Dr. Donovan is a clinician-educator who cares for primary care patients at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital, with a special interest in Women’s Health issues. She also works as a teaching hospitalist on the inpatient service at UPMC Presbyterian. She supervises residents and medical students in the inpatient and outpatient settings.
As the Associate Program Director for Inpatient Education for the Internal Medicine Residency Training Program, Dr. Donovan manages the educational aspects of the inpatient rotations with a focus on general medicine wards. Additionally, Dr. Donovan enjoys teaching in various medical school courses in the pre-clinical and clinical years. Dr. Donovan is the course director for the Get Ready for Residency Boot Camp Course for graduating medical students. She is also a course director for the Leading Programs in Academic Medicine at the ICRE, a course designed for Medical Education Masters Degree students. She values the time that she spends mentoring medical students, internal medicine residents, medical education fellows, and junior faculty.
Dr. Donovan has extensive experience presenting her work and teaching both locally and nationally. Dr. Donovan maintains an interest in medical education research with current projects in curriculum design, implementation, and evaluation focused on inpatient care and professional development. Recently completed projects include one employing medical TV show clips (aka edutainment) to teach residents and another evaluating Emergency Medicine resident evaluations. She is currently mentoring curriculum evaluation projects on challenging communication skills training for graduating medical students and a neighborhood walk curriculum for Internal Medicine residents.
- BA, Grinnell College, 2001
- MD, West Virginia University School of Medicine, 2008
- Internal Medicine Residency, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, 2011
- Chief Medical Resident, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, 2012
- MS, University of Pittsburgh, 2014
- Women's Health/Medical Education Fellowship, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine/VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, 2014
Education & Training
Donovan AK, Linz DR, Rubio DM, McNeil MA, Spagnoletti CL. Teaching to teach: An effective and feasible teaching curriculum for internal medicine interns. Southern Medical Journal. 2018; 111(12):733-38.
Donovan AK, Spagnoletti CL, Rothenberger S, Corbelli JA. The impact of residents sitting at the bedside on patients' satisfaction during team rounds. Patient Education and Counseling. 2019.
Varma B, Mirson L, Vanderberg R, Donovan AK. A survey of internal medicine interns regarding the most useful topics to include in an internal medicine track of a "Get Ready for Residency Boot Camp" course. Medical Science Educator. 2020.
Eden E, Rothenberger S, DeKosky A, Donovan AK. The safe discharge checklist: A standardized discharge planning curriculum for medicine trainees. South Med J. 2022; 11(5):18-21.
Hoffman BL, Wolynn R, Sidani JE, Donovan AK. Utilizing fictional medical television programs to teach interprofessional communication to graduating 4th year medical students. South Med J. 2022; 115(12):870-873.
Vanderberg R, Varma B, Mirson L, Javaid A, Rothenberger S, Donovan AK. Evaluation of an internal medicine transition to residency course. South Med J. 2023; 116(1):46-50.
- Co-recipient, Mack Lipkin Senior Award for Best Fellow Oral Abstract, Society of General Internal Medicine Annual Meeting, 2015
- Recipient, Clinical Educator of the Year Award for the Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 2016
- Inductee, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine's Academy of Master Educators, 2019
- Sheldon Adler Award for Innovation in Medical Education, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 2023
