The leadership team of the Institute for Medical Education is devoted to the advancement of learning and teaching.
Reena Karani, MD, MHPE, Director
Dr. Karani received a Bachelor of Science from Brown University and a Doctor of Medicine from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She completed her residency and chief residency in Primary Care Internal Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and her fellowship, chief fellowship and medical education research fellowship in Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at Mount Sinai. She also received a Master of Health Professions Education from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
As an education scientist, Dr. Karani’s interests include clinical workplace-based learning, feedback and assessment, innovative ways to teach faculty educators to be outstanding teachers, and approaches to center equity and justice in teaching and learning. Specifically, she is interested in how medical trainees learn in the busy clinical environment, what techniques educators harness to train learners in the various clinical settings, and approaches to advance, support, coach and retain the best educators across the continuum. Her scholarship has also advanced our understanding of effective feedback techniques and approaches and has contributed innovative assessment tools to facilitate direct observation and demonstration of psychomotor and communication skills among trainees. Finally, her work in equity and justice has included understanding the drivers of inequitable assessment of learners underrepresented in medicine and science, and reducing stereotyping and bias in assessments.
Dr. Karani is a founding Co-Director of the innovative Harvard Macy Program for Postgraduate Trainees that prepares residents and clinical fellows for leadership careers in health professions education. She served as a member of Council and Chair of the Education Committee for the Society of General Internal Medicine and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the American Geriatrics Society. She is a member of the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) Executive Board as Treasurer, serves on the USMLE Management Committee, the NBME Finance & Audit Committee and The Step 3 Computer Case Simulation Test Material Development Committee. Dr. Karani also chairs the USMLE Patient Characteristics Advisory Panel, focused on ensuring exam content, practices and review processes consider patient characteristics in a manner that mitigates bias and is consistent with contemporary scientific knowledge and understanding. Dr. Karani serves as a Deputy Editor in Medical Education for the Journal of General Internal Medicine. She served as Chair of the Research in Medical Education (RIME) Committee for the Association of American Medical Colleges and is the author of countless peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Karani has served as a mentor to hundreds of students, residents, fellows and faculty. She is a sought after speaker nationally and internationally and has served as Visiting Professor at several prestigious institutions.
Dr. Karani’s honors include the Sigma Xi Scientific Honor Society, Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society, the Presidential Award in Medical Education from AGS, the John A. Hartford Center of Excellence Scholar, the Excellence in Teaching Award from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, National Award for Scholarship in Medical Education from SGIM, the Distinguished Educator Award from the Northeast Group on Educational Affairs of the Association of American Medical Colleges and Master Educator from the Institute of Medical Education, Icahn School of Medicine Mount Sinai.