Dr. Armstrong contributes to PHMI programs focused on curriculum and faculty development. She has held positions at Harvard Medical School since 1984, including Director of Curriculum (1988-1992) and Director of Medical Education (1992–2001). She played a leadership role in designing, implementing and expanding Harvard’s
New Pathway curriculum. In 1994, with funding from the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, she created and continues to direct the Harvard-Macy Institute, which offers professional development programs for physician-educators and leaders of reform in medical education worldwide. These programs draw on faculty and teaching paradigms from multiple colleges at Harvard, particularly the Graduate Schools of Business, Education, Medicine, and Public Health.
The global impact of the Harvard-Macy Institute’s programs expanded in 2001 when Dr. Armstrong joined then-Harvard Medical International as Director for Education Programs. Since then, she has customized the Harvard-Macy programs through collaborative efforts with the Association for the Study of Medical Education in the United Kingdom, the Council of Deans in Australia, the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, the University of Queensland in Australia, the National University of Singapore, and Chung Shan Medical University in Taiwan. Dr. Armstrong continues to work with PHMI faculty on alliances focused on medical education.
She has served on and chaired many Harvard Medical School committees and was a member of Cornell University’s Board of Trustees and Cornell’s Medical School Board of Overseers assisting in the major curricular reforms undertaken at their Medical College and School of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Armstrong is currently a member of the Editorial Board for Academic Medicine and is a Co-Director of the United States Europe Medical Education Exchange program. She is also a member of the National Advisory Committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program. As a member of China Medical Board’s Institute for International Education, she has been instrumental in developing global minimum essential requirements in medical education. Recognized worldwide as an expert in medical education, she has lectured and written on this subject and received an honorary doctor of medicine degree from the University of Lund Medical Faculty in recognition of her international contributions to medical education.
Dr. Armstrong received her Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University; Master of Arts degree in Teaching from Harvard University; and a doctorate in Curriculum Design and Instruction from Boston College.