Joanna Rayner, PhD, BSc (Hons)

Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs

Joanna Rayner, PhD, was named associate dean of faculty affairs at St. George’s University School of Medicine (SOM) in August of 2021.

As associate dean in the School of Medicine, she oversees faculty recruitment and appointments, implements initiatives relating to faculty professional development, and contributes to the development and improvement of faculty-relevant academic policies and procedures in the SOM. In addition, Dr. Rayner has been the chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pharmacology since 2015, where she leads the development and delivery of the department’s academic programs and curriculum, and oversees its service activities of water, food and clinical microbiology testing for the SGU Grenada campus, to ensure alignment with the mission of SGU and the SOM.

Dr. Rayner joined the SOM faculty as an assistant professor of microbiology in 2001 and was appointed to professor in 2009. She has been an assistant dean, Basic Sciences since 2019 and was an assistant dean in the Office of the Provost from 2012 to 2015. She continues to teach, delivering core microbiology content to students in the SOM’s basic sciences program.

Dr. Rayner received her PhD in environmental microbiology from the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. She completed her post-doctoral research at the Center for Biofilm Engineering in Bozeman, MT.