UTHSC College of Medicine Executive Dean Scott Strome, MD, has named Catherine Womack, MD, associate dean of Student Affairs and Admissions for the College of Medicine.
“The college is fortunate to have someone like Dr. Womack serve as associate dean of Student Affairs and Admissions,” Dr. Strome said. “Dr. Womack is truly dedicated to helping students in their career choice from the day of their first admission committee interview to Match Day. Her energy, empathy, and strategies for improvement will be of considerable benefit to our students and these future physicians. I have no doubt Dr. Womack will help our students be happier, healthier, and more successful in medical school.”
As associate dean, Dr. Womack will lead the Office of Student Affairs and oversee the Office of Medical Student Admissions for the College of Medicine. She will lead the student advisory system, the academic, career, mental health referral, and personal and professional conduct of the college’s more than 680 medical students. She will also provide guidance in the student preparatory process for residency match, oversee the medical student performance evaluation for every senior student, and help ensure all students obtain a medical residency position.
Dr. Womack will oversee the professional and scholarship committees, as well as student events including the Second Look Weekend, the White Coat Ceremony, the Student Clinician Ceremony, and commencement. In addition, she will direct the UTHSC MPOWER House mentoring system, which Susan Brewer, MD, helped to establish prior to her recent retirement.
“Dr. Susan Brewer has been my mentor, and I hope to further implement her mentorship plan for our medical students,” Dr. Womack said. “Each entering MPOWER cohort belongs to a community that will follow them from orientation to graduation, fostering academic excellence by exploring six dimensions of wellness — occupational, physical, social, intellectual, spiritual, and emotional. I enjoy serving as an MPOWER mentor, and I will be the Diggs House Leader for the coming year. We have many new faculty members, who have volunteered to be part of our MPOWER House system, and I am very excited to work with them to help the medical students as they matriculate to UTHSC and then on to residency.”
A graduate of the UTHSC College of Medicine, Dr. Womack earned her MD degree in 1995. She completed an internship and residency in Internal Medicine from the college. She is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine. Dr. Womack is the recipient of many honors and awards including the American College of Physicians Laureate Award, the Castle Connolly Exceptional Women in Medicine Award, and the Top Twenty Internal Medicine Teachers Award from UTHSC for multiple years.
She joined UTHSC in 1998 and previously served as assistant dean of Student Affairs, interim chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine, and co-chief of the Division of Internal Medicine.
“I love working with the medical students and helping them to be successful in the same way that my predecessors at UTHSC helped me,” Dr. Womack said. “I will continue to counsel them on everything from mentors for their summer research project to letters for their residency application. The medical students are dedicated and excited about becoming doctors, and I enjoy helping them choose the specialty that fits them best.”