Faculty Factory

The vital role of the humanities in shaping empathetic communication skills and critical-minded healthcare professionals is explored today with our guest, P. Ravi Shankar, MBBS, MD.

Dr. Shankar, MBBS, MD, currently serves as faculty and program coordinator at the IMU Centre for Education in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He is a Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER) Institutes Scholar and a prolific researcher.

Read more: http://facultyfactory.org/ravi-shankar 

The Faculty Factory podcast is back this week with a deep exploration of academic promotions for clinicians as we interview Anne Walling, MB, ChB, who has written extensively about the topic. Her writings are based on her years of practical on-the-job experience with faculty.

Dr. Walling is a professor emerita at the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita in Wichita, Kansas and is the author of Academic Promotion for Clinicians: A Practical Guide to Promotion and Tenure in Medical Schools.

She joins our show this week as a first-time guest to discuss the second edition of this book, along with exploring a variety of aspects related to promotions in academic medicine from many different angles.

You can learn more about her book here: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-84036-4

The five keys that will lead you toward a successful clinical education career are outlined in-depth this week on the Faculty Factory Podcast, featuring our first-time guest, the amazing and encouraging Carla L. Spagnoletti, MD, MS.

With the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Dr. Spagnoletti serves as Professor of Medicine and holds the George H. Taber Endowed Chair in General Internal 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.

The five tips that Dr. Spagnoletti encourages us to employ for building a successful clinical education career are as follows:

Make sure to tune into today's episode for a deep dive on each of the five tips. You will also learn the story of how Dr. Spagnoletti's unique career journey led her to this wisdom.

Today’s episode of the Faculty Factory Podcast explores strategies for embracing a new career challenge or retirement itself. This broadcast features a recording from a recent lecture led by Faculty Factory Podcast host Kimberly Skarupski, PhD, MPH.

Dr. Skarupski is Associate Vice Provost, Leadership Development, in the Office of Faculty Affairs with UTMB Health in Galveston, Texas. She is a tenured Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Geriatrics in the John Sealy School of Medicine and in the Department of Epidemiology in the School of Public and Population Health.

If you'd like to see the slides from the lecture that this podcast is based on, you can access them here.

More Faculty Factory Resources: https://facultyfactory.org/ 

We’re honored to have Janet Bickel, MA, join the Faculty Factory Podcast for the third time in our show’s history this week. We’re discussing the art of adaptability and how to hone it as a skill set to build a successful career in academic medicine.

Janet is an acclaimed leadership and career development coach with more than five decades of experience in academic medicine and science. She started her academic career with Brown University’s Medical School (now called The Warren Alpert Medical School) in 1972.

Resources to Explore

Academic Medicine Letter to the Editor: “Helping Medical Education Faculty Navigate a Post-Academic Landing Pad”: https://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/citation/9900/helping_medical_education_faculty_navigate_a.1175.aspx

Janet Bickel’s Official Website: https://janetbickel.com/

Equip Your Inner Coach: Personal, Career and Leadership Development in an Uncertain Age: https://www.amazon.com/Equip-Your-Inner-Coach-Development/dp/B0BLFSRKG1

We're Put Here to Love: A Memoir with Poems: https://www.amazon.com/Were-Put-Here-Love-Memoir/dp/B0DDTK7NHM

Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock the Potential in Yourself and Your Organization (Leadership for the Common Good): https://www.amazon.com/Immunity-Change-Potential-Organization-Leadership/dp/1422117367

More Janet Bickel Interviews

As mentioned above, this is Janet’s third appearance on our podcast. You can revisit her first time joining us back in June 2019, when she shared with us 7 Crucial Books and Resources for Faculty Affairs Professionals. In March 2022, she joined us once again for a reunion episode, where we caught up with her to discuss what’s new in her world of leadership and career development coaching since we last spoke. 

Patrick Louchouarn, PhD, is our inspiring guest on the Faculty Factory Podcast this week.

And speaking of inspiration, as discussed in this rich conversation, faculty members in general truly inspire Dr. Louchouarn with their creativity, engagement, and commitment to their profession.

In fact, those who chose the path of academic health are particularly compelling to Dr. Louchouarn because much of their work is rooted in the fundamental question: “How can I improve health for others—individuals, communities, or through specific procedures like surgeries or prosthetics?”

This mindset is quite extraordinary, and according to Dr. Louchouarn, it embodies maximum altruism. The one thing to be extra cautious about is that if we don’t start conversations about purpose and core values, a disconnect may occur.

