Teaching Opportunities in the Curriculum

General Responsibilities

The nutrition and culinary medicine component of the four-year undergraduate medical education curriculum (COAST Curriculum) is a newly approved, horizontally and vertically integrated curricular element, with institutional accountability for educational content, assessment of student competency, and necessary faculty development. The Nutrition and Culinary Medicine Curricular Director will build upon the foundational curriculum mapping, competency alignment, gap analysis, and recommendations developed by the Nutrition and Culinary Medicine working group and adopted by the Committee on Educational Policy. They will lead a phased implementation strategy across the medical school curriculum with the intention to develop students’ ability to integrate basic scientific and nutrition-related communication skills to enhance competency in clinical care.

The Nutrition and Culinary Medicine Director will provide leadership and oversight for the design, planning, phased implementation, and evaluation of the Nutrition and Culinary Medicine curricular element, in collaboration with existing course directors, faculty, and medical education leadership. They will hold primary responsibility for assuring that the curriculum provides students with the opportunity to acquire the knowledge base, skills and attitudes regarding nutrition and culinary medicine necessary for transition to supervised clinical practice. They will develop goals and objectives related to nutrition and culinary medicine, as well as students’ habits of self-directed learning, that support a broad foundation of skills and knowledge. They are responsible for overseeing the implementation of the curricular element’s educational objectives.

Program Planning and Implementation

• Provide leadership and oversight for the design, planning, phased implementation and evaluations of the nutrition and culinary medicine curricular element in coordination with the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Medical Education and the Associate Dean for Assessment, Evaluation and Educational Informatics.
• Collaborate with core course directors to develop/design and implement appropriate experiences to meet curricular goals. 
• Participate in COAST Curriculum Steering Committee and associated curricular meetings; review student progress, including service on the CLEAR Committee; address nutrition and culinary medicine-related issues and advise Medical Education leadership on long-range, strategic planning of educational goals and objectives. 
• Coordinate faculty development activities in collaboration with the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Medical Education and the Executive Director of Faculty Development.
• Support alignment of the nutrition and culinary medicine curricular element with applicable LCME standards, in collaboration with the Associate Dean for Assessment, Evaluation and Educational Informatics and the Assistant Dean for Accreditation and Curricular Affairs. 

Teaching Activities

• Participate in teaching activities related to the nutrition and culinary medicine curricular element.
• Teaching methods may include lecture, discussion, reflection, seminars, experiential learning and other methods as appropriate.
• Assist students in developing the clinical knowledge, clinical skills and attitudes needed to integrate nutrition and culinary medicine into patient care.
• Participate in evaluation of student performance related to nutrition and culinary medicine instructional goals and provide feedback to support development of relevant knowledge, skills and attitudes.

Individual Student Mentoring and Advising

• Advise medical students on academic issues related to the nutrition and culinary medicine curricular element. 
• Provide guidance to students in the development and/or continuance and implementation of activities related to developing mastery of the nutrition and culinary medicine curricular element.

This is a core curricular element, supported by a 0.3 FTE time allocation, and the Nutrition and Culinary Medicine Director will receive financial support consistent with medical education policies.

The successful candidate will demonstrate expertise in evidence-based nutritional science and clinical application, along with experience in culinary medicine educational theories and practice. They will possess strong skills in public speaking and engagement, as well as demonstrate cross-discipline collaborative abilities.

Please submit a CV and letter of intent to Jennifer Denson at jdenson@health.ucsd.edu. The deadline for submission is Friday, Oct. 23, 2026.

We invite you to consider becoming a clinical preceptor for our first- and second-year medical students in the Compassionate Action and Real Engagement in the Community (CARE I, SOMC 246; CARE II, SOMC 251) course.

The CARE program is designed to introduce students to the human side of medicine early in their training, helping them develop compassion, professionalism and meaningful connections with patients and the community. As a clinical preceptor, you play an important role in shaping these future physicians through observation and mentorship.

What’s involved?

• Host first- and second-year medical students in your clinical setting
• Provide 8 hours of observational shadowing per student each quarter
• Offer students insight into compassionate, patient-centered care and the day-to-day practice of medicine

The time commitment is minimal, but the impact on students’ professional growth is significant.

We are seeking more than 300 preceptors to support our incoming students for the 2026–2027 academic year, and we would be thrilled to have you join our CARE community.

If you're willing to participate, please complete this brief preceptor participation form. Please feel free to share with colleagues!

Thank you for considering this opportunity to inspire and guide the next generation of compassionate physicians.

Questions can be sent to: somcarecourse@health.ucsd.edu.

Are you interested in:

• Teaching first- and second-year medical students in small group settings?
• Supporting student growth in history taking, physical exam and communication skills, and professionalism?
• Collaborating with colleagues to support student growth?
• Engaging in a meaningful and lasting impact role?

If so, we welcome your involvement in the Practice of Medicine (POM) course for our first-year and second-year medical students at UC San Diego School of Medicine. Sessions are held on Wednesday afternoons. Opportunities include:

• Longitudinal small group facilitators
• One-time substitute facilitators
• Group Objective Structured Clinical Exercises
• Objective Structured Clinical Examination facilitators
• Guest content experts

If you're interested, please complete the survey.

Questions can be sent to:

• Sarah Dovi: pom1-course@health.ucsd.edu
• Matt Allison, MD: mallison@health.ucsd.edu
• Desiree Shapiro, MD: dlshapiro@health.ucsd.edu