University Hospitals Names Kenneth Simons, MD, as Vice President, Medical Education and Designated Institutional Official

University Hospitals has seen robust growth in the clinical training programs we provide to medical students, residents, fellows and allied health professionals, with renewed and growing affiliations with Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, NEOMED, Technion University, University of Oxford and others. To continue along this positive trajectory, we are creating the new position of Vice President, Medical Education and Designated Institutional Official, and have selected an outstanding national leader in graduate medical education as the professional best suited for this crucial systemwide role.

Kenneth Simons, MD, is joining UH from Milwaukee, where he served as Professor of Ophthalmology and Pathology, Designated Institutional Official and Executive Director for Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals, Inc., and Senior Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education and Accreditation at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Kenneth Simons, MD

In his new role at UH, Dr. Simons is responsible for the strategic direction and leadership of all clinical training programs, including those based at UH Cleveland Medical Center and in the community. He will provide oversight and management of the various educational and personnel aspects of the programs and establish a long-range vision supporting excellence in leading-edge education across the system. In doing so, he will lead an exemplary team of educators and clinicians at UH and work in concert with Case Western Reserve University and others. Dr. Simons is also charged with serving as our champion for graduate medical education, ensuring that program quality remains the “north star.” He will also work to establish a contemporary, innovative display of best practice across the system and integrate educational programs into UH’s strategic priorities and objectives.

Dr. Simons has an extensive track record of success in medical education. During his 27-year tenure at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Dr. Simons successfully led three consecutive Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) accreditation visits, each of which resulted in the maximum possible term of accreditation. In addition, under Dr. Simons’ leadership, Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals was the inaugural recipient of the now annually awarded Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education’s (ACGME) Gold Foundation Baldwin Award.

Dr. Simons also has a strong interest in promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in medical education. He established an Underrepresented in Medicine Committee at his institution, while at the same time served as principal investigator for two NIH grants designed to increase diversity in health-related research and provide research training for undergraduate minority students. Also at the NIH, Dr. Simons was a member of the Peer Review Committee, Study Section on Increasing Diversity in Health-Related Research, and a member of the Peer Review Committee, Study Section on NIH Director’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act-funded Pathfinder Award to Promote Diversity in the Scientific Workforce.

Dr. Simons has also been an active leader in both national and state-level organizations. He was recently appointed by U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel A. Cardona, EdD, to serve as a member of the National Advisory Committee on Foreign Medical Education and Accreditation (NCFMEA), which evaluates the standards of accreditation applied to foreign medical schools and determines the comparability of those standards to standards applied to medical schools in the United States. He is a past chair of the American Medical Association’s Section on Medical Schools Governing Council and also served as the Section’s delegate to the House of Delegates. He is a past member of the ACGME Board of Directors, having served on its Executive Committee, and as chair for both the Policies and Procedures Committee and Committee on Requirements. Dr. Simons was appointed to the Wisconsin State Medical Examining Board, where he served for nine years as Vice Chair and Chair. Dr. Simons was also elected to the Federation of State Medical Boards Board of Directors in April 2017 and currently serves as its immediate Past Chair. In addition, Dr. Simons has served as Secretary-Treasurer of the National Resident Matching Program, a board member of LCME and Chair of the ACGME-I RC for Surgical and Hospital based-disciplines.

Dr. Simons earned his medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine, completed a residency in Ophthalmology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill and a fellowship in Ophthalmic Pathology at the Jules Stein Eye Institute, University of California Los Angeles. 

Educating the next generation of physicians and medical professionals is core to our three-part mission at UH: To Heal. To Teach. To Discover. We are confident that a physician of Dr. Simons’ stature and accomplishment is the leader who can embrace this mission and chart us toward continued success and even greater heights with our educational partners.