Mary Kate Worden, PhD

Associate Professor of Medical Education, Director of Curriculum Integration and Development

• BA, Biology. Dartmouth College
• PhD, Neurobiology. University of Chicago
• Postdoc, Biophysics. Harvard University
• Scholar, Harvard Macy Institute Program for Educators in Health Professions. Boston, Massachusetts

• Director of Matriculation for Incoming Students
• Co- System Leader for Phase 1 Systems: Foundations of Medicine, Mind, Brain and Behavior, Classrooms to Clinics
• Assistant System Leader for Phase 1: Renal System
• Curricular thread leader for Neuroscience and Cell Biology
• Pre-clerkship instructor for sessions in neuroscience, neuroanatomy, physiology and cell biology
• Founding Member of the Academy of Excellence in Education, UVA School of Medicine.

In my role as director of curriculum integration and development, I help faculty identify opportunities for implementing new curricular content and exercises and in creating new learning objectives, course objectives and assessment questions. I also manage the curriculum mapping important for accreditation by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education.

For my teaching efforts in the undergraduate medical curriculum, I am pleased to have been awarded the SOM Dean’s Excellence Award in Teaching (2006), the University of Virginia’s All-University Teaching Awards (2019) and the Mulholland Award for Teaching Excellence (2021-2023).

Active learning, team-based learning, curriculum mapping, and artificial intelligence in medical education.

• Worden, M.K. “Is that SMART? Leveraging collaboration and peer feedback to enable practice in appraising and presenting journal articles.” Med. Sci. Educ. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-024-02188-5
• Worden, M.K.& Ait-Daoud Tiouririne, N. Perspective on Medical Education (2019).  “Cultural Competence and curricular design: learning the hard way.”  https://doi.org/10.1007/s40037-018-0428-7
• McDermid JM.,Worden M.K., Medical Science Educator (2019). “Teaching and practicing cultural competency/humility skills using nutrition -focused case scenarios.” https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-018-00651-8
• Chen, W., McCollum, M.A., Bradley, E.B., Nathan, B.R., Chen, D.T., Worden, M.K. (2018) “Using Instrument-Guided Team Reflection and Debriefing to Cultivate Teamwork Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes in Pre-Clerkship Learning Teams.” Medical Science Educator (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-018-00669-y
• White, C., McCollum, M., Bradley, E., Roy, P., Yoon, M., Martindale, J., Worden, M.K. (2015) “Challenges to Engaging Students in a Flipped Classroom Model.” Medical Science Educator 25:219-222
• Chen, W., Worden, M.K., and Bradley, E. (2015). “Flipping, Engaging, and Teaming, Oh My! Lessons learned from a large scale curriculum reform at a US medical school.” Proceedings of the 15th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT) (pp.488-492) July 6-9, 2015, Hualien, Taiwan. doi: 10.1109/ICALT.2015.68
• White, C., Bradley, E., Martindale, J., Roy, P., Patel, K., Worden, M.K. (2014) “Why are medical students ‘checking out’ of active learning in a new curriculum?” Med Educ. Mar;48(3):315-24. doi: 10.1111/medu.12356.
• “Active learning, the accreditation process and 20-something students” (2014). White, C., Bradley, E., Martindale, J., Roy, P., Patel, K., Yoon, M., and Worden, M.K. Medical Education 48:733.

