Director of Clinical Skills and Electives

Alice L. Walton School of Medicine (AWSOM) is seeking experienced, motivated, and dedicated leaders and educators to participate in the design and delivery of an innovative four-year medical school curriculum that engages medical students in active and novel learning.

Job Description:

Job Title: Director of Clinical Skills and Electives

Reports to: Assistant Dean for Clinical Education

FLSA Classification: Non-Exempt

Location: Bentonville, Arkansas (On-site)

Date Reviewed : October 15, 2025

Who We Are

Founded in 2021, Alice L. Walton School of Medicine (AWSOM) is a nonprofit, four-year MD program that will enhance traditional medical education with the arts, humanities, and whole health principles. The school's culture embraces self-care to empower students to care for their own well-being as well as their patients'. The school's state-of-the-art medical education facility is located in Bentonville, Arkansas on the Crystal Bridges campus, home to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and Heartland Whole Health Institute. The school has been granted preliminary accreditation status by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education.

About The Position

The Director of Clinical Skills and Electives leads the design and delivery of clinical skills education in the pre-clerkship curriculum of the medical education program, including physical exams, patient communication, and clinical reasoning to ensure exceptional clinical skills competencies. This person oversees Objective Structured Clinical Examinations, standardized patient programs, mentors faculty and students, applies educational technologies to ensure achievement, and contributes to curriculum innovation.

This is a nontenure track full time faculty position with 1.0 FTE.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Develop, implement, evaluate, and improve methods to instruct, train, and assess clinical skills with an intentional focus on integrating the curriculum particularly as it relates to incorporating the whole health approach with a focus on compassionate, empathic, and effective communication tools and methodologies.
• Develop M4 clinical and nonclinical experiences for students that align with their career goals.
• Help develop faculty providing M4 clinical experiences and assist with educational administrative needs such as but not limited to the creation of syllabi, evaluation and assessment methods when applicable.
• Assist student affairs and the assistant dean for clinical education in making sure students meet their graduation requirements as it pertains to their 4th year electives.
• Serve as primary liaison between the assistant dean for clinical education and M4 course directors & faculty.
• Help serve foundational sciences faculty needs as it pertains to classroom instruction.
• Create and implement content, assessments and evaluation tools to ensure clinical competence and proficiency in history-taking, interviewing, physical exam skills, clinical reasoning, communication, professionalism, and documentation across a four-year curricula.
• Coordinate with other faculty and curricula team members across a four-year medical education program for use of the clinical skills area and resources.
• Create syllabi for the clinical skills courses.
• Participate in the curriculum committee, related subcommittees and the faculty assembly
• Demonstrate familiarity with and prepare students for standardized clinical assessments in conjunction with faculty and staff such as Objective Structured Clinical Exams (OSCE)
• In collaboration with the Office of Faculty Affairs, provide instructional workshops & faculty development within sessions and during orientation and onboarding of Clinical Skills Faculty.
• Assist with efforts to centralize clinical skills testing and data collection and analysis for feedback, remediation, and student progression. This includes returning students / Leave of Absence students
• Collaborate with Student Affairs, course/clerkship directors to plan and implement remediation for students who fail to perform at expected level in assessments of clinical skills during the clinical skills course or during phase III and phase IV clinical experiences.
• Participate in assessing re-entry students for competency in performing clinical skills needed to safely reenter at any point during undergraduate medical education training.
• Manage and direct the clinical skills team, including but not limited to staff, standardized patients, and faculty for clinical skills instruction and assessment
• Assist with development and management of departmental budget.
• Oversee the operations of the clinical skills space and coordinate with others to establish and maintain clinical space within the school's premises
• Abide by LCME standards and AWSOM policies.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications and Requirements

• M.D or D.O physician who has successfully completed post graduate training (residency) training within the United States, required.
• Current or prior clinical practice as a physician within the United States, required.
• 3 years of related clinical and teaching experience, or the equivalent experience related to clinical education, required.
• MD/DO licensed or eligible to practice medicine in Arkansas, preferred.
• Work experience of five years directing or managing a clinical skills department / course within an accredited undergraduate medical education program, preferred.

How to Apply:

Applicants should submit the following materials:

• Letter of interest highlighting essential qualifications and interests specific to the position
• A detailed curriculum vitae
• Teaching philosophy statement

Physical Demands and Work Environment

The physical demands and work environment characteristics described here are representative of those required by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these functions.

Physical Demands : In the work environment described, position requires sitting at a desk and utilizing a computer for prolonged periods of time and good eye/hand coordination, bending and stretching, and physical stamina to lift and transport a minimum of 10 pounds. Visual acuity to review written materials is required for this job.

Work Environment : Work is performed (Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.) in a professional, climate-controlled office environment with standard office equipment, including computers, printers, and telephones. This role requires working in an open setting near colleagues. The noise level is typically low to moderate. The role also requires interaction with both the public and internal team members in a professional and courteous manner. Some local travel will be required, and a flexible schedule may be necessary to accommodate business needs, including occasional evening and weekend work hours.

Alice L. Walton School of Medicine is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment.

All offers of employment are contingent on your successful completion (where permitted by state law) of a confidentiality agreement and background check. In addition, you will need to provide proper identification verifying your eligibility to work in the United States.