Rajesh S. Mangrulkar has been named the new director of the Michigan Center for Interprofessional Education.
He is the Marguerite S. Roll Professor of Medical Education, associate professor of internal medicine and learning health sciences, and former associate dean for medical student education at the Medical School.
His five-year appointment as director of the Center for IPE was effective Sept. 7 and will run through June 30, 2026. He succeeds Frank Ascione, professor and former dean of the College of Pharmacy, who is retiring.
“Addressing the health care needs of today requires an understanding of and appreciation for the expertise provided by practitioners across the health sciences,” said Susan M. Collins, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.
“Dr. Mangrulkar’s long-standing interest in and deep commitment to innovation in health science education make him an excellent choice to lead the Center for Interprofessional Education. Students and patients alike will benefit from his knowledge, experience and commitment to collaborative care.”
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The Center for IPE works to transform collaborative health practice through engaged and experiential learning across disciplines and professions. Its reach has grown via curriculum and faculty development, clinical innovation and evaluative research.
In 2020-21, more than 2,900 learners across U-M’s three campuses were engaged in interprofessional activities, compared with 859 learners in the center’s first year, 2015-16. Across six consecutive cohorts, 88 U-M faculty members have been selected for the center’s 18-month Interprofessional Leadership Fellows program.
Mangrulkar has been involved with the center in multiple ways. For the past 10 years, he has led the creation of new interprofessional education experiences for U-M medical students in his previous role as associate dean. He represented the Medical School dean’s office on the center’s executive committee.
He has also led numerous efforts to tackle administrative barriers to interprofessional education and practice, including his current work as co-chair of the IPE anti-racism administrative advisory committee.
His academic work focuses on organizational leadership and innovation, and their interface with transforming health professions education at scale, as he did when leading the large curricular transformation in the medical school. He also founded and will continue to direct RISE, a new initiative at Michigan Medicine that engages in innovative translational educational experiments for physician and scientist training.
Along with his new role at the Center for IPE and his continuing leadership of RISE, Mangrulkar will also serve as one of two new Innovators in Residence in the Center for Academic Innovation. He says he sees important synergies in his three roles and how they can mutually feed off of each other and grow creatively.
“I am truly honored to assume the role of director for the Center for Interprofessional Education at U-M, with the opportunity to build upon the outstanding work led by Dr. Ascione, collaborating closely with faculty, staff and learners from 10 health professional schools and colleges on three campuses,” Mangrulkar said.
“We must ensure that our health professional students are educated in innovative settings where they can learn how to come together in teams to provide optimal health care. The center’s commitment to this vision is inspirational, and I’m looking forward to leading it into the next phase.”
Collins expressed appreciation for the work of the search committee, including the chair, School of Social Work Dean Lynn Videka, the Health Sciences Council, which participated in the search process, and its chair, School of Public Health Dean DuBois Bowman. She also thanked Ascione for his service since 2015 “as the visionary and strategic leader of the Center for IPE.”
