Interim Department Chair

Mark Earnest, MD, PhD, serves as Interim Chair of the CU Anschutz Department of Medicine, holds the Meikeljohn Chair of Medicine, and is Medical Director and Associate Dean of Medicaid Services for the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Dr. Earnest earned his bachelor's degree from Wake Forest University, his MD from Vanderbilt University, and his PhD in Health and Behavioral Sciences from the University of Colorado Denver. After completing his medical residency at CU, he joined the faculty as an instructor in 1993.

His early research focused on chronic illness and patient-accessible electronic medical records before shifting to health policy and physician advocacy. He helped establish and sustain the Leadership Advocacy Development Scholarship (LEADS) program and later served as the founding Director of Interprofessional Education for the Anschutz Medical Campus.

In 2014, Dr. Earnest became Division Head of General Internal Medicine, overseeing growth in clinical care, research, and education. His honors include the Thomas Jefferson Award, the Joseph Addison Sewall Award for Leadership and Vision, and the Presidential Teaching Scholar Award.

More recently, his work has focused on narrative in medicine. His narrative nonfiction has appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine and other leading medical journals, and he has founded initiatives promoting reflective writing among clinicians, including a weeklong workshop in Florence, Italy.