Sandy Cook, PhD
Associate Dean for Curriculum Development
Duke – NUS Medical School – Singapore
Discipline: Medical Education Research, Program Development, and Evaluation
Email: sandy.cook@duke-nus.edu.sg
Sandy Cook received her PhD from Cornell University in Adult and Continuing Education. Her Master’s is in Research Methodology and her Bachelor’s in Experimental Psychology, both from Ohio State University. Her previous position was the Associate Dean for Curricular Affairs, Senior Research Professional at The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine from 2001-2006. Dr. Cook went to Chicago in 1985 to work as an education specialist for the Diabetes Research and Training Center (DRTC), a major NIH grant that was awarded to the University of Chicago in 1976 and continues to be funded. One of the major focuses on that grant has been the translation of diabetes research to the community, patients, and physicians. She continued on that grant and other diabetes related grants until 2003, when she needed to focus more of her time with University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medical and working with faculty to develop scholarly medical education research projects.
Dr. Cook’s overall research focused on developing and evaluating educational programs throughout the Division of Biological Sciences; health outcomes research in the area of diabetes, sleep medicine disorders, asthma, and geriatrics; and faculty development efforts in the area of the Scholarship of Education. Her work in the area of simulation and clinical assessment grew with the development of Clinical Performance Center at the University of Chicago for use in teaching and assessing the clinical skills of our medical students. As of 2008, she has 34 journal publications, 19 published abstracts, and one book chapter.
She was appointed to the Board of the Society of Directors in Research in Medical Education in 2002 (first as member-at large, secretary, treasurer, and after moving to Singapore as Financial Liaison). She spent 8 years on the board of the Chicago Asthma Consortium, and served as President from 2003-2006. She also was the chair of the Curriculum and Evaluation committee of the 13-Schools Consortium from 2001-2006.