We could not be more excited to welcome Cynthia Rand, PhD, back to our program this week. Many of you may remember that Dr. Rand joined us in the Spring of 2020 as we were on the initial outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

She makes her highly anticipated return this week to chat with us about imposter syndrome and how it can impact leadership roles in academia.

With a joint appointment in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Dr. Rand serves as Professor of Medicine in the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Department at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She also serves as Senior Associate Dean for Faculty.

Today’s episode is another installment of our Faculty Factory reunion series where we visit with guests from yesteryear. As longtime listeners to our show can attest, Dr. Rand is passionate about the strength of a profound mentorship. In fact, her three previous appearances on our show have surrounded that topic.

You can listen to the previous Faculty Factory episodes featuring Dr. Rand:

• Meaningful Mentorship with Cynthia S. Rand, PhD: https://facultyfactory.org/meaningful-mentorship/   

It’s been a pure joy to catch up with folks on how they’ve been doing in these reunion shows. With the pandemic and other game-changing events taking place since our initial chats, there is no shortage of wisdom to be gleaned from these conversations.

Learn more: https://facultyfactory.org/ 

Making her highly anticipated return to the Faculty Factory Podcast this week is Ann Brown, MD, MHS.

Dr. Brown serves as Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Professionalism in the Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, NC. She first joined out show nearly three and a half years ago.

In today’s reunion discussion, she utilizes a powerful lattice metaphor when discussing building a strong framework for career development.

“Part of the job of a faculty member is to be conscious of building that lattice framework as you go through faculty development and coaching conversations, through investing in yourself to build the scaffolding, the lattice,” she said.

This is another Faculty Factory Reunion episode where we visit with past guests to listen to what they have been up to since we last interviewed them on the show.

Want to listen to Dr. Brown’s first visit to the Faculty Factory? You can check that interview out here: https://facultyfactory.org/dr-brown-receives-2019-gfa-carole-j-bland-phronesis-award/

If you would like to contact Dr. Brown, you can reach her here: [email protected]

To learn more about the Faculty Factory: https://facultyfactory.org/

**As mentioned in the intro of today’s podcast, please make sure to follow the Faculty Factory on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Faculty_Factory ** 

The world is a far different place than it was back when our guest this week last joined our podcast roughly 3 and a half years ago. Patrick O. Smith, PhD, ABPP, joins us this week to catch up on everything that has changed, developed and remained since we last crossed paths in 2019.

Dr. Smith is the former president of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Group on Faculty Affairs (GFA). He currently serves as Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Chief Faculty Affairs Officer at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson.

As we chat about in today’s podcast, the first time he joined our program we talked about the following important topics:  

• Pain points

If you’d like to check that out, you can listen to it here: https://facultyfactory.org/patrick-smith/

Today’s episode is focused on the significant accomplishments, changes, and challenges at his Mississippi institution since the global COVID-19 pandemic captured our attention and energy in 2020. It’s an inspiring chat that you will not want to miss.

Please visit us on the Faculty Factory website for more great resources and content: https://facultyfactory.org/  

Our guest this week is Jessica Kahn, MD, MPH. Dr. Kahn brings us a powerful list outlining ten key strategies for success in an academic career.

Long time listeners will know that we love lists here on the Faculty Factory Podcast and we have a great treat for our audience today. While today’s presentation is geared a lot towards more junior level faculty, there are nuggets in this conversation that can benefit those at any stage of their career.

Dr. Kahn serves as Division Director of Adolescent Medicine and Associate Chair of Academic Affairs and Career Development at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Ohio.

“The first strategy for success is to create an individual development plan and a developmental network plan,” she told us. “I really think that those are roadmaps for our success as faculty.”

As outlined in today’s discussion, having an individual development plan or an IDP empowers us to take ownership of our own career development.

There is no question that by following the strategies as presented in this masterful talk from Dr. Kahn, our faculty will be on the path towards building that much needed resiliency to achieve their career goals.

Learn More: https://facultyfactory.org/ 

We are very excited to welcome Janet Serwint, MD, to the Faculty Factory Podcast this week. Dr. Serwint is Professor Emerita of Pediatrics and Public Health at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Dr. Serwint is very active in the Johns Hopkins medical community, and she is very well known around these parts – and beyond – for her mentoring work. She discusses the value of lifelong mentors and the many lessons she has learned from them in today’s podcast.

When it comes to navigating relationships with mentors, Dr. Serwint is a wealth of knowledge. She opened today’s chat talking about looking beyond the wisdom of her parents when it came to her career in academic medicine.

“(My parents) instilled in me so many very important values that I've carried with me throughout my life, yet they were not the ones that could show me how to navigate academics because they had not had that experience,” she told us. “I think that really helped me to realize the importance of finding mentors early on in my career.”

Dr. Serwint leaves us with a brilliant quote from Yoda to wrap up this podcast: “We are what they grow beyond.”

“My interpretation of that (Yoda quote) is that good mentors hope that their mentees will exceed what they have accomplished, and I think that is an important lesson,” she said.

As also noted in today’s episode, Dr. Serwint is involved in The Academy for retired faculty members of Johns Hopkins. You can learn more about The Academy here: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/the-academy/

Please visit the Faculty Factory website to learn more: https://facultyfactory.org/

If you would like to contact Dr. Serwint: [email protected]

You can also contact our Faculty Factory Podcast here: [email protected]

Each month, Sean Tackett, MD, MPH, and his reviewer colleagues identify 3-4 noteworthy articles from the health professions education literature and label them as “must reads.”

