Sharmila Makhija, MD, has been appointed founding dean and CEO of the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine, a medical degree program seeking accreditation in Bentonville, Ark.
Dr. Makhija joins AWSOM from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System in New York City, according to a Feb. 13 release. While there, she served as department chair of obstetrics and gynecology and the Chella and Moise Safra Endowed Chair.
Dr. Makhija also taught at the University of Pittsburgh, where she was named a women's reproductive health research scholar. She continued this position at the University of Alabama in Birmingham before holding faculty positions at Emory University in Atlanta and the University of Louisville in Kentucky.
Plans for the medical school founded by Alice Walton, the daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton, were announced in 2021.