CONTACT: Doug Carlson
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doug.carlson@med.fsu.edu
By Doug Carlson
Dec. 18, 2006
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.--Two longtime Florida physicians have been selected to lead new Florida State University College of Medicine regional campuses in Daytona Beach and Fort Pierce.
Dr. Luckey Dunn, a private-practice family doctor and medical director for the city of Daytona Beach, will serve as regional dean of the FSU College of Medicine's Daytona Beach regional campus. Dr. Randall Bertolette, a Vero Beach pediatrician since 1979, will be the regional dean in charge of the Fort Pierce regional campus.
The campuses will open in July 2007. Eventually they will be home to 40 third- and fourth-year medical students, who will complete clinical education requirements at area hospitals and medical facilities.
First- and second-year students at the FSU College of Medicine complete basic science requirements at the school's main campus in Tallahassee before being assigned to one of six regional campuses for the final two years of medical school.
The College of Medicine, with 287 students, also has campuses in Orlando, Pensacola, Tallahassee and Sarasota. Over the next four years, enrollment at the College of Medicine will increase to 480, prompting a need for these additional campuses, which are intended to accommodate a maximum of 40 students each.
"We are fortunate to have two new regional-campus deans who have been active in medical education and who also have strong, longstanding relationships within the local medical communities in which they will serve,' said Dr. J. Ocie Harris, dean of the FSU College of Medicine.
Dunn, a distinguished graduate and valedictorian at the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1976, has been an attending physician with the Halifax Medical Center family medicine residency program since 1993. He also is a United States Soccer Federation-certified referee and coaches the boys' and girls' soccer teams at Warner Christian Academy. Dunn, 52, spent 21 years in the Air Force Reserve.
"I see this as an opportunity to impact both the physicians and the future of medicine in Florida,' Dunn said. "The community-based model of medical education really hits home for me. It's an exciting way of educating medical students and training them to be outstanding physicians.'
Bertolette, 58, a former president of the Indian River County Medical Society and current Florida Medical Association board member, is vice chief of staff at Indian River Memorial Hospital. He has been in private practice since 1991 in Vero Beach and has served as senior staff pediatrician for the Florida Child Protection Team as a certified expert with the Florida Attorney General's office of victims' assistance.
"I've always been interested in teaching and always thought about going into academic medicine all the way back to when I was doing my residency," Bertolette said. "This is a great opportunity for me to fulfill that dream. I was interested in being involved right from the beginning. I'm looking forward to working with FSU's future physicians."
The regional deans will begin work on a part-time basis Jan. 2 and transition into full-time roles as they leave their practices.