Diana Wood retired as Clinical Dean in the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine in early 2021 and was appointed as Emeritus Clinical Dean post-retirement. Dr Wood studied medicine at the University of Birmingham, qualifying in 1980. Having followed postgraduate training and research posts in Birmingham, she became a Lecturer in Clinical Medicine at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, London and later was appointed as Senior Lecturer, and then Reader, in Medicine and Honorary Consultant Physician at the London Hospital Medical College, subsequently Barts and the London School of Medicine, University of London. She moved to Cambridge in 2003 having been appointed as the University’s first full-time Director of Medical Education and Clinical Dean and was elected to the Fellowship at St Edmund’s College later that year. She was an honorary consultant physician in the Department of Endocrinology at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Currently she is the academic lead for the Cambridge University Medical Education Group, offering consultancy services in medical education both nationally and internationally.   

Dr Wood has been actively involved in UK medical education for many years. Although her career has focused on undergraduate medical education, she maintained an interest in postgraduate education through the Royal College of Physicians and membership of regional and national training programmes in endocrinology and diabetes. She has served on the Board of the Medical Schools’ Council Assessment Alliance and has Council and previous Executive roles on the Association for the Study of Medical Education and the Academy of Medical Educators. She is a past Non-Executive Director and current Governor of the Cambridge and Peterborough Foundation Trust (the local mental health NHS Trust). 

Dr Wood’s main interests are in the field of clinical education, in particular experiential learning, attitudinal development and professionalism, student health and wellbeing and the development of resilience. She is committed to raising the standards of research and scholarship in healthcare education, promoting the introduction of evidence - based practice into all areas of educational activity.