Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University have appointed Brenessa Lindeman, MD, as executive dean of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University.
According to an Aug. 11 news release, Dr. Lindeman will lead the five-year physician-investigator medical education program, overseeing its academic, administrative and financial operations. She starts in October 2026 and will also hold a professorial appointment at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, to be announced later.
She becomes the fourth executive dean since the program launched in 2002, and the first surgeon and first woman to hold the role. Dr. Lindeman succeeds J. Harry Isaacson, MD, who led the college from 2018 to 2025.
“Dr. Lindeman is an inspiring leader and a highly regarded educator and surgeon,” said James Stoller, MD, Cleveland Clinic’s chief of education. Stan Gerson, MD, dean of the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, said Dr. Lindeman brings “exceptional proficiency in competency-based assessment.”
Dr. Lindeman joins from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she has served since 2017 as vice chair of education in the surgery department, professor of surgery, pediatrics and medical education, and assistant dean of graduate medical education. She earned her medical degree from Vanderbilt University, completed a general surgery residency at Johns Hopkins University and an endocrine surgery fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
The Lerner College of Medicine is a tuition-free program tied to Cleveland Clinic, a 6,725-bed health system with 23 hospitals across Ohio, Florida, Nevada, Canada, the United Arab Emirates and England.
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