UMD News Releases

Duluth, MN —Paula Termuhlen, M.D., has had the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Duluth campus on her radar for years. She has family in Duluth and has visited many times. She also has a passion for helping underserved, rural communities meet their health care needs. Now Termuhlen will bring her talents to Duluth in support of that mission as the new regional campus dean.

Termuhlen comes to the University of Minnesota from the Medical College of Wisconsin, where she led the Community Medical Education Program, working to establish regional campuses to help address workforce issues in smaller, rural communities in Wisconsin. It’s a role that prepared her well for her next challenge, helping the Duluth campus fulfill its mission supporting rural medicine and Native American communities.

“I strongly believe we need to build a workforce that looks like the people we serve,” said Termuhlen. “We have a great opportunity to attract students, support them through school, train them and return them to their communities. This is an extremely important goal and one that the Duluth campus is uniquely qualified to address.”

A graduate of the St. Louis University School of Medicine, Termuhlen completed her surgical training at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. She then completed a surgical oncology fellowship at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center before joining the faculty at the University of Nebraska. Termuhlen has also served on the faculty at the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine in Ohio, where she eventually became medical director of the High-Risk Breast Cancer Center.

At the Medical College of Wisconsin, Termuhlen served as professor of surgery and director of the Surgery Residency Program. She was also medical director of the High Risk Breast Cancer Program and physician champion for Clinical Informatics for Surgical Services.

Termuhlen holds numerous regional and national leadership positions including serving on the National Board of Medical Examiners and on the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Residency Review Committee.

As regional campus dean, Termuhlen sees an opportunity to build on the success of the Duluth campus to not only improve health care delivery in rural Minnesota, but to be a role model for other states facing similar issues.

“Dr. Termuhlen brings a combination of energy and experience to this role that makes her the ideal leader at this time,” said Brooks Jackson, M.D., dean of the Medical School and vice president for Health Sciences. “She has a passion for education, for scholarship, and for solving issues around disparities. I look forward to working with her to raise the profile of the Duluth campus and to support her efforts to build on the legacy of that campus as an innovative leader in medical education.”

Termuhlen will begin her tenure as regional campus dean on March 31, 2015. She succeeds Alan Johns, M.D., M.Ed., who was named interim regional campus dean in July. Dr. Johns will resume his role as assistant dean for Medical Education and Curriculum in Duluth.

“I want to thank Dr. Johns for his strong leadership over the last six months,” said Jackson. “Alan’s commitment to scholarship and education, and his tireless work to help underserved communities, has made a lasting impact on the Duluth campus.”

Since it opened more than 40 years ago, the Duluth campus has turned out more than 1,700 medical doctors, many serving in rural and Native American communities.

ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA MEDICAL SCHOOL, DULUTH CAMPUS
The mission of the University of Minnesota Medical School–Duluth is to educate students who will practice family medicine and other primary-care specialties in rural Minnesota and American Indian communities; to provide high-quality academic and clinical education programs for professional, graduate and undergraduate students, and to create distinguished research programs in health sciences. Located on the campus of UMD, the University of Minnesota Medical School–Duluth is a branch campus of the University of Minnesota Medical School, based in the Twin Cities.