Faculty Factory

Lekshmi Santhosh, MD, MAEd, an innovative leader in medicine, joins our Faculty Factory Podcast this week to discuss building an array of mentors, each playing a different role in your life and career journey in academic medicine. She also encourages us to challenge conventional definitions of mentoring throughout this conversation. The concept of matrix mentorship invites us to explore the metaphor of a “bouquet of mentors,” which is a central theme of the interview. At the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Dr. Santhosh is an Associate Professor of Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine and Hospital Medicine. She serves as the Department of Medicine’s Associate Chair for Mentorship and People Development and is the Associate Program Director for the internal medicine residency program at UCSF. She also holds the title of Gold-headed Cane Endowed Education Chair in Internal Medicine. Her passion for mentoring trainees, early-career faculty, and peers shines throughout this discussion. “Just knowing that one mentor is not going to be able to meet all your needs is really important,” Dr. Santhosh emphasizes. Thank you to a dear friend of the Faculty Factory, Joshua Hartzell, MD, MS-HPEd, FACP, FIDSA, for recommending Dr. Santhosh as a guest on our show. It was a very memorable and special debut on the Faculty Factory Podcast for her. You can revisit our leadership conversation with Dr. Hartzell: https://facultyfactory.org/joshua-hartzell/ And of course, if you have a guest you’d like us to invite for a conversation on our podcast, please send us a message: https://facultyfactory.org/contact-us/

With mergers and acquisitions (M&As) potentially reshaping the landscape of academic medicine, we are honored to welcome Elza Mylona, PhD, MBA, to this week’s episode of the Faculty Factory Podcast to explore this emerging trend. Dr. Mylona is the Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Faculty Development and also serves as a Professor of Foundational Sciences at Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine in Fayetteville, North Carolina. In this timely discussion about a topic that impacts everyone the institution undergoing a merger or acquisition touches, we examine the economic and demographic pressures driving many of the M&As in academic medicine and beyond. Learn More: https://facultyfactory.org/ 

Carla L. Spagnoletti, MD, MS, has some promotion portfolio gems of wisdom for our listeners in her return to the Faculty Factory Podcast this week. At 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. As discussed in this interview, there are many reasons why clinical faculty should seek promotion. However, clinical faculty often climb the ranks more slowly than their research counterparts. While Dr. Spagnoletti concedes that this is probably due to multiple factors—such as rigorous and competing clinical duties, a lack of understanding of the process, and not always seeing tangible incentives for pursuing promotion—it became clear that something needed to be done. Therefore, Dr. Spagnoletti set out to help faculty overcome the final hurdle in promotion: building a promotion dossier or portfolio. She helped form a supportive group to assist faculty in submitting and building this portfolio so they can initiate the promotion process. At her institution, this group is called the Promotion Portfolio Club (PPC). As a true clinician-educator, she designed it as a curriculum based on a few core theories commonly used in medical education. “One of the participants in a recent club told us, ‘I'm eternally grateful, as I can only imagine this task would have been incredibly daunting had I gone it alone,’ and that really captures the main reason why we started this project,” she said. Learn more: https://facultyfactory.org/ 

We are honored to have Farzana Hoque, MD, MRCP, FACP, FRCP, return to the Faculty Factory Podcast this week. This is her third appearance on the podcast, and this time she joins us to discuss her recently published article in the Journal of Brown Hospital Medicine entitled “WISE Framework: Teaching Guide for Early Career Hospitalists.” The article is based on the WISE Framework, which she formulated and discusses in depth during today’s chat. As she notes at the start of the interview, it is applicable to all specialties, not just hospitalists. She currently serves as an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Hospital Medicine at Saint Louis University School of Medicine. She also co-directs the Medicine Sub-Internship at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine. Additionally, she is the Medical Director of Bordley Tower at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital. Dr. Hoque’s previous two interviews with the Faculty Factory can be found here: Emotional Intelligence (EQ) for Unlocking Leadership Potential: https://facultyfactory.org/eq-leadership/ Embracing Culture Over Strategy: Lessons Learned in Academic Medicine: https://facultyfactory.org/farzana-hoque/ “After several days of thinking, I came up with this WISE framework. W stands for Watchful Observation; I for Insightful Awareness; S for Specific Feedback; and E for Empathic Communication,” she told us. Read Dr. Hoque’s recent article in the Journal of Brown Hospital Medicine entitled “WISE Framework: Teaching Guide for Early Career Hospitalists”: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40191700/. You can follow along with her guidance and clinical tips for residents and fellows, and much more by subscribing to her YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Dr.FarzanaHoque.

W. Neil Duggar, PhD, is an Associate Professor and Director of Medical Physics at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. In this conversation, he discusses the importance of leading without formal authority, emphasizing the need for self-awareness and understanding one's purpose. He encourages developing a personal 'why' statement to guide leadership decisions. Duggar also shares valuable insights on seeking feedback and maintaining humility while aligning with colleagues' needs, asserting that effective leadership often starts from within.

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: owbrown@utmb.edu, 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: Financial planning Health and general fitness Things you do for yourself Things you do for others “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. Important Resources from Today’s Chat Helping Medical Education Faculty Navigate a Post-Academic Landing Pad (Recent Academic Medicine editorial) New York Times article on retirement and mental health referenced by Dr. Vogel The Academy at Johns Hopkins for retired faculty Learning Ally Catch up on Dr. Vogel's Faculty Factory Appearances Networking in a Virtual Environment Applying for Funding, Top Ten Things to Know Be a Memorable Mentor Get That Paper off the Ground How to Turbocharge your Presentation Skills Overcoming Imposter Syndrome Professional Societies, Beyond Getting the Journal Time Management for Faculty 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: Episode 8 – A Faculty Factory Interview with David A. Rogers, MD, MHPE Episode 159 – Taking Ownership of our Wellness with David A. Rogers, MD, MHPE "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