medicine at Ohio State University School of Medicine; and Associate Professor of Medicine at CCLCM.

Dr. Isaacson, an internal medicine specialist, received the Cleveland Clinic Bruce Hubbard Stewart Award for Humanistic Medicine. He is a reviewer for numerous professional journals, including Archives of Family Medicine, Journal of General Internal Medicine and Annals of Internal Medicine. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and member of the Society of General Internal Medicine. In 2017, he was awarded the Evelyn V. Hess, M.D., MACP Master Teacher Award of the Ohio Chapter of the American College of Physicians.

Dr. Isaacson received his medical degree from the University of Michigan. He completed a residency and chief residency in internal medicine at the University of Vermont College of Medicine.

In his new role, Dr. Mehta is responsible for working with the assistant deans and educational directors within CCLCM to develop, implement, evaluate and coordinate all undergraduate medical education curriculum and assessment activities. He will fully assume the role after Alan L. Hull, M.D., Ph.D., current Associate Dean for Curricular Affairs, retires at the end of 2018.

A Professor of Medicine at CCLCM, Dr. Mehta has been Assistant Dean for Education Informatics and Technology with CCLCM since 2015, and served as Director of Education Technology from 2003 to 2015. He has been Director of the Center for Technology-Enhanced Knowledge and Instruction at Cleveland Clinic since 2002.

Dr. Mehta’s passion for medical education began during his chief resident year in the Cleveland Clinic Internal Medicine Residency Program and continued during his Clinician Scholar fellowship over the next two years. He earned his medical degree from Gujarat University and completed his residency at C.H. Nagri Eye Hospital and Cleveland Clinic.

Since joining Cleveland Clinic in 1997, Dr. Mehta has been deeply involved in teaching and curriculum design for the Cleveland Clinic/Cleveland State University Master of Education for Health Professions Education program, Harvard Macy Healthcare Education 2.0 course, and Singapore NHG-Partners course. He also serves as adjunct graduate faculty for the Cleveland State University College of Graduate Studies.

“Bud and Neil bring an extraordinary wealth of knowledge to their respective roles at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine,” added Pamela B. Davis, M.D., Ph.D., Dean of the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs at Case Western Reserve University. “Their experience preparing physician-scientists for the challenges of an ever-changing healthcare landscape will be particularly valuable for the interprofessional education students from CCLCM College Program will receive alongside those from the other healthcare professional schools at CWRU as they move into the Health Education Campus this spring.”