For W. Neil Duggar, PhD, DABR, everything on his path to leadership in academic medicine started with fully understanding his own “why.”

That process of understanding your purpose, who you are, and how that dictates what success will look like, and whether you are making progress, is a central theme within today’s broader leadership discussion. 

Dr. Duggar currently serves as an Associate Professor and Director of Medical Physics in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. 

Learning to lead without formal authority is important in our field because, as Dr. Duggar puts it, “most of us don’t have authority or a title most of our careers, if we ever do get one, so learning to lead without authority becomes a very powerful combination of skills.” 

Embracing feedback and constructive criticism about yourself is vital to this discussion because, without this journey to self-awareness, it’s very easy for leaders to fall into the trap of “your own legend.” 

“You can start believing your opinion and feedback are most important, but the reality is that there will always be voices you need to listen to outside of your own,” he said. 

We thank Dr. Duggar for reaching out to us via the Faculty Factory inbox and requesting to be a guest on this show! If you have something to share within your corner of the academic medicine world as a guest, please send us a message: https://facultyfactory.org/contact-us/   

After you listen to Dr. Duggar’s interview, for more fantastic podcast episodes, please check out our show’s archives: https://facultyfactory.org/podcast-topics/

Oscar W. “Skip” Brown, MD, is our guest this week on the Faculty Factory Podcast. He lays out the keys to building a fulfilling retirement and acknowledges the severe consequences of simply “doing nothing” with the windfall of time on your hands.

As a clinical professor of pediatrics with UTMB in Galveston, Texas, Dr. Brown has accumulated numerous accolades over his illustrious career. He is the immediate past vice chair for clinical affairs and former chief medical officer at UTMB. As a past president of the Texas Pediatric Society (TPS), he is a recipient of the TPS Charles W. Daeschner, Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award, for his contributions to the health and welfare of the children of Texas.

He joined us to map out some serious considerations we should all keep in mind as we approach the twilight stages of our full-time careers.

"You've got to have a plan for what you're going to do with yourself with all the time you're about to create. And it is very bad for you—very bad for you, emphasized with giant capital letters—to just have time," Dr. Brown stressed.

Questions? You can contact him via email here to learn more: [email protected], and you can visit the Faculty Factory website for more resources: https://facultyfactory.org/.  

Donna Vogel, MD, PhD, joins us this week to share her journey of recognizing that it was time for retirement and how she optimized her plan using her trademark discipline and scientific vigor to achieve the healthiest possible retirement from a physical, mental, and financial standpoint.

This is Dr. Vogel’s ninth appearance on the Faculty Factory Podcast, and we are immensely grateful for her selfless and relentless contributions to this community over the years since our 2019 inception.

Among her career highlights, she served as Director of the Professional Development Office at Johns Hopkins Medicine and was the Program Director of the Reproductive Medicine grant portfolio at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She is also a former Jeopardy! champion, having won four consecutive days and reaching the semifinals of the Tournament of Champions. The four pillars of retirement, according to Dr. Vogel, and discussed toward the end of this podcast, are as follows:

“Above all, keep learning in retirement, as that overlaps with all four pillars and ties them all together. Never stop learning,” Dr. Vogel told us in the closing moments of today's show.

Please make sure to listen to today’s episode via the podcast player above; and listen to more podcast episodes here.

David A. Rogers, MD, MHPE, whom we affectionately refer to as a Faculty Factory Podcast 'frequent flier,' returns to the show this week for the third time, delivering a gem of a conversation centered around leadership.

With the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), he is a professor in the Department of Surgery, with secondary appointments in the Departments of Medical Education and Pediatrics and holds an adjunct appointment in the Collat School of Business. Dr. Rogers is the Chief Wellness Officer for UAB Medicine, a position he has held since 2018.

Dr. Rogers served as a senior associate dean of Faculty Affairs and Professional Development at UAB Medicine from 2012 to 2021 and currently serves as the co-director of the UAB Health Care Leadership Academy.

He is also the author of the new book, The Frontline Healthcare Leader's Guide: Leadership that Advances Healthcare Work and the People Who Do It.

He joins us to discuss the book and share his insights on leadership, based on all he has absorbed about it during his incredibly accomplished career in academic medicine.

You can catch up on his past Faculty Factory Podcast appearances here:

"With leadership, I think fundamentally you need to have a vision and the ability to get people excited to follow or go with you on the journey," he told us.

Looking for further great reads on leadership? As Dr. Rogers pointed out in this interview, for those looking to get started with some strong leadership education, he also highly recommends starting with The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner.

This week’s Faculty Factory Podcast is about building the skillset needed to keep pace with the many ways Artificial Intelligence (AI) can augment your productivity as an academic medicine professional.

Leading this discussion for us are Stacey Pylman, PhD, and John Lowry, PhD. 

