‘I never looked back’
Christopher C. Colenda III, M’77, honored with the Donna M. Waechter LCME Distinguished Service Award for his decades-long commitment to improving medical education
On left, Christopher C. Colenda III, M'77, at a 2022 MCV Foundation event. On right, Colenda in 1975 as a second-year medical student living in McRae Hall. (Contributed photos)
Caring for patients. Educating medical students, residents and fellows. Conducting research. Leading academic departments, medical schools and a health science center as well as its health system. Those sound like more than enough responsibilities for a physician leader in academic medicine.
Not for Christopher C. Colenda III, M’77, whose passion for medical education was sparked in his first days on the MCV Campus.
“It was as excited as I’d ever felt,” he said of starting medical school. “Early on I recognized I wanted a career in academic medicine where the environment of discovery, clinical care and teaching all co-mingled into one place. I never looked back.”
When the opportunity arose in 2001 to serve as a fellow on the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, Colenda agreed without hesitation. The LCME is responsible for reviewing and awarding accreditation status to U.S. medical education programs.
“Having thought about this as I get older, my core professional identity is that of being a teacher,” said Colenda, who was in the role of interim dean of medicine for the College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University when he began serving with the LCME. “My work with the LCME conforms to that identity and my commitment to stay up-to-date with how undergraduate and graduate medical education continues to evolve from when I was an M1 student in August 1973. It’s a moral responsibility to current and future patients.”
Over more than two decades, he led and participated in 23 LCME survey visits (with another visit scheduled this spring). He served as a committee member from 2007 to 2013 and its chair during academic year 2012-13. In November, at the 2024 Association of American Medical Colleges annual meeting, the LCME recognized his service with the Donna M. Waechter LCME Distinguished Service Award.
“Dr. Colenda has devoted countless hours to ensuring excellence in medical education programs across the country and could not be more deserving of this recognition from the LCME,” said School of Medicine Dean Arturo P. Saavedra, M.D., Ph.D. “I’m proud to know his passion for academic medicine started right here in our medical school, and we continue to be inspired by, and grateful for, his experience and mentorship. The future of medical education is brighter thanks to Dr. Colenda’s physician-servant leadership.”
Colenda joked that in the 1980s and ’90s, he “couldn’t spell LCME,” let alone identify the words reflected in the acronym. But after nearly 25 years of working with the accreditation body, he has seen firsthand how educational standards are necessary.
Standards ensure medical schools support a curriculum and educational experience where students acquire the necessary professional competencies to prepare them for post-graduate residency training — and beyond as independent practitioners — including possessing the skills and wisdom of the science and art of medicine.
For example, Colenda noted the evolution of how today’s students acquire effective patient-physician communication and interviewing skills.
“There is a robust commitment in medical education to improve, what I believe to be, one of the core professional competencies that physicians should have: effective patient-physician communication and interviewing skills,” he said. “Students learn first principles of empathic communication skills as engaged listeners during their first year of medical school. These skills include listening to and discerning the ‘what, why and how’ a patient experiences their symptoms and illnesses … and using clarifying questions to interpret the implications of the conversation prior to making a clinical judgment about how to best respond to the patient’s needs and requests.
“As I’ve reached the point in my life to be an ‘old’ patient,” Colenda added, “I am just amazed at the interviewing skills of many of today’s medical students.”
A commitment to education … and to the MCV Campus
In 1985, Colenda’s medical school decision to pursue a career in academic medicine came to fruition. He returned to the MCV Campus as the founding director of the geriatric psychiatry program and founded its fellowship program in partnership with Piedmont Geriatric Hospital in Burkeville, Virginia.
His commitment to academic medicine shows itself in a succession of leadership roles culminating in the position of chancellor for health sciences at West Virginia University and CEO of WVU Health System.
After retiring from university employment in 2016, Colenda now serves as a consultant to schools of medicine and universities and is an adjunct professor in the section of gerontology and geriatrics at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
His leadership in academic medicine likely comes as no surprise to his medical school classmates. In addition to being active in student government, as an M2 he served on the School of Medicine’s curriculum committee and as an M4 was a member of the admissions committee. Today, he continues to reach out to classmates, along with co-chair with Thomas E. Nolan, M’77, to raise a substantial 50th class year reunion gift through the campaign for the Class of 1977.
“Our class just clicked,” Colenda said. “We studied hard, played hard and worked hard as medical students. We learned teamwork, trust and loyalty.”
His student experience, coupled with his time on faculty, made a lasting impression. “It’s why I am so grateful to the School of Medicine.”
A legacy of leadership
Christopher C. Colenda III, M’77, assembled a career of leadership roles including:
- Section head and associate chair of psychiatry at Wake Forest University School of Medicine
- Chair of the psychiatry department and interim dean at Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine
- The Jean and Thomas McMullin Dean of Medicine at Texas A&M University Health Sciences
- Chancellor for health sciences at West Virginia University and CEO of WVU Health System
Caring for patients. Educating medical students, residents and fellows. Conducting research. Leading academic departments, medical schools and a health science center as well as its health system. Those sound like more than enough responsibilities for a physician leader in academic medicine.
Not for Christopher C. Colenda III, M’77, whose passion for medical education was sparked in his first days on the MCV Campus.