The further we stray from the original motivation—the story of why someone chose to enter this particular health field—the greater that disconnect becomes, as discussed in this interview.

With The Ohio State University in Columbus, he is a Leadership & Performance Coach and serves as Senior Vice Provost for Faculty within the Office of Academic Affairs. Additionally, he serves as a Professor in the School of Earth Sciences and is an affiliated faculty member with the Ohio State Sustainability Institute.

Learn more: https://facultyfactory.org/ 

Further Reading

What Got You Here Won't Get You There, book by Marshall Goldsmith

The Prepared Leader: Emerge from Any Crisis More Resilient Than Before, book by Erika James and Lynn Perry Wooten

We’ve all heard of medical malpractice and its dire costs, but what about leadership malpractice? Should there be consequences or at least more resistance to those implementing non-evidence-based leadership tactics in academic medicine?

Those questions and much more are explored in depth with our guest this week on the Faculty Factory Podcast, author Joshua Hartzell, MD, MS-HPEd, FACP, FIDSA, who joins us to discuss:

With 25 years in military medicine under his belt, Dr. Hartzell is a retired army colonel and a practicing internal medicine and infectious diseases physician.

It’s all about being more intentional with how we lead and taking care of people—that is what a healthy workplace culture rides on, according to this interview with Dr. Hartzell.

"Most of the things we experience and our challenges are not clinical care issues. It’s a leadership issue. We’re really good at the clinical care part, but not so much the messy leadership stuff and how to deal with that," he said.

Learn More

Explore his book, "A Prescription for Caring in Healthcare Leadership: Building a Culture of Compassion and Excellence": https://www.amazon.com/Prescription-Caring-Healthcare-Leadership-Compassion/dp/B0DSQ4276K

Visit Faculty Factory: https://facultyfactory.org/ 

Today's episode of the Faculty Factory Podcast is about the need for strong leadership in the face of uncertainty. It features a recording from a recent lecture led by Faculty Factory Podcast host Kimberly Skarupski, PhD, MPH.

If you'd like to see any visuals from the lecture, please visit our Faculty Factory YouTube channel here:

Dr. Skarupski is Associate Vice Provost, Leadership Development, in the Office of Faculty Affairs with UTMB Health in Galveston, Texas. She is a tenured Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Geriatrics in the John Sealy School of Medicine and in the Department of Epidemiology in the School of Public and Population Health.

The talk explores strategies for staying grounded, communicating with clarity, and supporting your postdocs through uncertain times. This lecture has been edited and repurposed to provide a friendly podcast listening experience.

Learn more about the Faculty Factory: https://facultyfactory.org/ 

According to our guest on the Faculty Factory Podcast this week, Binata Mukherjee, MD, MBA, “one must know thyself” before one can lead change.

We are excited to have Dr. Mukherjee join our show this week as a first-time guest, and we anticipate that she will become a repeat Faculty Factory Podcast guest as her wisdom shines throughout today’s discussion.

At the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Dr. Mukherjee serves as Assistant Dean for Faculty and Professional Development in the Whiddon College of Medicine and is Associate Professor of Internal Medicine with USA Health. Additionally, she is an Adjunct Professor in Management and Director of Healthcare Leadership Initiatives in the Mitchell College of Business.

Learn more: https://facultyfactory.org/Binata-Mukherjee 

Our return guest this week on the Faculty Factory Podcast is Adam D. Wolfe, MD, PhD. Dr. Wolfe shares with us some key communication strategies for better conflict resolution and team building, some of which can also assist with sharing life-altering information with patients in the clinic.

The techniques outlined in this episode are designed to help prevent conflict and preserve interprofessional relationships when inevitable tensions arise.

Dr. Wolfe is the Interim Division Chief of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at CHRISTUS Children’s, affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine in San Antonio, and is also the Associate Professor of Pediatrics and the Program Director of the Pediatric Residency Program. Additionally, he serves as the Assistant Dean of Medical Education and holds the Jann L. Harrison Endowed Chair in Pediatric Graduate Medical Education.

“If you start with goals, you can often end a lot of conflict by simply restating what it is you're all trying to accomplish,” Dr. Wolfe said.

Not only do many of the strategies outlined in the interview work well with professional colleagues at work, but these same principles often apply to when you're talking to families in a clinical situation, as we learn in the latter stages of this interview.

“Do whatever you can to preserve your interpersonal relationships. If you are in conflict, think about how you can preserve that relationship so that person can remain available to you and you can remain available to them… it’s what makes this work rewarding,” Dr. Wolfe added.

More Resources and Next Steps