Aron Sousa, MD, FACP, is the dean of Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. His appointment was approved by the MSU Board of Trustees on April 22, 2022, making him the seventh dean of the medical school.

Sousa served as interim dean for the medical school since November 2019 and, prior to that, from June 2015 through September 2016. Dr. Sousa also has held the position of senior associate dean for academic affairs for more than 13 years.

In his previous role as senior associate dean, Sousa was responsible for the medical education programs of the college in its community campuses across Michigan. During that time, he managed the doubling of the college’s class size and converting its two-year, 60 student Grand Rapids campus into a four-year, 350 student campus. He also led the creation of three, two-year clinical campuses in Traverse City, Midland and in Southeast Michigan. Since becoming dean, Sousa has led the establishment of the college’s eighth community campus in Detroit, at Henry Ford Health, in 2022.

The majority of Dr. Sousa’s work is in medical education and curriculum. He led the design of the college’s Shared Discovery Curriculum, which is characterized by robust clinical experiences in each year of medical school, promotion based on progress testing, and content organized by chief complaint rather than organ system or discipline. As the leader of the college’s $30 million expansion in Flint, Dr. Sousa was the PI on the C.S. Mott Foundation grants that led to the expansion of the Flint medical school campus and provided a building that enabled the college to center its public health division and degree program in Flint. In December 2022, the MSU Board of Trustees approved departmental status and announced the university’s first named department, the Charles Stewart Mott Department of Public Health.

Dr. Sousa is a practicing general internist. He received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry and his medical degree from Indiana University School of Medicine. He then served as both a resident and chief resident in internal medicine and completed a primary care fellowship at Michigan State University.