The University of Kentucky College of Medicine is excited to announce the creation of a new leadership position at its campus in Bowling Green, Ky., to ensure the seamless integration of the college’s curriculum at the regional site.
Marcia Fantoni, MD, PhD, MS, has been named assistant dean for curriculum integration at the Bowling Green Campus. In this role, she will support students through oversight of all aspects of the curriculum. She also will oversee faculty development opportunities at the campus.
The UK College of Medicine utilizes the Kentucky Integrated Curriculum to train medical students across all campuses. The curriculum is conducted by the UK College of Medicine Curriculum Committee (per Liaison Committee for Medical Education standards) and is divided into three phases: a core principles phase, application phase, and advanced development phase.
Dr. Fantoni has been involved with the Bowling Green Campus since it opened in 2018. She currently serves as assistant professor and teaches across all four years of the curriculum. She is also the faculty advisor for the Trakehner House, one of 10 learning communities across the UK College of Medicine created to ensure all medical students can have the optimal medical education experience.
Along with her extensive background mentoring medical students and residents, Dr. Fantoni has practiced medicine for more than 30 years, with a majority of her career spent at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Brazil. There, she served as an associate professor of medicine and pediatric gastroenterologist. She has clinical and bench research experience, resulting in many publications. Her clinical specialties include constipation, food allergy, eosinophilic esophagitis, gastroesophageal reflux, giardiasis, and more.
Dr. Fantoni is a graduate of UFMG, where she also completed her pediatrics residency and fellowship in pediatric gastroenterology. She earned her MS degree in tropical medicine and her PhD in gastroenterology from the UFMG. She later completed three postdoctoral fellowships at three different U.S. institutions: the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Duke University, and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.
The UK College of Medicine-Bowling Green Campus was created as part of the college’s mission to train physicians in Kentucky for Kentucky and help alleviate the physician shortage in the state. The campus graduated its first class of medical students in 2022.