Faculty Factory

Life is full of way stations, reflection points, and opportunities to pause so you can review the ground you have covered and better prepare yourself for the journey ahead.

As the AAMC celebrates its 150th anniversary, President and CEO David J. Skorton joins us on the Faculty Factory podcast this week to reflect on these vital way stations not only within our own lives but within those of our institutions as well.

This is his second appearance on our show, having joined us in January 2025 for a memorable chat about the less formal side of education. Today we discuss the importance of looking back, and he also takes us through his process of preparing a commencement address, since there are crossovers in what we can learn that are important to preparing for many other opportunities.

Much of what we covered today is inspired by two important articles we encourage you to check out from Dr. Skorton:

You can also revisit his first appearance with us here:

In this “Best of” Faculty Factory Podcast episode, we’re talking about dealing with uncertainty and mental load with two fantastic guests from our archive… Neda Gould, PhD, and Jennifer Apps, PhD.

While Dr. Gould’s segment featured in today’s podcast was specific to the times of Covid, her advice for dealing with the avalanche of anxiety that can quickly consume you in an uncertain time is timeless and can apply to just about any conflict you are facing.

Overlapping themes throughout both these conversations include:

These interviews have been pulled from the following two conversations, which we encourage you to revisit in their entirety:

Since our 2019 inception, we’ve never shied away from covering the difficult issues in our field (and beyond) with incredible interview guests.

Since tomorrow is October 31st, it’s become a tradition here at the Faculty Factory to tackle some of the toughest things we deal with around Halloween. If you want to hear last year’s “Best Of” episode, showcasing some of the most “spooky” challenges in academic medicine, you can revisit that here: https://facultyfactory.org/dealing-with-challenges/.

Ian Barbash, MD, MS, is our guest on the Faculty Factory Podcast this week. In 2025, he became a critical care patient, and in this candid and emotional conversation, he shares what that experience taught him about empathy, presence, and the human side of healthcare.

Dr. Barbash currently serves as Associate Professor of Medicine and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and as a pulmonary and critical care attending physician at UPMC. He is also Medical Director of Physician THRIVE, UPMC’s physician wellbeing program.

Furthermore, he co-leads the UPMC Physicians for Physicians peer support program.

As he is now intimately familiar with both extremes of the intensive care unit, and his work is highly influenced by a deep personal understanding of critical illness and its long-term ripple effects. His goal in being so candid about his own experiences is to champion empathy, in its many different forms, for patients and healthcare professionals.

As he discusses, being present as a healthcare provider doesn’t necessarily need to take a lot of time. Dr. Barbash describes the difference between the providers who were present with him and those who were not, and it was more about making a connection than it was about time.

As he learned from his own experience as a patient, overlooking an “emotional beat” of what a patient is actually saying is an example of a missed connection, even when everyone involved means well. His experience also made one thing clear: critical illness does not stop when you go home.

Learn More about Dr. Barbash in JAMA: Building Empathy | Humanities | JAMA | JAMA Network

Okeanis Vaou, MD, FAAN, joins us for a new episode on the Faculty Factory Podcast to walk us through ways to combat toxic workplace environments and difficult behaviors.

Interprofessional incivility is a growing problem that needs to be addressed, especially because, as we learn this week, toxic individuals (when left unchecked) are very skilled at cultivating institutional power to protect themselves and bully their way to the top.

Dr. Vaou serves as Associate Professor of Neurology, Division Chief of the Movement Disorders Program, Director of the PF Comprehensive Care Center, Director of the Movement Disorders Fellowship, Bradley Dawson Endowed Chair in Movement Disorders, and Vice Chair of Faculty Development at the Joe R. and Theresa Lozano Long School of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio.

Unfortunately, high-stress, high-pressure environments within our profession mean that many of us are exposed to incivility. When these behaviors go unaddressed, they lead to a lot of festering issues.

“When it is actually happening, you should call it out,” Dr. Vaou explains.

The bottom line is that these behaviors and toxic environments must be tackled head-on and tolerating this behavior must become a thing of the past. Want to ask Dr. Vaou a question about all this? You can email her: [email protected]

We are thrilled to give a tip of the cap to our friend Rachel Salas, MD, MEd, for putting us in touch with Dr. Vaou to make today’s episode possible! Please make sure to visit Dr. Salas’s rich archive of podcast episodes after you're done listening to today’s broadcast:

Today marks the 400th episode of the Faculty Factory Podcast, and to officially ring in this landmark achievement of our weekly podcast and its wonderful community that will soon reach its 8th birthday in December, we are ecstatic to announce the launch of our fourth book: "An Anthology of Academic Transitions: Faculty Factory Interviews on Retiring & Rewiring."

Drawn from the Faculty Factory Podcast's rich archive of interviews with deans, department chairs, physicians, and academic leaders, this anthology is an unbiased road map for nearly every facet of major career transitions and the retirement journey. We hope you will share a link to this book with a friend: https://facultyfactory.org/ebook/#retire  

You can also download this eBook for free as a PDF: https://facultyfactory.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/An-Anthology-of-Academic-Transitions-Faculty-Factory-Interviews-on-Retiring-and-Rewiring.pdf 

And/or order a print version of this book, or a Kindle version of it, on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Anthology-Academic-Transitions-Interviews-Retiring/dp/B0HKLZ3X27/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0 

The Faculty Factory Podcast is proud to be sponsored by the Office of the Provost at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB). We are grateful to Jochen Reiser, MD, PhD, President of UTMB and CEO of UTMB Health System, and Susan Chubinskaya, PhD, MS, Senior Vice President, Provost, and Chief Academic Officer, for their continued support.

