Corrin Sullivan may be the director of the UNLV School of Medicine’s curriculum. But, as she’s quick to point out, it’s a team effort.

“I’m really this liaison who works with a lot of different departments,” said Sullivan. “I bring all of the knowledge together, all of the lesson plans together, and I map it out, to make sure we’re meeting our program objectives, evaluate how we’re performing, and then make adjustments in the curriculum design.”

Sullivan said the School of Medicine’s curriculum is based on the experience of faculty committee members at other medical schools throughout the country. “It’s an incredible process, with tons of ideas, and you don’t really know what the path looks like,” she said. “At the same time, it’s magical, because I can’t believe that we are opening up a medical school pretty much from scratch.

“How many people can get to say that?”

A Las Vegas native, Sullivan graduated UNLV summa cum laude in 2005 with a degree in political science to pursue a career as a lobbyist or professor. While getting her master’s degree in education policy from the University of Washington in Seattle, however, she accepted a job with the School of Medicine there.

“I found out how much more I really liked medical education,” she said. “That’s when I decided to pursue a doctorate in it. Whenever someone gives me an outstanding opportunity, I’ve always taken it.”

Which explains why Sullivan returned to UNLV.

“Of all places for a brand new medical school to open -- in the community I’m from?” she says. “I feel like I was somehow groomed throughout my life to fulfill this job here.”

It’s not even Sullivan’s first UNLV homecoming. She was our very own homecoming queen in 2001. “It was just a nomination from my sorority, Delta Zeta, because they wanted to put someone up for it,” she says. “But I won. And I thought, 'Wow, I guess it was meant to be.'

“And I’m thinking the same thing right now.”