Drs. Pylman and Lowry have been featured in an ongoing series through the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) on AI education. You can learn more about it here: https://www.aamc.org/about-us/mission-areas/medical-education/artificial-intelligence-and-academic-medicine   

Relationships, as the heart of building success in service of your institution’s mission and the many people who benefit from it, are the central focus of this week’s thought-provoking interview with Katie Branch, PhD, MSN, RN, FNAP, CHSE, on the Faculty Factory Podcast.

With her professional background proudly rooted in nursing, Dr. Branch currently serves as the Vice President for Interprofessional Education and the Health Education Center at the University Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston.

Building on a recent theme of episodes we’ve had exploring the importance of reclaiming joy in your professional life, this episode with Dr. Branch will surely inspire you and help build upon the positive mindset we all need to combat burnout in such a demanding career.

To learn more about the Health Education Center (HEC) at UTMB, please visit: https://www.utmb.edu/hec

Heather Brod visits the Faculty Factory podcast this week with some high-level takeaways from a recent talk she has developed and presented called, "What You Should Know About Academic Medicine (But No One Tells You)."

We hope you are familiar with the style of commentary and wisdom Heather brings to the table as a “frequent flier” on this show. She is also the coauthor of "The Insider’s Pocket Guide to Navigating a Faculty Career in Academic Medicine,” alongside Faculty Factory podcast host and co-author Kimberly A. Skarupski, PhD, MPH.

The “hidden curriculum,” which encompasses the important, often unspoken aspects of a career in academic medicine, are covered throughout this discussion. This includes salient items like negotiating for a job and making an impact. 

Learn More: http://facultyfactory.org/hidden-curriculum 

Anumeha Bhagat, MD, DNB, joins the Faculty Factory Podcast this week for a timely interview on medical education, innovative teaching skills, and building a new generation of well-rounded leaders in the field worldwide.

As mentioned in this interview, Dr. Bhagat is a fellow of the Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER) Institutes. She also serves as an Assistant Professor of Physiology and is a member of the MEU faculty at Government Medical College in Chandigarh, India.

She is a major proponent of measuring impact in faculty development, and as an international podcast reaching over 100 countries, we are hopeful that learning about global best practices will be a key benefit of having Dr. Bhagat joins us this week!

Her work aims to enhance the quality of medical training, cultivate well-rounded future leaders in medicine, and promote innovative teaching methods to better prepare faculty for the demands of this beautiful calling of academic medicine. 

As discussed in the opening moments of this interview, getting trained in basic medical education technologies is a mandatory requirement for promotion in India. This contrasts with the United States, where education can be a pathway or track, or even supplementary.

“The governing bodies have made this a mandatory requirement. So, once you become a faculty member, you need to complete this basic course in medical education to be promoted to the next level,” she explained. 

We would like to thank a dear friend of the Faculty Factory, Page S. Morahan, PhD, a founding co-director of FAIMER, for connecting us with Dr. Bhagat, who helped paved the way for this enriching discussion with Dr. Bhagat.

Our fantastic guest, Gulshan Sharma, MD, MPH, discusses key elements of leadership, such as teambuilding, applied knowledge (or intelligence), situational awareness, authenticity, and the role of brain chemistry, this week on the Faculty Factory Podcast.

Dr. Sharma is the Senior Vice President and Chief Medical & Clinical Innovation Officer at UTMB Health in Galveston. He also serves as a Professor in the Division of Pulmonary Critical Care & Sleep Medicine within the Department of Internal Medicine at UTMB.

“What leadership should bring is a vision for the organization and a main thing for a leader is to manage and de-escalate crisis,” Dr. Sharma told us.

Since leadership is personal, coaching becomes vital for leaders because it helps individuals build self-awareness. Additionally, dedicating time to clearing your mind is important, as an uncluttered thought process is essential for personalized leadership.

“Leaders should lead; they should not be doing tasks. If leaders start doing, it invites trouble,” Dr. Sharma states.

Remembering why you first entered the wonderful and challenging world of academic medicine might be just the boost of joy you need to stave off burnout.

Our guest this week on the Faculty Factory Podcast is Geeta Singhal, MD, MEd, FAAP, whom we warmly welcome for her first-ever (and very memorable) appearance on our program.

She does a brilliant job painting a picture for us of ways to uncover joy amidst the challenges of patient care, teaching, research, and many other rich, rewarding, and difficult tasks of the academic medicine journey.

Dr. Singhal currently serves as Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Pediatrics, Professor of Pediatrics, Director of Academics in the Division of Pediatric Hospital Medicine, Attending Physician, and Co-Director of Pediatric Hospital Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM).

She is also a Faculty Leadership Development Program Partner at BCM and a Professionalism Partner at Texas Children's Hospital. 

Learn more: http://facultyfactory.org/Geeta-Singhal