Windus named associate dean for medical school education

David W. Windus, M.D., has been named associate dean for medical student education at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Windus is a professor of medicine and assistant medical director of the Chromalloy American Kidney Center at the School of Medicine.

In the new role, Windus will oversee all aspects of the medical student curriculum, including managing schedules, evaluations, assessment, course planning and the Career Counseling office and managing the Family Medicine clerkship, the Practice of Medicine courses and the fourth-year program. In addition, he will lead the medical schools LCME accreditation process and act as a liaison with students and support faculty in obtaining recognition for their teaching.

“Dr. Windus is a superb teacher and clinician with experience in international medical education, information technology and innovative teaching methods,” said Alison Whelan, M.D., senior associate dean for education at the School of Medicine. “Dave is a wonderful colleague with the highest professional integrity and humanism. I look forward to working with him in his new role and am confident he will do a superb job.”

Windus joined the School of Medicine faculty in 1983. He is an Institute of Public Health Scholar at Washington University and an attending physician at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

As a professor, Windus has implemented team-based learning into the “Renal Pathophysiology” course, resulting in greater understanding and appreciation of kidney disease by students. He also developed a curriculum for the internal medicine students at Orotta Medical School in the African country of Eritrea and trained health-care professionals in that country, leading to improved diabetes care. He has also visited Bhutan to help teach Bhutanese doctors and health-care workers about kidney disease and diabetes.

A native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Windus earned a bachelor’s degree from Iowa State University and a medical degree from Creighton University. He completed an internship, residency and chief residency at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Milwaukee. He also was a postdoctoral trainee for the U.S. Public Health Service at Washington University School of Medicine for two years.

Windus is a fellow of the American College of Physicians. He has received numerous awards, including the School of Medicine’s Distinguished Service Teaching Award six times, the Samuel R. Goldstein Leadership in Medical Education Award and the AAMC Humanism in Medicine Award for Washington University, both in 2006.


Washington University School of Medicine’s 2,100 employed and volunteer faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals. The School of Medicine is one of the leading medical research, teaching and patient care institutions in the nation, currently ranked third in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.