• Cassin, J. and Worden, M.K. (2007). Acute thermal change rapidly alters acid-base balance in Homarus americanus and Carcinus maenas. The Bulletin, Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory 46:153-155.
• Qadri, S.A., Camacho, J.A., Wang, H. Taylor, J.R., Grosell, M. and Worden, M.K. (2007). Temperature and acid–base balance in the American lobster Homarus americanus.  Journal of Experimental Biology 210:1245-1254.
• Hamilton, J., Edwards, C., Holt, S. and Worden, M.K. (2007). Temperature modulation of lobster neuromuscular properties by serotonin.  Journal of Experimental Biology. 210:1025-1035.
• Worden, M.K. Clark, C, Conaway M. and Qadri, S. (2006). The temperature dependence of cardiac performance in the lobster Homarus americanus.  J. Experimental Biology 209:1024-1034.
• Worden, M.K. and Camacho JA.  (2006) Dual inhibition of the dactyl opener muscle in lobster.  J. Experimental Biology 209:1385-1994. 
• Hamilton, J., Dillaman, R.M. and Worden, M.K.  (2006). Neuromuscular synapses on the dactyl opener muscle of the lobster Homarus americanus.  Cell and Tissue Research 326:823-834.
• Camacho, J., Qadri, S.A., Wang, H. and Worden, M.K.  (2006). Temperature acclimation shifts the thermal limits of cardiac performance in the lobster Homarus americanus.  Journal of Comparative Physiology A   192:13
• O.N.Vorobieva, O.N., Polagaeva, E.B, and Worden, M.K., Hackett, J.T., Bykhovskaia, M. (2002) Journal of Evolutionary Biochemistry and Physiology. “Statistical estimation of quantal release of transmitter at the neuromuscular synapse of the lobster Homarus Americanus”.  J. Evolutionary Biochemistry and Physiology 38(4):439-447.
• Bykhovskaia, M., Worden, M.K., and Hackett, J.T. (2000) Stochastic modeling of facilitated neurosecretion.  J. Computational Neuroscience 8:113-126
• Bykhovskaia, M., Hackett, J.T., and Worden, M.K.  (1999). Asynchrony of quantal events in evoked multiquantal responses indicates presynaptic quantal interaction.  J. Neurophysiology 81:2234-2242.
• Vorobieva, O.N., Hackett, J.T., Worden, M.K., and Bykhovskaia, M.  (1999) Evaluation of quantal neurosecretion from evoked and miniature postsynaptic responses by deconvolution method.  J. Neuroscience Methods 92:91-99.
• Bykhovskaia, M., and Worden, M.K., Hackett, J.T.  (1999) Presynaptic facilitation: Quantal analysis and simulations.  Neurocomputing 26-27:9-15.
• Worden, M.K.  (1998) Modulation of vertebrate and invertebrate neuromuscular junctions.  Current Opinion in Neurobiology 8(6):740-745.
• Worden, M.K., Bykhovskaia, M., Hackett, J.T.  (1997) Facilitation at the lobster neuromuscular junction: a stimulus-dependent mobilization model.  J. Neurophysiology 78:417-428
• Bykhovskaia, M., Worden, M.K., Hackett, J.T.  (1996) An algorithm for high resolution detection of postsynaptic quantal events in extracellular records.  J. Neuroscience Methods 65:173-182.
• Worden, M.K., Kravitz, E.A., Goy, M.F. (1995) Peptide F1, an N-terminally extended analogue of FMRFamide, enhances contractile activity in multiple target tissues in lobster.  J. Experimental Biology 198:93-108.
• Worden, M.K., Rahamimoff, R., Kravitz, E.A. (1994) A voltage-sensitive cation channel present in lobster skeletal muscle membrane.  J. Membrane Biology 141:167-175
• Rahamimoff, R., Ginsburg, S., Barkai, G., Cook, B., Edry-Schiller, J., Kaiserman, I., Meir, A., Roll, M., Worden, M.K., and Yakir, N.  (1994) Ion Channels in Biological Membranes- General Principles.  In Biomembranes: Vol. 2. Structural and Functional Aspects, M. Shinitzky, (ed.). VCH Publishers, Weinheim, New York, pp. 199-296.
• Worden, M.K., Rahamimoff, R., and Kravitz, E.A. (1993) Ion channel activity in lobster skeletal muscle membrane.  J. Experimental Biology 182: 113-130. 
• O’Shea, M., Hekimi, S., Witten, J., and Worden, M.K. (1988) Function of aminergic and peptidergic skeletal motorneurons in insects. In Neurohormones in Invertebrates. Society for Experimental Biology Seminar Series 33: 159-172.
• Worden, M.K., Hwang, J-C., Velez, S.J. (1988) Regeneration studies on a crayfish neuromuscular system. I. Connectivity changes after intersegmental nerve transplants.  J. Neurobiology 19(2):127-140.
• O’Shea, M., Adams, M.E., Bishop, C.A., Witten, J., Worden, M.K. (1985) Model Peptidergic Systems at the Neuromuscular Junction.  Peptides 6:417-424. 

email: mkw3k@virginia.edu
phone: 434.924.7042

University of Virginia School of Medicine
Claude Moore Medical Education Building
200 Jeanette Lancaster Way
P.O. Box PO Box 300382
Charlottesville, VA 22908