Director Academic Programs Partner’s HealthCare International (PHI).
Dr. Eckhert joined PHI following a distinguished career at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS), where she practiced as a primary care pediatrician for more than twenty years and held numerous faculty and administrative leadership positions. She served as Associate Dean for Admissions, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Family and Community Medicine, and Dean/Vice Chancellor for International and Public Health Programs. She also served as Chairman of the school’s Executive Committee, President of the University Hospital medical staff, and Chair of the Credentials Committee.
She has served on the Board of Trustees of the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates and as its Chairman from 2001-2004. Dr. Eckhert also served as a founding board member of the Foundation for the Advancement of Medical Education and Research (FAIMER). Dr. Eckhert also is a past member of the Composite Committee of the National Board of Medical Examiners. She served as Chairman of the US Department of Education’s National Committee for Foreign Medical Education Accreditation. At the present time she is on the Board of the National Board of Medical Examiners
Active in the Association of American Medical Colleges, Dr. Eckhert served on the Council of Academic Societies Administrative Board and as its Chairman. She served for many years on the AAMC Executive Council presiding as the Chairman in 2004-2005. In 2005 she chaired the Search Committee for the Presidency of AAMC.
She has also served as the President of the Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine and a member of the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Academy of Family Physicians.
Her work with PHI centers upon health professions education at both the undergraduate and postgraduate level including the development of new medical schools and faculty development programs. She served as Interim Dean of the new Lebanese American University School of Medicine. In addition to her work with PHI, Dr. Eckhert’s international experience includes working with Project HOPE and Partners in Health in primary care training health systems development in many sites around the world, a sabbatical year spent teaching at the University Of Zimbabwe School Of Medicine and as a Fulbright Specialist at Al Faisal University College of Medicine.