Faculty Factory

On this week's episode of the Faculty Factory Podcast, Donna J. Adams, EdD, discusses the noticeable rise in learner concerns over the past five years. Now that we are more than half a decade removed from the peak of the pandemic, managing these issues has become a top priority.

With UTMB in Galveston, Texas, Dr. Adams serves as Program Director, Translational Research Education, in the Institute for Translational Sciences Office of Educational Programs.

We're excited to welcome Dr. Adams for her first appearance on the show as we explore how faculty leadership can actively step in and help address these challenges.

"I always tell students you need to look long term. You need to think about what skills can I pick up now that could be transferable to a postdoc to get into where I really want to go? Sometimes you have to play the long game instead of the short game," Dr. Adams said.

Learning about unexpected career paths, opening new doors, and playing the "long game" (since some of the skills you gain will stay with you throughout your career) are all explored in this episode through the lens of Dr. Adams's robust experience. Transferable skills, a sense of curiosity, and relationship building are also covered.

As the discussion wraps up, Dr. Adams also addresses getting comfortable with change, one of the few constants in academia, and why providing psychological safety is essential.

This week on the Faculty Factory Podcast, we’re talking about education once again, and this time it's all about exploring teaching that goes way beyond the status quo for a very special "best of" episode.

The snippets from today’s podcast focus on technology, meeting learners where they are, avoiding cognitive overload, and introducing clinical and micro-scale instructional approaches.

We're featuring important highlights from three episodes in our archive:

We start out hearing from Dr. Handorf about the three rules of Tiny Talks. These three guidelines are so important to consider when crafting learning materials at any level.

After that, we move on to back-to-back interviews with Dr. Fornari, who is constantly incorporating the latest technology and applications to bring just-in-time teaching elements and “micro resources” to learners.

Our education-themed archive of content is robust here at the Faculty Factory. We've organized this content into its own dedicated section on our website, so it's never been easier to find the next episode that might inspire you.

This week on the Faculty Factory Podcast, we explore what neurodiversity is and how it plays out in the workplace with our guest, Kelley J. Slack, PhD.

Dr. Slack is an Organizational Psychologist in the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, Texas.

First things out of the gate, we learned neurodiversity is not a medical term but rather a social construct.

"You're not going to find neurodiversity in a medical textbook, but at the same time it's 'not not' a medical term in that it highlights the natural variation in human neurology," she said.

Dr. Slack reminds us that we all possess cognitive strengths and deal with different challenges. This natural range has played a vital role in human flourishing, and our latest episode is the perfect starting place to learn more.

You can contact Dr. Slack by email.

And learn more about the study she mentioned in the closing moments of the podcast.

Companies and institutions have mission statements, but when it comes to individuals, it is unfortunately much less common. Maybe it's time to change that narrative.

Crafting a personal mission statement takes strategic planning. This means being deliberate about having your behavior reflect what drives you. It entails reflecting on what is important to you and what values should govern your decision making as you forge ahead in your career.

Luckily for us, Adam D. Wolfe, MD, PhD, makes his fourth appearance on the Faculty Factory Podcast this week to discuss just that.

Everyone wants to save time, and there may not be a better time saver than doing what Dr. Wolfe encourages, which is to revisit your values, personal mission statement and what you want to accomplish in the next year or two.

That true north will help you have the confidence to say no, and a well-timed "no," as many of us can painfully attest, can save you significant time, headaches, and stress.

About Dr. Wolfe

Dr. Wolfe is Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Program Director of the Pediatric Residency Program. He also serves as Assistant Dean of Medical Education and holds the Jann L. Harrison Endowed Chair in Pediatric Graduate Medical Education at Baylor College of Medicine in San Antonio at CHRISTUS Children's.

As mentioned, this is Dr. Wolfe's fourth appearance on the Faculty Factory Podcast. Please be sure to visit his previous appearances here:

When it comes to exploring senior roles in academic medicine and understanding how one goes about achieving them, we have the perfect guest this week on the Faculty Factory Podcast as we welcome Jenny Mladenovic, MD, MBA, MACP.

She joins us to help make sense of the opportunities available and to shed light on the variables to consider when pursuing one.

"I do think it's really important to recognize that faculty have chapters in their life and they may not be interested now, or there may not be opportunity now, but it is still important to understand what these roles are, what they mean, and why we have them," she said.

She also reminds us that if you ever think you are overreaching for a job, you have nothing to lose by applying, except perhaps your pride.

"The reality is that there is no perfect job and you will never know everything going into a job. Once you start with that, it makes it a little easier," she said.

In leadership, communication skills are essential, as are operational expertise, discipline, and at least some level of financial management. The good news is that all of these skills can be developed.

"I have my personal biases, so everything I say should be filtered through that. But I believe a dean's role is most important in recruiting and managing faculty. They have to have some mix of charisma and operational expertise," she said.

About Dr. Mladenovic

Dr. Jenny Mladenovic is President and CEO of the Center for Women in Academic Medicine and Science (CWAMS) and Chair/Founder of the GEMS Alliance. Previously she was Executive Vice-President and Provost at Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) and has held positions as senior associate dean at two institutions.

Additionally, Dr. Mladenovic is an AOA graduate of the University of Washington and trained at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Stanford University, and the University of Washington.  For nearly two decades, she had an NIH/VA funded laboratory focused on hematopoietic cell differentiation. She holds an MBA from the University of Miami and is a certified mediator.

What can we do to deal with this funding crisis in academic health and get through it with balance, equanimity and resilience?

Mindfulness-based stress reduction and other mental health aspects that can help deal with the funding challenges in academic health are explored in this week's edition of the Faculty Factory Podcast with our guest Neda Gould, PhD.

