Tracy Fulton, PhD

Tracy Fulton has spent more than 20 years at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where she earned her PhD and is professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics. As a grad student, while studying telomerase in yeast, she explored her love for teaching as an adult literacy tutor, an animal museum docent, a K-5 classroom helper, and a TA for dental school biochemistry. She settled on professional school education as her target path and since joining the faculty in 2000 has directed and taught in courses in the Schools of Medicine, Pharmacy, and Dentistry. In the Bridges School of Medicine curriculum, Tracy co-directs the REGulatioN (Renal, Endocrine, GI, Nutrition) block. She is a member of the Academy of Medical Educators, and is the holder of the Academy Chair for Excellence in Foundational Teaching. Tracy mentors UCSF students in the PILLAR program, and students in UCSF School of Medicine’s postbaccalaureate program. Tracy is active in the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE), past secretary for the Association of Biochemistry Educators (ABE), and serves on two National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) committees (Test Material Development Committee for pharmacology and biochemistry and an Item Review Committee). Tracy is on the leadership team for the Aquifer Sciences initiative, a project involving many IAMSE members focused on use of basic science concepts in clerkship clinical decision-making.

Tracy’s research interests are in how to best use open-ended question-based assessment in the professional school setting, in how to educate students and faculty to leverage basic science in making clinical decisions, in using metabolic maps and other visual representations in biochemistry as learning and teaching tools, in resource-enhanced assessment, and in the role of memorization in learning.