Rate My Professor Sonia Kumar

Professor Sonia Kumar serves as the Founding Executive Dean of Medicine at St Mary's University, London, leading the establishment of the new School of Medicine, which will admit its first cohort of students in September 2026. A Professor of Medical Education with over two decades of experience as a General Practitioner and educational leader, she specializes in community-based health and education initiatives that benefit society. Her academic qualifications include an MBBS, BSc, and MSc with distinction from King’s College London, as well as DRCOG, FRCGP, and HEA Fellowship. Prior to her appointment at St Mary's in January 2025, she was Associate Dean for Community Engagement and Professor of Medical Education at the University of Leeds, where she founded CENTRE, the Community Engagement Network in Research, Education, and Civic Engagement, to advance the university’s civic mission and social impact through collaborations with local stakeholders including Leeds City Council and the NHS.

Professor Kumar previously directed Undergraduate Primary Care Education at Imperial College London for ten years, establishing the MEdIC research centre to align medical education with community needs across themes such as professional identity, preparation for practice, digital health, and diversity. Her leadership there secured 19 awards for her team, including the Imperial President’s Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Teaching Excellence and the AdvanceHE CATE collaborative team award. She has extensive experience from the London Deanery in postgraduate education, served as an external examiner for University College London, and provided consultancy for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office in Mexico and pharmaceutical organizations. Professor Kumar has published extensively on community-engaged medical education, health inequalities, diversity, and inclusion, with key works including 'Student Medical Education Masterclasses: Diversifying the Academic Pipeline' (2024), 'Promoting cultural diversity and inclusion in undergraduate medical education' (2021), and 'Community-engaged medical education: helping to address child health inequalities' (2021). She holds visiting professorships at Imperial College London, University of Leeds, and SBV Pondicherry in India, and was named a Social Accountability Fellow for 2025-2026. Her global presentations and transdisciplinary networks underscore her influence in advancing socially accountable medical training.