WSU College of Medicine appoints four new administrators

verheul schecter murray williams
VerHeul, Schecter, Murray, Williams (l-r)

By Terren Roloff, WSU Spokane director of communications

SPOKANE, Wash. – The Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine at Washington State University recently added a communications director and three associate deans.

Christina VerHeul, communications director, joins WSU from ReviveHealth, a Nashville-based integrated marketing agency focusing exclusively on healthcare, where she served as vice president. Prior, she led communications in the hospitality and restaurant industries with major national brands including Loews Hotels & Resorts, Hunt Brothers Pizza and Cracker Barrel. She has also worked in energy/utilities, information technology, architecture and construction. A native of Spokane, VerHeul earned her bachelor’s degree in public relations from WSU.

Dr. Larry Schecter, Dr. Kevin Murray and Dr. Farion Williams, will administer the medical educational program at the Everett, Vancouver and Tri-Cities campuses, respectively. They will join Dr. Dawn DeWitt, clinical campus associate dean, Spokane.

“These associate deans will teach, recruit faculty to teach and further the college mission by building out clinical partnerships with the rural and underserved areas,” said Ken Roberts, vice dean of academic and community partnerships. “They also will provide vital community and physician connections to help establish a top-notch educational environment for our students.”

Schecter, clinical campus associate dean, Everett, practiced general surgery in Santa Monica, Calif., for 30 years during which he took on multiple leadership positions including chairman of surgery at both St. John’s and Santa Monica hospitals, and chief medical officer of Santa Monica/UCLA Medical Center and associate professor of surgery at the UCLA School of Medicine. He and his family moved to the northwest in 2003 when he became chief medical officer of Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, a large tertiary regional referral center. Schecter then became chief medical officer of the Western Washington Region of Providence.

Murray, clinical campus associate dean, Vancouver, is a family medicine physician who has most recently been a clinical professor at the University of Wyoming, serving as the director of medical education, as the designated institutional official for the university as sponsor of Wyoming’s two family medicine residencies, and as the CEO of the Educational Health Center of Wyoming, a Federally Qualified Health Center look-alike organizational framework for the two residencies. Prior to these roles, Murray spent the entirety of his career in the state of Washington as a family physician in a variety of locations while also teaching residents and medical students in the clinical setting.

Williams, clinical campus associate dean, Tri-Cities, comes from the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford where he is the assistant dean for graduate medical education, the accreditation council for graduate medical education-designated institutional official, and professor of clinical family medicine and medical education. Prior to that Williams was the associate program director for Baylor College of Medicine’s Family Medicine Residency Program. He has also worked in a community practice in Dickinson, Texas.

 

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