Dr. Michael Hocker, vice chair of clinical operations and business management for the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, has been named the medical school’s senior associate dean for graduate medical education. Hocker will also serve as MCG’s designated institutional official, leading the medical school and health system’s 51 residency and fellowship programs.

“MCG’s Graduate Medical Education programs remain at the vital heart of Augusta University’s and the medical school’s teaching hospitals,” says Dr. D. Douglas Miller, MCG vice dean for academic affairs. “Our residents and fellows contribute daily to the high quality of patient-centered care in our hospitals and clinics. It is a privilege and honor to participate in their residency and fellowship training – to do so well is the true hallmark of an academic physician. MCG is fortunate to have many dedicated program directors and teaching faculty. I am confident that Drs. Hocker and Groves will continue the tradition of excellence.”

Hocker succeeds Dr. Walter Moore, a rheumatologist who has served as the medical school’s senior associate dean for graduate medical education since 2007. “We sincerely thank Dr. Moore for his dedicated service over the last 13 years,” Miller adds. “During his tenure, the number of Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-accredited programs and residents in training expanded to meet the needs of the physician workforce.” Moore will become MCG’s senior associate dean for learner wellness, focused on the physical and mental health needs of medical students and residents.

Hocker, the J. Harold Harrison MD Distinguished Chair in Emergency Medicine, has been serving as the university’s assistant designated institutional official since 2016. He is a former navy flight surgeon who came to MCG from Duke University, where he helped start what is now considered one of the country’s top emergency medicine training programs. In 2016, the Duke Division of Emergency Medicine honored his leadership with the naming of the Michael B. Hocker, MD, Duke Emergency Medicine Division Leadership and Service Award.

Since coming to MCG, he has taken an active role in graduate medical education, serving on the GME Special Review Committee, GME Executive Steering Committee and as an ad hoc member of the GME Grievance Committee. He also is assistant director of the university’s Office of Learning, Leadership and Development.

He is a member of the Association of Academic Chairs of Emergency Medicine, having served that group’s membership committee from 2014-16; and of the American Board of Emergency Medicine, serving as an oral board examiner from 2010-14. Hocker earned his medical degree from the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver and completed a residency in emergency medicine at the University of Massachusetts in Worcester.

Groves is an associate professor of otolaryngology and serves as associate chief of otolaryngology/head and neck surgery at the Charlie Norwood Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

He has led MCG’s otolaryngology/head and neck surgery residency program since 2014. Active in both undergraduate and graduate medical education, he served as the lead career advisor for medical students considering a career in otolaryngology from 2012-19, chairs the Office of Graduate Medical Education’s Quality Improvement Subcommittee and serves on the medical school’s Curriculum Oversight Committee. He has been honored with MCG Exemplary Teaching Awards for both graduate and undergraduate medical education.

Groves is a graduate of the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor and completed his residency at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.