"It's tapping into our creativity and also recognizing that we will also get through this. It's just how can we get through it with some balance and equanimity and resilience?" Dr. Gould said.

In this funding climate, with job security concerns top of mind, there are resources along the lines of support groups and other available tools to explore because we all have to keep fortifying forward.

No one has all the answers, but Dr. Gould takes us through many small changes we can work on to continue to enjoy life despite these external stressors.

Dr. Gould is Director of the Mindfulness Program and Associate Director of the Bayview Anxiety Disorders Clinic, both in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

About The Johns Hopkins Mindfulness Program: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/psychiatry/specialty-areas/mindfulness

In March 2020, Dr. Gould joined the Faculty Factory Podcast (remotely, of course) and delivered two very memorable episodes to help our community cope with the emerging anxiety of the time, for which we are forever grateful. Along with her most recent podcast interview with us before today, you can revisit all of her interviews with us:

This week on the Faculty Factory Podcast, we are taking on the topic of education (and more specifically, the learner and faculty experience) by featuring important highlights and snippets from three very important episodes in our archive on that topic:

The Faculty Factory’s education-themed episodes cover everything from AI in the classroom to autonomy-supportive instruction, humanities integration, and the evolving identity of the teacher-clinician. We’ve recently organized this content into its own dedicated section on our website, so it’s never been easier to find the episode that might inspire you.

Karen Moniz, MEd (HSE), PhD(c), brings her wisdom and insights to the Faculty Factory while drawing from her extensive experience as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Alberta. She previously served as the Faculty and Staff Development Program Director at that institution from 2018 to 2023.

Jessica Seaman, EdD, serves as Assistant Professor of Medical Humanities, Co-Director of the Gold Track Curriculum, and Assistant Dean of Faculty Development at Creighton University School of Medicine in Phoenix, Arizona.

Carla L. Spagnoletti, MD, MS, serves as Professor of Medicine and holds the George H. Taber Endowed Chair in General Internal Medicine with the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. In addition, she is the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, the Associate Division Chief for Education in GIM, and the Associate Director of the Masters and Certificate Programs in Medical Education within the Institute for Clinical Research Education.

At age 78, while still doing mentoring, clinical work, and scholarship, Michael Malloy, MD, found time to discuss his journey with contemplating an “intensely personal” decision with the Faculty Factory Podcast this week.

In what can only be described as the ultimate pre-retirement conversation, Dr. Malloy brings the emotions, intangibles, and ethical considerations, when weighing a decision of this magnitude.

"I've been on a glidepath to retirement for about the last 5 or 6 years," Dr. Malloy said.

With UTMB in Galveston, Texas, Dr. Malloy serves as Professor in the Division of Neonatology in the Department of Pediatrics and is the Emeritus John P. McGovern Chair of Oslerian Medicine.

He decided to step aside from the rigors and intensity of the NICU roughly six years ago and continues to work as an attending physician in the mother-baby service in the hospital. As mentioned in this interview, Dr. Malloy has enjoyed the transition while still maintaining close contact with the NICU.

As a self-described "hanger-on'er," Dr. Malloy discusses how he got to this point, his future plans, and gives us a candid look into his decision-making process that has been influenced by many factors including the loss of a loved one.

This conversation is a “must-listen” for any faculty member kicking around the idea of stepping down from 100% full-time employment.

The challenges of having a career in science as a principal investigator and being a mom at the same time were becoming growingly difficult when a friend and colleague suggested Amery Treble-Barna, PhD, should step up to do something about it.

With scientist moms struggling dearly given the rigors of home and work life, and especially emerging from the COVID pandemic, it was apparent that something had to be done.

Dr. Treble-Barna began breaking the status quo by helping this vital segment of the academic community through a combination of leadership development, competencies, and coaching.

Dr. Treble-Barna joins the Faculty Factory Podcast this week to discuss this story and “the how” behind her mission for helping scientist moms navigate a system that quite frankly, as she underscores in this conversation, was not set up for them.

Amery Treble-Barna, PhD, is a Pediatric Neuropsychologist with UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. She also serves as an Associate Professor of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Psychology, and Clinical & Translational Science, and Director of Faculty Wellbeing & Vitality, Health Sciences, at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

In addition, she is Director of MOMENTUM, the leadership development and group coaching program for scientist mothers she discusses in today’s interview. She is also the Associate Director of the Safar Center for Resuscitation Research.

More Show Notes and Resources

The MotherMind Network

MasterMind Executive Leadership

MOMENTUM: Leadership Development & Group Coaching for Scientist Mothers  

MOMENTUM on LinkedIn

This week on the Faculty Factory Podcast, Heather Whelan, MD examines the health risks of a changing world and their implications for medical education and academic medicine.

Dr. Whelan serves as Director, Climate Ambassador Program, UC Center for Climate, Health and Equity with University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

"Healthcare professionals are among the most trusted people to talk about climate change with the public. We can take advantage of that opportunity to educate and inquire about how climate change is affecting people,”  Dr. Whelan said at the end of the interview.

Here are some of the links from today’s conversation with Dr. Whelan that we encourage you to visit:

Dr. Whelan is a colleague of past Faculty Factory Podcast guest, Andrew Orr, MD, MSEd. We are grateful to Dr. Orr for making the introduction to her as a referral to us for this interview! You can revisit the interview with Dr. Orr about How Introverts Can Excel in Academic Medicine.

As a side note, please feel free to send us your recommendations for a future guest by emailing the show through visiting this link and send us a quick note of who you’d like to nominate and why.