Brian J. Zink, M.D.
Brian J. Zink, M.D., joined the Medical School leadership team as senior associate dean for faculty and faculty development in September 2019. He served as interim executive vice dean for academic affairs and interim chief academic officer for Michigan Medicine from September 2020 to November 2021.
Zink serves as senior advisor to the Medical School leadership team on faculty issues, and is responsible for oversight of the appointment, promotion and tenure processes. He also leads the Office of Faculty Affairs and Faculty Development (OFAFD) in supporting and informing the career progression of individual faculty, while working with Medical School departments on all faculty career aspects, from recruitment through retirement. OFAFD also oversees Medical School committee elections, as well as other faculty milestones.
A professor and founding member of the Department of Emergency Medicine, he has extensive experience in mentoring, faculty and leadership development, education, medical humanities, history of emergency medicine, and current policymaking in health care. He previously served as senior associate chair for education and faculty development in the Department of Emergency Medicine.
After graduating from Allegheny College with a B.S. in biology, Zink earned his medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. He then completed a residency in emergency medicine at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. He began his academic career in 1988 as an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Albany Medical College, and joined the U-M faculty in 1992 as an assistant professor of emergency medicine in the Department of Surgery. From 1992-2006, he was a researcher in brain injury and alcohol effects in trauma and served as associate dean for student programs. During his first stint at the U-M, he wrote the first comprehensive history of U.S. emergency medicine, “Anyone, Anything, Anytime.”
In 2006, he became the inaugural chair of emergency medicine at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University and chief of emergency medicine at Rhode Island Hospital. He returned to the U-M in 2018 as a professor of emergency medicine. He also serves as co-director of the Leadership Development Program in the U-M Medical School.
He has served as president of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) and Association of Academic Chairs of Emergency Medicine (AACEM), and he founded and is director of the SAEM/AACEM Chair Development Program. He received the Dean’s Award for Advancement of Women Faculty from the Alpert Medical School, Hal Jayne Academic Excellence Award and John Marx Leadership Award from SAEM, Outstanding Contribution in Education Award from the American College of Emergency Physicians, and Distinguished Service Award from AACEM.