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Dr. Erin Fillmore is Head of Anatomy at the University of Minnesota Medical School, St. Cloud Campus, and the Director of Medical Education Innovation. She has a PhD in Anatomy and Cell Biology with a Doctoral Minor in Education, and a Master’s in Public Health (MPH). Dr. Fillmore has over 16 years of experience leading and teaching in gross anatomy, neuroanatomy, surface anatomy, histology, and embryology—primarily to medical students, but also to osteopathic medical students, undergraduate students, nursing students, qualified physicians and surgeons, physical therapy students, graduate students, and even dental students.
Throughout this, she has created and utilized many different learning platforms and mediums through which to teach and facilitate learning experiences. This includes the development of an original digital medical imaging teaching platform, the construction and use of interactive digital learning modules, and designing a portfolio of drawing and hands-on model-based activities—all purposefully created to facilitate diverse learning opportunities that allow students to explore their areas of dissonance, weaving formative assessment and active learning throughout the learning experience.
Dr. Fillmore has won numerous local, national, and international teaching awards, and is very active in the field of medical education research and publishing, including being an invited author on the last two editions of Gray’s Anatomy (42nd and 43rd).
MPH, Occupational and Environmental Health, University of Iowa: Iowa City, Iowa
Chapter Author/Editor (The Thoracic Wall and Breast) in: Standring, S. (2025) Gray's Anatomy: The Anatomical Basis of Clinical Practice, 43rd Edition. Elsevier, Amsterdam.
Paddock TJ, Fillmore EP. Game-based learning for undergraduate consolidation: A qualitative study of how game-based learning provides much more than knowledge acquisition. Anatomical Sciences Education. 2025; 00:1–12. https://doi.org/10.1002/ase.70154
Chapter Author/Editor (The Thoracic Wall and Breast) in: Standring, S. (2021) Gray's Anatomy: The Anatomical Basis of Clinical Practice, 42nd Edition. Elsevier, Amsterdam.
Fillmore, E., Leech, C., Tunstall, R. The Use of Surface Anatomy in Emergency Interventional Procedures: A Mixed Methods Analysis Comparing the Procedural Approaches of Clinicians, FASEB Journal, 34, S1, 2020.
S.J. Botham, Fillmore, E.P., Grant, T.S., Davies, H., Hutchinson, C., and Tunstall, R. Age-related changes in Inguinal Region Anatomy from 0-19 years. Clinical Anatomy, 32(6), 2019.
Fillmore, E., Using Mixed Methods Research in Anatomy Education: The Relevancy, Challenges and Benefits. FASEB Journal 30, S1, 2016.
Fillmore, E.P., Brokaw, J.J., Kochhar, K., and Nalin, P.M. Understanding the current anatomical competence landscape: Comparing perceptions of program directors, residents, and fourth year medical students. Anatomical Sciences Education, 9:307-318, 2016.
Fillmore, E.P., Condon, K.W., and Brokaw, J.J. Eye and ear — a team-based learning module for histology. MedEdPORTAL Publications, 2016.
Fillmore, E. and Seifert, M. The Detailed Anatomy of the Trigeminal Nerve. In Tubbs, R. S., Rizk, E., Shoja, M. M., Loukas, M., Barbaro, N., and Spinner, R. J. (Eds.). Nerves and Nerve Injuries: Vol 1: History, Embryology, Anatomy, Imaging, and Diagnostics. Academic Press, 2015.
Fillmore, E. Grit and beliefs about intelligence: The relationship and role these factors play in the self-regulatory processes involved in medical students learning gross anatomy. IUPUI ScholarWorks, 2015. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7912/C2/2105
Fillmore, E and Helfenbein, R. Medical Student Grit and Performance in Gross Anatomy: What are the Relationships? FASEB Journal 29, No. 1, 2015.
Fillmore, E., Helfenbein, R., and Seifert, M. Dissecting anatomy: exploring the perspective of the repeating first year medical student in both an open and peer teaching gross anatomy laboratory format. Medical Science Educator 24: 315-323, 2014.
Ramirez, M., Fillmore, E., Chen, A., Peek-Asa, C. A Comparison of School Injuries between Children with and without Disabilities. Academic Pediatrics, September-October 2010, Vol. 10 (5).
Fillmore, E., Ramirez, M., Roth, L., Robertson, M., Atchison, C., Peek-Asa, C. After the Waters Receded: A Qualitative Study of University Official’s Disaster Experiences During the Great Iowa Flood of 2008. Journal of Community Health, September 2010.
Finalist for the ‘Warwick Teaching Excellence Award’ 2024, 2025
Winner of the ‘Warwick Teaching Excellence Award’ 2023
Winner of the ‘Warwick Teaching Excellence Award’ 2022
Winner of the ‘Warwick Teaching Excellence Award’ 2021
Winner of the ‘Warwick Teaching Excellence Award’ 2020
Shortlisted for the ‘Warwick Award for Teaching Excellence’ (WATE) – Team Collaboration Award 2024
Winner of the ‘Warwick Award for Teaching Excellence’ (WATE) – Team Award 2021
Winner of the ‘Champion of Virtual Educational Delivery’ (COVEd Award) 2020
Teaching Excellence Commendation 2019-20
Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASME)
Winner of the ‘Education Innovation Award’ 2019
- Award for work on: Drawing and Building Your Way to Understanding: The Importance of Constructing Multiple Representations When Learning Anatomy
Nominated and awarded ‘Lecturer of the Year’ for the 2017-2018 academic year
Nominated and awarded the as ‘Most Inspirational Teacher of the Year’ in both 2016 and 2017
First Place: American Association of Anatomists Educational Research Platform Presentation Award 2014
American Association of Anatomists Student/Postdoc Travel Award 2013, 2014
Nominated for Graduate Teaching Assistant of the Year 2009 2007-2010
Full Academic Graduate Diversity Scholarship, Dean’s List
University of Iowa Honor Student
American Association of Clinical Anatomists (AACA) 2011 - Present
American Association for Anatomy (AAA) 2011 - Present
British Association of Clinical Anatomists (BACA) 2017 - Present
Human Anatomy and Physiology Society (HAPS) 2013 - 2015
International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) 2012 - 2014