Deborah German, MD

2014 Alma Dea Morani Awardee

Dr. Deborah C. German, a physician, educator, and administrator, has served as Vice President for Medical Affairs at the University of Central Florida since July 2010 and as the Founding Dean of UCF’ s College of Medicine since December 2006.

Deborah German earned her undergraduate degree in chemistry at Boston University and her M.D. degree from Harvard Medical School. She was a Resident in Internal Medicine at the University of Rochester and a Fellow in Rheumatic and Genetic Diseases at Duke. She was appointed to the faculty at Duke and worked in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, studying adenosine metabolism and s-adenosyl methionine metabolism in human leukocytes. She published the first assay for adenosine in human plasma. She was also Director of the Duke Gout Clinics and Associate Dean of Medical Education while maintaining her own private practice of Internal Medicine and Rheumatology.

In 1988, Dr. German became Associate Dean for Students and later Senior Associate Dean of Medical Education at Vanderbilt University. She served as the National Chair for the Association of American Medical Colleges’ (AAMC) Group on Student Affairs, on the Board of Trustees of the Tennessee Medical Association and as chair the Tennessee Board of Directors for the Arthritis Foundation during her time at Vanderbilt. She next served as President and Chief Executive Officer at Saint Thomas Hospital in Nashville and Senior Vice President and Chief Academic Officer for Saint Thomas Health Services, Ascension Health. Dr. German led a successful hospital turnaround and initiated service excellence and quality programs at the hospital that received national recognition. Throughout this time she continued to practice medicine.

In 2005, Dr. German spent a year at the AAMC in Washington, D.C. as a Petersdorf Scholar in Residence researching leadership of academic health centers framed in complex system science.

As vice president and founding dean at UCF, Dr. German is working with a team of over 2200 full-time, part-time, and volunteer faculty and staff members to develop a 21st century research based medical school as part of an emerging medical city.

Recognizing the central role of the College of Medicine in Lake Nona, Orlando, Florida, she takes an active leadership role in facilitating partnerships and expanding the reach of Medical City. Dr. German led a community effort to fund scholarships for tuition and living expenses for the entire Charter Class. This was the first such effort in the history of American medicine.

The city of Nashville honored Dr. German with the Athena Award and she was inducted into the YWCA Academy for Women of Achievement. She is the recipient of the AAMC Women in Medicine Leadership Development Award and was named a Local Legend of Medicine in the National Library of Medicine.

In Florida, Dr. German has received dozens of awards for her work and community service including, 2008 Business Executive of the Year and 2008 Businesswoman of the Year, the Orlando Sentinel’ s Editorial Board choice as 2008 Central Floridian of the Year, Girl Scout and Light House Foundations Visionary awards in 2009, Orlando Magic Woman Leader Honoree 2013, and U.S. House of Representatives Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition 2014.