Sabrina Nuñez, PhD

Sabrina Nuñez, PhD, assistant dean for curriculum and the basic sciences, is recognized for her passion and enthusiasm for medical education, curriculum design and implementation.

Nuñez, also an assistant professor of medicine and of genetics, is known for giving freely of her time and knowledge to help fellow teachers to become better educators. She has led the curriculum redesign for the Medical Genetics course — now one of the highest-ranked courses in the pre-clinical curriculum. She also has worked with colleague Adrian Shifren, MD, to redesign the Pulmonary Diseases course curriculum — work that is well received by students and teaching faculty.

Within the preclinical curriculum, she led the development and began the implementation of an assessment program for affective behaviors, such as professionalism and team work communication. In 2017 she was awarded the Loeb Teaching Fellowship, which will support the continuation of this work. She also has been honored with the Course Master of the Year Awards from Washington University medical students in 2016 and 2017 and with the 2014 Anne L. Brodie Teacher’s Teacher Award from Alpha Omega Alpha.

Nuñez earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1999, and her doctoral degree in 2007 from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She joined the Washington University faculty in 2014. Samuel R. Goldstein Leadership Award in Medical Student Education 18