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by Nancy Kinnally
April 24, 2008

LEADING ANATOMIST JOINS FSU COLLEGE OF MEDICINE

Award-winning teacher, scholar and administrator Dr. Lynn Romrell has been named course director for clinical anatomy and associate dean for curriculum development and evaluation at the FSU College of Medicine.

Romrell, whose teaching career began 37 years ago at Harvard Medical School, most recently served as professor of anatomy and cell biology at the University of Florida College of Medicine. He was executive director of the Anatomical Board of the State of Florida from 1983 to 2008, associate dean for education at the UF College of Medicine from 1988 to 2008, and director of the Office of Medical Education from 1979 to 2008, having first joined the faculty at UF in 1975.

College of Medicine Dean J. Ocie Harris, M.D., who worked closely with Romrell for more than two decades at UF, said the FSU College of Medicine could not have found a finer teacher for the anatomy course.

“Dr. Romrell is one of the most accomplished and respected anatomists teaching in the United States today,” Harris said. “Our students will benefit tremendously by having him as the course director for clinical anatomy, which is the first unit in the curriculum and the foundation on which subsequent courses are built.”

Romrell’s teaching awards are numerous and include being named Basic Science Teacher of the Year in the UF College of Medicine three times. He also was co-recipient of the Golden Apple Award for Outstanding Basic Science Course by each graduating class from 1993 to 2000 and 2002 to 2004. And in 1996 he was honored with the UF American Medical Women’s Association Gender Equity Award for promoting a gender-fair environment for the education and training of women physicians and assuring equal opportunity for women to study and practice medicine.

Dr. Alma Littles, senior associate dean for academic affairs at the FSU College of Medicine, studied anatomy under Romrell at UF.

“He is an outstanding teacher, and I’m so excited for our students,” Littles said. “He also will be a big help to us as we continue to enhance our curriculum and refine our evaluation methods.”

A representative on the USMLE Step 1 Anatomy Test Committee for the National Board of Medical Examiners from 1995 to 1998 and 1999 to 2001, Romrell also served as program secretary on the Executive Council of the American Association of Clinical Anatomists. At UF he was elected as a faculty member to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society and was named to the UF College of Medicine Society of Teaching Scholars. He is author of numerous peer reviewed articles, abstracts and chapters, and has also co-authored seven books and two computer programs in the fields of anatomy and histology.

Also an expert on mission-based budgeting in medical education, Romrell has been tasked with organizing the data on medical student performance at the FSU College of Medicine.

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