Heather McPhillips
Heather McPhillips, MD, MPH is Vice Dean for Academic Affairs and a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine. In this role, she provides strategic leadership for undergraduate medical education across the WWAMI region (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho), with oversight of curriculum, assessment, learner progression, admissions, student affairs and accreditation. Her work focuses on competency-based medical education, programmatic assessment, faculty development, and educational governance.
Prior to becoming Vice Dean, Dr. McPhillips served for four years as Associate Dean for Curriculum, where she led the design, implementation, and evaluation of the four-year MD curriculum across a large, distributed training environment. In this role, she oversaw major initiatives including transition to CBME and programmatic assessment.
Earlier in her career, Dr. McPhillips served for eight years as Residency Program Director and thirteen years as Associate Program Director of the University of Washington/Seattle Children’s Hospital Pediatric Residency Program. As a GME leader, she was nationally recognized for her work in resident education, well-being, inclusive learning environments, and curricular innovation, and she contributed to the development of coaching and assessment models that inform her current UME leadership.
Dr. McPhillips is an active national leader and scholar in medical education. She serves in leadership and advisory roles within pediatric and medical education organizations and is a co-editor of the forthcoming Springer-Nature volume Graduate Medical Education in Pediatrics: From Basic Processes to True Innovation. She maintains a clinical practice in pediatrics and is deeply committed to mentoring learners and educators across the continuum.
