A recognized leader in medical informatics and a researcher with extensive expertise in virus outbreak management and mitigation have been appointed Associate Deans, one in Health Informatics and the other in Faculty Affairs. Wendy Chapman, Ph.D., joined UT Southwestern in July as Associate Dean for Health Informatics, Director of the Clinical Informatics Center, and Professor of Internal Medicine. She will also serve as Chief Learning Health Officer for the Health System.
Trish Perl, M.D., a Professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, has been appointed Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs in the Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health (OSPH), where she had served as Interim Associate Dean in that role and Professor of Epidemiology since 2023.
Wendy Chapman, Ph.D.
Dr. Chapman devoted the first part of her career to natural language processing of clinical notes – developing and evaluating easy-to-use algorithms; sharing schemas, data, and annotations; and building collaborations. Aware of the potential of clinical informatics to impact health care, she took on leadership positions with the goal of bridging digital health research, clinical care delivery, and consumer empowerment.
“The Health System is dedicated to implementing innovative interventions and has invested in expertise and infrastructure across the learning cycle to gain insight from data and turn that insight into practical solutions,” she said. “I am excited to build on these foundations with a research mindset.”
A widely cited leader in medical informatics, Dr. Chapman has been recognized with multiple honors that include election to the National Academy of Medicine in 2017. She earned her B.A. in linguistics and a Ph.D. in medical informatics from the University of Utah.
Before coming to UTSW, Dr. Chapman was Associate Dean for Digital Health and Informatics and Director of the Centre for Digital Transformation of Health at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Prior to that, she spent six years as Chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics at the University of Utah School of Medicine.
In her new role, Dr. Chapman will continue advancing research, leveraging her experience to improve health care delivery and support student training, positioning UT Southwestern as a national model of a research-driven learning health system.
One of her goals is to build stronger connections from research to application.
“There’s a need to make information more accessible to everyone, including consumers, to generate earlier evidence about how to activate the great ideas we have in a way that will lead to routine adoption and increased rigor in measuring the extent to which an intervention or quality project is succeeding,” she said. “One way to do this is through simulation in realistic physical and digital environments. We will build out a discovery and simulation studio dedicated to preclinical testing to prepare an innovation for implementation.”
Trish Perl, M.D.
Dr. Perl is recognized worldwide for her pioneering research related to respiratory viruses, health care-associated infections, and antimicrobial resistance. Her expertise in outbreak management and mitigation has made her a leading consultant on strategies to counter emerging health threats.
In her new role, she is excited to continue to mentor faculty as well as develop added resources and processes that support their teaching, service, and research needs.
“While we are fortunate to have a resource-rich Office of Faculty Affairs in the Provost’s Office, as a school, we need to supplement what is currently available and make sure the offerings address the needs of population health and public health practice for researchers and educators,” she said. “Further, I hope that by having ‘feet’ in both OSPH and the Medical School, I can facilitate research interactions among faculty and provide a bridge to support didactic and career development programs.”
Prior to joining UT Southwestern in 2016 as Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, Dr. Perl served as a Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Professor of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
She earned her medical degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After completing a residency and a fellowship in internal medicine at McGill University’s Royal Victoria Hospital, Dr. Perl received advanced training in infectious diseases and clinical epidemiology through a fellowship at the University of Iowa Health Care Medical Center. She also holds a Master of Science in epidemiology and biostatistics from McGill University.
Priorities as Associate Dean include faculty assistance and professional development. Cross-disciplinary mentoring committees for junior faculty have been set up as well as a coaching program for all new educators.
“We have a lot of junior faculty. So, as we build our teaching team, I hope to develop needed resources, provide them with support and information, serve as a sounding board, and establish the infrastructure necessary to make what we do in Faculty Affairs transparent,” she said. “To enhance networking and education, we are developing a public health grand rounds series with the faculty and other Associate Deans. We are expanding our portfolio of offerings to enhance the educational, networking, and research environment and to further our mantra of excellence for impact.”
Endowed Title
Dr. Perl holds the H. Ben and Isabelle T. Decherd Chair in Internal Medicine in Honor of Henry M. Winans, Sr., M.D.