We would also like to thank the following guests, whose interviews form the heart of this book: Lawrence Appel, MD, MPH; Yuval Bar-Or, PhD; Janet Bickel, MA; Ann Brown, MD, MHS; Oscar W. "Skip" Brown, MD; Peter Densen, MD; Vicki Freeman, PhD; Darrell G. Kirch, MD; Jeffrey M. Lyness, MD, FACPsych; Michael Malloy, MD; David Niesel, PhD; Susan M. Pollart, MD; Jochen Reiser, MD, PhD; David A. Rogers, MD, MHPE; Paul Rothman, MD; Angela Sharkey, MD; Kimberly A. Skarupski, PhD, MPH; David J. Skorton, MD; Patrick O. Smith, PhD, ABPP; Wiley "Chip" Souba, MD; Donna Vogel, MD, PhD; Cary C. Ward, MD; Wendy Ward, PhD, ABPP, FAPA, FNAP; Carol Ziminski, MD; and Brian Zink, MD.

There are many Faculty Factory episodes to revisit and put on repeat when it comes to saving time.

With all of us in academic medicine looking to make the most out of the 24 hours we're all allotted each day, we've reached back into our archives and pulled out crucial moments from three important past interviews on time management.

Included in these clips are nuggets about how slowing down and being more deliberate is actually faster in the long run in many circumstances, and some clinical time-saving advice that may also help you be more present in the moment with patients.

Conversations featured in this compilation include clips from the following episodes:

In August, we brought you Part 1 of this two-part "best of" series on time management strategies. You can revisit it here: Time Management Tactics: Prioritization and List-Making Strategies for Faculty.

Next week we will be celebrating episode no. 400, and we cannot thank you enough for helping us get there as a listener, contributor, or supporter. Here’s to 400 more!

A career trajectory in academic health is never linear, with unexpected twists and turns almost always thrust upon it.

Navigating those ups and downs with intention is going to help you best prepare, as Amanda Termuhlen, MD, beautifully illustrates in this week's episode of the Faculty Factory Podcast.

She joins us to unpack a four-part framework for approaching career transitions with intention rather than waiting for opportunity to knock.

Dr. Termuhlen is a certified (ICF ACC) coach with more than three decades of experience in academic health, serving as a Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist and a faculty affairs professional. She is currently a Professor Emeritus at the University of Minnesota and Adjunct Professor at Drexel University, where she serves on the leadership team for the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) program.

This is her third appearance on our podcast. You can contact Dr. Termuhlen via email here: [email protected] and catch up on past Faculty Factory Podcast episodes with her here:

“Hustle culture” is ingrained in so many of us in this field, and as our guest on the Faculty Factory Podcast this week, Jennifer Bickel, MD, argues, the busiest among us need to slow down and find time for wellness the most.

Dr. Bickel is a neurologist, and in 2024, she joined the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston as vice president and chief wellness officer.

"Along the way, when did we start thinking that fun was not professional?" Dr. Bickel ponders, arguing that injecting fun is crucial to our work.

Wellness used to be looked at as a nice-to-have, not a mission-critical aspect of academic health, but those days are over. Not feeling valued is a leading cause of burnout, and how/why to show more appreciation for each other is a crucial aspect of this interview.

The effects of chronic stress on the brain make us see an impending change as more of a threat than as an opportunity. It also leads us to show up with cynicism rather than empathy (not ideal for any line of work, especially one that includes clinical care).

By staying super busy all the time and not getting sufficient breaks, we are much more likely to make mistakes. It's crucial to breathe, take a step back, and reflect regularly, because when you attempt to grind your way through everything, you actually don't have the time to keep the status quo.

Companion resources from this interview:

In this "Best of" Faculty Factory Podcast episode, we're revisiting conversations with three incredible past guests to bring you a compilation broadcast exploring some of the most common hazards associated with social media, technology, and AI large language model (LLM) usage.

These technologies can work wonders, but there are certain pitfalls to be on heightened alert for in academic medicine, and we discuss several of those in this episode.

Conversations featured in this compilation include clips from the following episodes:

First up, we look at ethical social media use and the common mistakes to be aware of with Sapna Kudchadkar, MD, PhD.

That's followed by a check-in with Lacey W. Heinsberg, PhD, RN. Dr. Heinsberg talks about LLMs impacting critical thinking and how they can get things very wrong, requiring careful, responsible use of these tools.

We wrap up with Angela Sharkey, MD, who discusses cell phone addiction and how the Healthy Minds Podcast, which she discovered while walking her dog, helped her gain an intentional focus on being present in the moment and break free from the poor cell phone habits so many of us endure.

Heather Brod is back on the Faculty Factory Podcast this week for a look at finding and owning your own "Main Character Energy," a concept borrowed from internet culture that has very real implications when taken to heart by faculty.

"What I've learned is that main character energy, at its core, is about agency. It's about how you are writing the script of your own life and not being a supporting character in your own life story," Heather said.

Heather is a prolific executive coach and consultant. Prior to branching off on her own to go into coaching full time, Heather was Executive Director at the Center for Faculty Advancement Mentoring and Engagement with the Ohio State University's College of Medicine in Columbus.

Heather digs into why so many faculty members struggle to answer a deceptively simple question: what do you want? Working through this concept of main character energy with them is about identifying their values, their non-negotiables, and the type of impact they actually want to make throughout their career. 

For more information about Heather and her work, please visit the website of Heather Brod.

Along with the voice of the Faculty Factory Podcast, Kimberly A. Skarupski, PhD, MPH, Heather is the co-author of The Insider's Pocket Guide to Navigating a Faculty Career in Academic Medicine, which was published in 2024 by Springer Publishing Company. The book aims to outline a pathway to achieving a rewarding and prosperous career in academic medicine.