Danielle Roussel

Danielle Roussel, MD is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and currently serves as Assistant Dean for Medical Student Assessment, with prior roles as Assistant Dean for Clinical Curriculum and Course Director for pre-clerkship Pharmacology and cardiovascular/pulmonary/renal units. Her work ensures assessment systems motivate student learning while protecting patient safety through trustworthy advancement judgments.

Her educational background includes a BS in Chemical Engineering, BA in English Literature, and MD from the University of Kansas, followed by Anesthesiology residency at the University of Utah and Pediatrics internship. This multidisciplinary foundation informs her academic approach.

Roussel's research focuses on medical education innovation, particularly clinical reasoning assessment and clinical skills curricula development. She examines how structured lexicons bridge pre-clerkship/clerkship transitions and how learning communities enhance faculty work meaning through longitudinal learner relationships. Her national leadership includes presidency of the Directors of Clinical Skills Education and co-chairing the GEA CLASS Project's WHY Taskforce.

Recent publications reveal evolving trends toward competency-based frameworks integrating Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) with clinical reasoning pedagogy. Her work emphasizes national standardization of assessment methods while addressing gaps in clinical reasoning instruction across U.S. medical schools.

She actively shapes medical education through leadership roles: serving on the AAMC/ACGME/AACOP Foundational Competencies working group, directing national curriculum initiatives, and collaborating with multi-institutional research teams to advance assessment science. Her grant-funded work focuses on curriculum redesign for clinical reasoning development and assessment validity studies.