On January 1, 2007, Mary Noel, PhD, MPH, RD, assumed the position of Senior Associate Chair in the Department of Family Medicine of Michigan State University's College of Human Medicine (CHM). Dr. Noel, accepted the appointment after serving 10 years as the department's Associate Chair for Academic Affairs.

Her extensive experience includes clinical practice as a nutritionist not only in Family Medicine, but across multiple departments in the MSU HealthTeam. She participates in collaborative educational evaluation programs for the college, chairs the faculty college advisory council, provides educational outreach programs on nutrition across the state and with other medical schools, and regularly meets with community campus faculties across the CHM affilitated campuses regarding educational and scholarly programs.

In her new position, Noel will extend and complement the work of the department's chairperson, William. C. Wadland , MD , and will be involved in a number of new and ongoing projects.

Her particular focus will be on helping the Department of Family Medicine successfully navigate the many changes that are in store both for the Department and CHM. This includes the anticipated expansion of the medical school, with the development of a new four-year campus in Grand Rapids and increased student enrollment at both campuses. Development of the Grand Rapids campus is viewed as a $75 million dollar project, and will include construction of a seven-story 180,000 square foot building to house the venture in downtown Grand Rapids .

Noel sees a number of key questions and challenges regarding how the school and the department expand, and in how educational programs change as the classes expand with more students coming through the programs. She notes, “The Grand Rapids change is coming at the same time the federal government is talking about totally revamping the way we pay for residency training. So we are at a very precarious time. We see some growth and expansion--new medical centers and new ways of doing things with the Grand Rapids expansion. But at the same time, there are going to be changes in the way we finance medical education. It's a time of a lot of change, and that's not bad. Hopefully, I can help the department change in ways that are positive for medical education. Change is necessary. It is exciting, but can be hard.”