Mara McAdams

Dr Mara McAdams received her Bachelor’s Degree with Distinction in History of Art from Yale University before attending medical school at New York University. She completed medical residency training in Internal Medicine - Primary Care at NYU, developing her clinical acumen alongside knowledge and skills in medical education. After obtaining board certification in Internal Medicine, she moved to Singapore and joined Duke-NUS, a graduate medical school collaboration between Duke University and National University of Singapore, as a founding faculty member. Since joining Duke-NUS in 2007, Dr McAdams has held numerous and varied roles. She co-directed the preclinical doctoring course developing frameworks for teaching and evaluating history taking, interpersonal skills and professionalism. She created and managed the school’s standardized patient programme to facilitate training and testing of students’ communication and clinical skills. She blueprinted, developed and administered the school’s high-stakes clinical skills exams managing all aspects of the assessment as well as logistics for multi-day, multi-site examinations. In 2013, she was appointed Assistant Dean, Student Affairs. She worked closely with student leaders to facilitate the development of a greater sense of community and connection within the student body, and to develop a trusting collaboration between the students and the school. In 2016 she expanded her support and development portfolio as Associate Dean, Student Affairs and Alumni Relations. Dr McAdams established the Duke-NUS Medical Alumni’s signature event, the Duke-NUS Dialogues. These oversubscribed discussions are held twice-yearly, connecting the alumni and students with prominent clinicians, top scientific researchers and government leaders.

Currently, Dr McAdams is Assistant Professor in the Office of Education where she trains medical students’ emotional intelligence, team dynamics and adaptive resilience, champions the incorporation of the medical humanities in the curriculum, and advances coaching services for students, faculty and staff in the academic medical centre. She is passionate about developing people and teams and creating a resilient and supportive organisational culture.

Dr McAdams lives in Singapore with her husband, David Hand, and their three children.