Dr. Hershey Sheldon Bell is presently the Senior Vice president of the Strategic Business Unit for Medicine, Family Medicine and Medical Education, and Director of the Family Medicine Residency Program for the Hamot Medical Center in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Bell completed his Faculty Development Fellowship with Duke University in Durham, North Carolina in 1986, completed his Residency in 1985 with the Duke-Watts Family Medicine in Durham, North Carolina and his Residency in 1984 with the Mount Sinai Hospital Family Medicine Residency with the University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Bell graduated in 1978 with a Faculty of Arts and Sciences from the University College, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Early Medical School Acceptance prior to B.Sc. degree)

Dr. Bell holds many licensures, including a Pennsylvania License, Diplomate, American Board of Family Practice, Certificant, College of Family Physicians of Canada, North Carolina License, New Jersey License, National Board of Medical Examiners, and License of the Medical Council of Canada.

Dr. Bell is well known to family medicine educators, both in the northeast region as well as throughout the country, for his ground-breaking work on competency-based education. He has had a life-long interest in education and this was fostered with a fellowship in family medicine education at Duke University during the 1980's. Some early work with Patrick Jonas, MD, examined the skills necessary for family medicine preceptors of third year medical students. During their workshop, they proposed that there are specific competencies for family medicine. Subsequently, sessions were held at an STFM meeting to identify those specific competencies. Dr. Bell's work with STFM led to the creation of the Competency-Based Education Taskforce for STFM and culminated with a paper entitled Competency-Based Education in Family Medicine which was published in Family Medicine in 1997. A leadership at the Hunterdon Medical Center Family Practice Residency Program provided a springboard for moving theoretically based educational construct into a practical working model of residency education. Since that time, Dr. Bell has been a frequently sought after speaker on a statewide, regional and national level.

Hershey Bell has accomplished much more than his work on competency-based education. He has a passion for faculty development. Dr. Bell has developed a number of faculty development workshops and has coordinated faculty development workshops for Duke University Family Medicine Department. His dream is to build a master teacher institute to assist current and future family medicine educators to reach excellence.

Dr. Bell holds professional affiliations with the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, American Academy of Family Physicians, and the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors. Dr. Bell has served on numerous committees, including the STFM Task Force on Residency Curriculum for the Future, Co-Chair, STFM Task Force on Competency-Based Curriculum, various committees with Hamot Medical Center, Duke University Medical Center, and Hunterdon Medical Center.

Dr. Hershey Bell was awarded the Outstanding Volunteer Faculty Member, from UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in 1996.