Belmont University today announced the appointment of Dr. Anderson Spickard as Dean of the Thomas F. Frist, Jr. College of Medicine. Spickard has been serving as Interim Dean for the College since June 2022 and began his tenure at Belmont in fall 2021 as associate dean for spiritual growth & development and professor of internal medicine.
Belmont President Dr. Greg Jones said, “Since accepting his appointment as Interim Dean last summer, Anderson has provided incredible leadership and vision for the entire College of Medicine team as they’ve worked to establish the College’s foundation. He has also emerged as a remarkable leader across the University. His exemplary character, commitment to his faith and joyful personality and collegiality contribute to the mindset with which he approaches everything he does, and I’m grateful for his willingness to continue serving the Belmont community and beyond as Dean of the Frist College of Medicine.”
Belmont’s College of Medicine has been established in alliance with HCA Healthcare, one of the nation’s leading providers of healthcare services and one of the College of Medicine’s major clinical affiliates. The Frist College has earned “Candidate Status” from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), its accrediting body, the next step in the College’s accreditation process. Frist will host a site visit with the LCME this summer to tour its facilities, review submitted materials, receive updates on building progress and meet with various participants regarding planning, curriculum and more.
The College will be housed in a 246,000-square-foot building, which is currently under construction near the corner of Wedgewood and 15th Avenues and slated for spring 2024 completion. The facility will be located within a block of Belmont’s Gordan E. Inman Center and McWhorter Hall, home to the University’s well-known nursing, health sciences and pharmacy programs. The building has been designed to create a fully interdisciplinary educational experience, allowing students in existing programs to work alongside aspiring MDs, emulating modern clinical settings.
“We are building something special at the Frist College, taking on a whole-person approach to healing that will teach future providers to consider all aspects of each patients’ identity and what makes them special,” said Spickard. “Throughout my career, I’ve noticed the impact made at the bedside when caregivers can recognize—and honor—the distinctives of the full person presenting before them and their setting. We will train our students to be excellent in the basic and clinical sciences, in systems of care and in considering patients’ contexts to enable patients to thrive, while also focusing on our trainee’s formation and wellness. What an opportunity! I am so grateful for an incredible team at the Frist College, all of whom are dedicated to this work, and I’m honored to lead my colleagues forward as we seek to impact healthcare in a meaningful way.”
Prior to joining the Frist team at Belmont, Spickard spent 27 years at Vanderbilt University where he served in a variety of roles. He established and directed the Primary Care Clerkship for the School of Medicine, led educational programs for the Division of General Internal Medicine, directed the Internal Medicine Clerkship and taught residents and students in clinic and on the wards as a Master Clinical Teacher.
Spickard also served an appointment in the Department of Biomedical Informatics and led the team that built and managed the tightly integrated IT infrastructure to deliver curriculum content and capture performance data in the workflow of learning to inform trainee and programmatic success. His expertise in study design and the evaluation of medical education helped to form partnerships between departments that provided Vanderbilt innovative curricula and a sustained research agenda in the education of health care professionals. Spickard’s research interests and publications address numerous aspects of medical education, and he has practiced internal medicine for 27 years where he has earned the highest patient ratings year over year.
