Additional titles
- Vice Chair for Advancing Women’s Careers in the Department of Medicine
Rakhee K. Bhayani, MD, is a professor of medicine and serves as the Vice Chair for the Advancement of Women’s Careers in the Department of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine. She completed her undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering at Duke University, finished medical school at Washington University School of Medicine, and her internal medicine residency at Barnes-Jewish Hospital at Washington University School of Medicine.
Bhayani is a founding member of the Forum for Women in Medicine, a professional development initiative established in 2014 that organizes skill-building events for women trainees in the Department of Medicine.
Dr. Bhayani is actively involved in the education of resident physicians in the primary care resident clinic and served as an associate program director of the internal residency program from 2016-2021. As the founder in 2016 and co-director of Balance in Medicine until 2022, Bhayani oversaw the wellness curriculum and programming for the internal medicine residency program. She remains an active advocate for resident well-being by serving on the residency program evaluation wellness subcommittee and serving as the Graduate Medical Education faculty wellness champion for the program. She also delivers the longitudinal Reflection Rounds curriculum to the residents.
Dr. Bhayani volunteered as a faculty sponsor for the undergraduate American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) organization at Washington University from 2019-2020 and worked closely with the medical student AMWA organization. She has mentored several trainees over the years through the Mentors in Medicine research funding program. Bhayani has worked closely with the Academic Women’s Network (AWN) as a board member since 2019, which brings together women on the medical campus for networking events, professional development, and advocacy work.
She has served on several national committees for the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine [AAIM], including the wellness committee from 2016-18 and the Women in Medicine Leadership Forum pre-course planning committee since 2018. Bhayani is a member of the Women in Medicine Summit steering committee, which organizes a national yearly multi-day conference for women nationwide. She is passionate about well-being, effective social media use for physicians, and gender equity. She has presented workshops, lectures, and grand rounds on these regional and national topics.
As the Vice Chair for the Advancement of Women’s Careers in the Department of Medicine, Dr. Bhayani oversees and integrates existing gender equity programs and new initiatives to advance women’s career development. She is responsible for developing and implementing strategies to support the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women faculty and trainees and for creating a workplace culture that values and supports the contributions of women in clinical care, research, education, and leadership.