MACON – Dr. Jean R. Sumner, dean of Mercer University School of Medicine (MUSM), recently announced the appointment of Dr. Richard McCann as assistant dean of faculty affairs and professional development.
“Working with Dr. Marie Dent, associate dean of faculty affairs and professional development, Dr. McCann will continue providing guidance and professional development opportunities for faculty,” said Dr. Sumner. “Dr. McCann is a proven leader, scientist and outstanding teacher who embodies a commitment to students, colleagues and the mission of Mercer University School of Medicine.”
Dr. McCann, a native of Brunswick, graduated from Glynn Academy and earned his B.S. in biochemistry and Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Georgia. He was an American Heart Association Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the Department of Biological Chemistry.
Prior to joining Mercer's faculty in 2008, Dr. McCann was an assistant professor of biochemistry at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine in Lexington.
He currently serves MUSM as an associate professor of biochemistry.
Throughout his career, Dr. McCann has combined a research program on cell adhesion with teaching. He advised three Ph.D. students and one M.D./Ph.D. student at the University of Kentucky. He also taught cell biology, genetics and biochemistry in the Master of Science in Biotechnology Program at Johns Hopkins and in the Integrated Biomedical Sciences Program at Kentucky.
At Mercer, Dr. McCann has served as a tutor in the first-year medical curriculum, and from 2011-2015, he was phase coordinator for the cellular basis of medicine in the Biomedical Problems Program curriculum. He is currently Block 1 co-chair for the Macon Campus in the revised Patient Based Learning curriculum.
Dr. McCann is the founding director of MUSM's Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences, and for the next three years, he will chair the Cell Structure and Survival Review Panel for the American Heart Association.