“It was as excited as I’d ever felt,” he said of starting medical school. “Early on I recognized I wanted a career in academic medicine where the environment of discovery, clinical care and teaching all co-mingled into one place. I never looked back.”
When the opportunity arose in 2001 to serve as a fellow on the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, Colenda agreed without hesitation. The LCME is responsible for reviewing and awarding accreditation status to U.S. medical education programs.
“Having thought about this as I get older, my core professional identity is that of being a teacher,” said Colenda, who was in the role of interim dean of medicine for the College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University when he began serving with the LCME. “My work with the LCME conforms to that identity and my commitment to stay up-to-date with how undergraduate and graduate medical education continues to evolve from when I was an M1 student in August 1973. It’s a moral responsibility to current and future patients.”
Over more than two decades, he led and participated in 23 LCME survey visits (with another visit scheduled this spring). He served as a committee member from 2007 to 2013 and its chair during academic year 2012-13. In November, at the 2024 Association of American Medical Colleges annual meeting, the LCME recognized his service with the Donna M. Waechter LCME Distinguished Service Award.
“Dr. Colenda has devoted countless hours to ensuring excellence in medical education programs across the country and could not be more deserving of this recognition from the LCME,” said School of Medicine Dean Arturo P. Saavedra, M.D., Ph.D. “I’m proud to know his passion for academic medicine started right here in our medical school, and we continue to be inspired by, and grateful for, his experience and mentorship. The future of medical education is brighter thanks to Dr. Colenda’s physician-servant leadership.”
Colenda joked that in the 1980s and ’90s, he “couldn’t spell LCME,” let alone identify the words reflected in the acronym. But after nearly 25 years of working with the accreditation body, he has seen firsthand how educational standards are necessary.
Standards ensure medical schools support a curriculum and educational experience where students acquire the necessary professional competencies to prepare them for post-graduate residency training — and beyond as independent practitioners — including possessing the skills and wisdom of the science and art of medicine.
For example, Colenda noted the evolution of how today’s students acquire effective patient-physician communication and interviewing skills.
“There is a robust commitment in medical education to improve, what I believe to be, one of the core professional competencies that physicians should have: effective patient-physician communication and interviewing skills,” he said. “Students learn first principles of empathic communication skills as engaged listeners during their first year of medical school. These skills include listening to and discerning the ‘what, why and how’ a patient experiences their symptoms and illnesses … and using clarifying questions to interpret the implications of the conversation prior to making a clinical judgment about how to best respond to the patient’s needs and requests.
“As I’ve reached the point in my life to be an ‘old’ patient,” Colenda added, “I am just amazed at the interviewing skills of many of today’s medical students.”
A commitment to education … and to the MCV Campus
In 1985, Colenda’s medical school decision to pursue a career in academic medicine came to fruition. He returned to the MCV Campus as the founding director of the geriatric psychiatry program and founded its fellowship program in partnership with Piedmont Geriatric Hospital in Burkeville, Virginia.
His commitment to academic medicine shows itself in a succession of leadership roles culminating in the position of chancellor for health sciences at West Virginia University and CEO of WVU Health System.
After retiring from university employment in 2016, Colenda now serves as a consultant to schools of medicine and universities and is an adjunct professor in the section of gerontology and geriatrics at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
His leadership in academic medicine likely comes as no surprise to his medical school classmates. In addition to being active in student government, as an M2 he served on the School of Medicine’s curriculum committee and as an M4 was a member of the admissions committee. Today, he continues to reach out to classmates, along with co-chair with Thomas E. Nolan, M’77, to raise a substantial 50th class year reunion gift through the campaign for the Class of 1977.
“Our class just clicked,” Colenda said. “We studied hard, played hard and worked hard as medical students. We learned teamwork, trust and loyalty.”
His student experience, coupled with his time on faculty, made a lasting impression. “It’s why I am so grateful to the School of Medicine.”
A legacy of leadership
Christopher C. Colenda III, M’77, assembled a career of leadership roles including:
- Section head and associate chair of psychiatry at Wake Forest University School of Medicine
- Chair of the psychiatry department and interim dean at Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine
- The Jean and Thomas McMullin Dean of Medicine at Texas A&M University Health Sciences
- Chancellor for health sciences at West Virginia University and CEO of WVU Health System
LCME accreditation process: ‘Always room for improvement and innovation’ in medical education
The Liaison Committee on Medical Education is an accrediting body for medical education programs leading to the M.D. degree.
Christopher C. Colenda III, M’77, who has spent decades in various roles with the LCME, noted the accreditation process is hard work for medical school faculty, students and administrators. In a full accreditation review, medical schools engage in self-study, document writing and survey visit preparation prior to a LCME site visit.
“For medical schools, the processes and outcomes of accreditation are high stakes and very dynamic,” Colenda said. “They involve virtually every aspect of a school’s medical education program: organization, governance and relationship to the parent university; medical school leadership and its scope of authority; curriculum content, organization, delivery and evaluation; medical school financing; health care system relationships; faculty composition and professional development; facilities including libraries and IT infrastructure; and student support services.
“The accreditation process is designed to examine how well a school’s medical education program meets its self-declared education program objectives based on nationally recognized standards,” he continued.
“It’s somewhat akin to continuous quality improvement principles and activities one finds in other industries. There’s always room for improvement and innovation.”