Dr. Tackett joins the Faculty Factory podcast this week to discuss this overall initiative and the criteria that is used for the selection of these “must read” articles.

With the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Dr. Tackett is Associate Professor of Medicine and International Medical Education Director in the Division of General Internal Medicine, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.

You can see the latest must-read articles and learn more here: https://hopkinsbayviewinternalmedicine.org/must-reads/

You can also follow this initiative on Twitter here: @MedEdMustReads

As you will hear on today’s episode, the process of identifying the “must read” articles every month is very thorough and we could not be more pleased to have Dr. Tackett join us to discuss it!

If you would like to get in-touch with Dr. Tackett, you can email him at: [email protected]

This week we’re talking with Brian Clyne, MD, MHL, on the Faculty Factory Podcast. Dr. Clyne joins us for a discussion about the ongoing journey of finding focus, collaborators, coaches, and mentors while working in academic medicine.

Dr. Brian Clyne is a Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. He has served in numerous clinical, educational, and administrative leadership roles in the last two decades.

As Vice Chair for Education with Brown, Dr. Clyne develops and supports programs across the continuum of learners. This continuum spans undergraduates to faculty. Learn more about Dr. Clyne. 

In addition to all his insight on working with colleagues, coaches and mentors, he has some rock solid and practical advice on listening. This advice comes towards the end of our interview today. With that in mind, please make sure to listen all the way though until the end—you won’t be disappointed!

While Dr. Clyne admits that coaching is not a panacea for every issue we encounter, it does come with some major wellness benefits.

“[Coaching] can help you become more aware of your responses and reactions to certain situations and because of that I think it helps fight burnout amount healthcare providers,” he said.

Listen to today’s interview through the podcast player located above and be sure to contact us at [email protected] if you’d like to nominate a colleague to be interviewed on our show!

Joining us today for a spirited discussion on the Faculty Factory Podcast is Sylk Sotto, EdD, MBA, MPS.

Dr. Sotto currently serves as Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM). Dr. Sotto is Vice-chair for Faculty Affairs and Professional Development and Vice-chair for Diversity, Health Equity, and Inclusion with IUSM.

She also serves as Health Equity Lead for the Office of Community Outreach and Engagement in the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center. In addition to these roles, she also serves as:

• Director, All IN for Health, Indiana CTSI

Dr. Sotto is making her inaugural appearance on our podcast. As you will hear on today’s episode, much of her research focuses on (in)equity in academic medicine.

If you are a loyal listener to our podcast, I am hoping by now you have heard about Writing Accountability Groups (WAGs), but what about Promotion Accountability Groups? You will not want to miss today’s episode, because Dr. Sotto describes this initiative in-depth midway through the interview.

Dr. Sotto shares more innovative ideas with us throughout this entire episode. This includes a recurring program at her institution known simply as “Fail Fest.” In a great twist on the status-quo in awards and ceremonies, Fail Fest is all about celebrating growth in a unique way.

“Failing is part of the process of how we grow in our career as faculty,” Dr. Sotto said.

For more information on the two papers referenced in today’s conversation, please make sure to check out the following:

• Sotto-Santiago S, Ansari-Winn D, Neal C, & Ober M.(2021). Equity + Wellness: A Call for More Inclusive Physician Wellness Efforts. MedEd Publish. https://doi.org/10.15694/mep.2021.000099.1

Joining us today on the Faculty Factory Podcast is first-time guest, Richard Edden, PhD.

Dr. Edden is Professor of Radiology in the Department of Radiology and Radiological Science at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Within his department, he also holds the position of Director of Post-Doctoral Fellows.

“I do a lot of thinking about how post-doctoral fellows develop themselves while progressing towards potential faculty appointments,” he said.

This is a great discussion for our listeners who many not be natural writers. As Dr. Edden describes in the early moments of this podcast, writing does not come natural to him. In fact, his early aversion to writing is actually what drew him into the sciences in the first place!

It's a very interesting journey that we dive into in-depth on today’s show.  

For those interested in “talking shop” when it comes to scholarly writing and productivity, you are in for a treat with today’s podcast.

“You can’t get far without being able to communicate your material well and increasingly efficiently, as well,” he said.

Today’s episode includes many helpful nuggets for all faculty, including the following:

• Writing tips for folks that are not “naturals.”

Learn more: https://facultyfactory.org/ 

Joining us on the Faculty Factory Podcast this week is Wendy Ward, PhD, ABPP, FAPA, FNAP. Dr. Ward has joined us many different times (today is her eighth appearance on this show) and this is the first time she has visited us since being named associate provost for faculty in the Division of Academic Affairs at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).

Dr. Ward also serves as professor in the UAMS College of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics and director of interprofessional faculty development in the Office of Interprofessional Education.

She joins us to chat about her new role and her institution’s newly named Center for Faculty Excellence. We discuss its mission to support folks across many different phases of the faculty lifecycle—including recruitment, onboarding, and much more.

We also chat post-traumatic growth literature and what the journey of moving from victim to “survivor/thriver" might look like.

Learn more about today's show: https://facultyfactory.org/wendy-ward