Dr. Deena Shin McRae selected as associate vice president for Academic Health Sciences

Carrie L. Byington, M.D., executive vice president, University of California Health, issued the following statement on May 8, 2023:

Dear colleagues,

I am pleased to share with you that Dr. Deena Shin McRae has been selected as the new associate vice president (AVP) for Academic Health Sciences (AHS) in the University of California Health division office. The selection of Dr. McRae came after a competitive, national search process and is a recognition of her leadership skills, clinical and academic experience, and vision for the critical role of evidence-based academic health sciences education in our state and the nation.

Since July 2022, Dr. McRae has been serving as the interim AVP for Academic Health Sciences while concurrently continuing her work as associate dean for Graduate Medical Education and designated institutional official (DIO) at the UC Irvine School of Medicine. She will transition to the AVP role full time effective June 13.

As the AVP of AHS, Dr. McRae will lead and provide strategic direction to advance UC’s academic health sciences mission and goals of the UC Health system and individual campuses. UC operates the largest public health sciences instruction program in the nation, with approximately 16,000 health sciences students and trainees across 20 schools on seven campuses. Schools include medicine, nursing, pharmacy, public health, dentistry, optometry and veterinary medicine.

Dr. McRae’s experiences across many aspects of academic medicine will bring important perspectives to the work of the AHS team. At the UC Irvine School of Medicine, Dr. McRae has overseen the accreditation of the institution, as well as UC Irvine’s 72 ACGME-approved residency and fellowship programs, which she has been instrumental in growing by 35% since taking on the role in 2016. As an associate clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, she has been providing care at UC Irvine Health in Orange and the Tibor Rubin VA Medical Center in Long Beach, where she also served as associate chief of staff for education and the designated education officer. Previously, Dr. McRae worked in the community, providing psychiatric care in county-operated mental health clinics. Additionally, she has developed curricula and helped establish programs focused on physician well-being, diversity, equity and inclusion. She has been a principal investigator, published numerous research papers and frequently speaks at national professional conferences.

Dr. McRae earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Pennsylvania and completed both medical school and psychiatry residency training at UC Irvine. She is a 2022 graduate of the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine program.

I’m pleased to have Dr. McRae in this role to help UC meet the many challenges that health sciences education will face in the coming years. Please join me in congratulating Dr. McRae and thanking her for her commitment to the university.

Fiat Lux,
Carrie L. Byington, M.D.
Executive Vice President
University of California Health