Maldonado Tapped to Head Office of Faculty Development and Diversity

For Release: April 16, 2014

Yvonne (Bonnie) Maldonado, MD, professor of pediatrics and of health research and policy, has been named senior associate dean for faculty development and diversity at the School of Medicine, effective May 1.

Lloyd Minor, MD, dean of the medical school, said Maldonado is dedicated to nurturing future leaders. “Bonnie is an outstanding investigator and clinician who is committed to making Stanford Medicine a more diverse and inclusive community,” he said.

Maldonado, who is also chief of infectious diseases in the Department of Pediatrics and medical director of infection prevention and control at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, will head the Office of Faculty Development and Diversity, formerly the Office of Leadership and Diversity. She will work with medical school departments to recruit and retain a diverse and distinguished faculty.

“I think we can always improve our diversity at all levels in terms of gender, race and ethnicity,” she said.

She also said she hopes to expand professional-development opportunities to help faculty at all levels succeed in their clinical and research endeavors, as well as to help them with teaching and mentoring students and trainees. She plans to provide these resources within the context of improving work-life flexibility and balance.

In particular, Maldonado said she wants to make Stanford a more nurturing environment for young faculty. “I want to see young faculty succeed, and I’m energized by the frontiers of new clinical research and teaching methods that we can use in medicine, especially at an institution like Stanford, where breaking new ground is the norm,” she said. “However, it takes years to develop a cohort of well-trained faculty, and I want to be a part of supporting the next generation of outstanding teachers, clinicians, scientists.”

Maldonado earned a medical degree from Stanford and completed a residency and a fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University. A second fellowship brought her to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where she trained as an epidemiologist. She returned to Stanford in 1988.

During her 25 years on Stanford’s faculty, Maldonado has developed training programs for clinicians, residents and medical students in collaboration with the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society.

Through her research, she has become a leader in the prevention of HIV transmission from mothers to their infants. She currently studies how family-planning counseling and drug treatment may reduce HIV rates among infants at her research site in Zimbabwe. She has also led polio vaccine studies in Zimbabwe and Mexico to understand the best practices for vaccine use to help reach the worldwide goal of eradicating polio by 2018.

“We are delighted that Bonnie has accepted this new role and look forward to her joining the Dean’s Office,” said vice dean Linda Boxer, MD, PhD. “In all her efforts, she will work closely with the departments to ensure that Stanford Medicine is a welcoming community where faculty flourish.”

Authors

Patricia Waldron is a science-writing intern for the School of Medicine’s Office of Communication & Public Affairs.