Message from the Vice Chair

Welcome to the DOM Office of Academic Affairs! We serve the faculty in all aspects of their academic lives at UF. Our role starts at or even before you join UF by helping facilitate a smooth onboarding process. We interact frequently with new faculty to ensure strong mentorship and facilitate engagement in faculty development programs offered by the College of Medicine. Our goal is to help create an academic home where you can thrive. Whether your mission is clinical, teaching, research or, like most of us, a combination of all three, we are here to help you be successful and have a satisfying academic career.

One of our major roles is to prepare our faculty for promotion, a process that starts from day one. Promoting scholarship, a major component of academic success, is an important focus of our job. We seek to create synergy between basic investigators and clinicians. So if we can help you make a connection with a scientist or physician in your field, let us know. We can help identify funding opportunities and support plans for grants and program development.

We understand the challenges of academics, and the strain our jobs can put on other facets of our lives. We strive to promote wellness, and feel that helping each other is the best way to achieve happiness, balance, and success.

We are honored to participate in your academic life and are here to help in any way we can!

Ellen M. Zimmermann, MD
Professor, Gastroenterology
Vice Chair for Academic Affairs, Department of Medicine
University of Florida
ezimmer2@ufl.edu