APPLICATIONS FOR THE 2020-21 FACULTY INCUBATOR PROGRAM ARE OFFICIALLY CLOSED.

APPLICATIONS WILL OPEN FOR THE 2021-22 CLASS IN NOVEMBER 2020.

The ALiEM Faculty Incubator is a year-long professional development program for educators, which enrolls members into a mentored digital community of practice. This small, 30-person, exclusive community will stoke the fires of creative engagement through mentorship and collaboration. We aim to strengthen your educational skills and produce tangible works of scholarship. Our goal is to construct a curriculum, delivered to you in a closed digital platform, and help you launch and accelerate your career development.

If you want to be a successful, scholarly leader in health professions education, we hope to work with you to acquire the skills and knowledge required to be a superstar educator in the 21st century.

@ALiEMFac is now published in Academic Medicine!

Click here to read more about our program in our innovation report at the top medical education journal – Academic Medicine!

What will you learn?

We have created an extensive curriculum built along an experiential model, based on Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle. There will be no assessments via quizzes or tests, but rather assessments via portfolio entries, reflections, journal club discussions, and group work.

The year-long curriculum will include advanced training in medical education and scholarship development. With direct access to nationally renowned leaders, each month we will address a different important topic, accelerate short-term and long-term projects, and provide unique opportunities to speak at national conferences, book clubs, and journal clubs.

Curriculum Outline

Goals of the Faculty Incubator

1. To cultivate a virtual community of beyond-beginner medical educators.
2. To allow you to develop a professional network of collaborators and mentors.
3. To provide you with a strong foundation in education theory, educational research design, curriculum planning, and program evaluation.
4. To guide you with training and experience in translating educational theory into practice.
5. To support and promote your tangible works of scholarship.

Why limit the Faculty Incubator to just 30 members?

In order to ensure that each member gets personalized attention and is able to develop a true lifelong community of practice, it is important to limit membership. Members will be part of rotating project-based small groups, as well as have personal access to leaders in the field. A smaller membership size will help ensure that every member is an active and engaged member of the community. We may expand in the future, but did not want to overextend our valuable mentors.

Perks? Yes, plenty of them.

• Personal access to leaders in various medical and non-medical arenas
• A well-designed, year-long curriculum designed by medical education experts
• Mentored peer-reviewer opportunities for emergency medicine & medical education journals
• Chances to help write for a special Western Journal of Emergency Medicine series
• Opportunities to publish blog posts on ALiEM
• Mentorship for your own personal scholarship projects
• Networking alongside other rising stars in medicine
• Free socks… who doesn’t love free socks??

Some accomplishments of our first 4 classes of Faculty Incubator participants

• Dozens of publications in the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, Academic Emergency Medicine Education and Training, and Cureus.
• National speaking and scholarship opportunities, including invited Grand Rounds opportunities at a number of institutions, as well as a speaker slot at the popular UCSF High Risk Emergency Medicine Conference
• Authorship in the Education Theories Made Practical eBook (Volume 1 and 2 in press, Volume 3 in production)

Incubator Launch Day (March 7, 2020)

Members will be enrolled in an exclusive Faculty Incubator Launch Day workshop. This workshop coincides with the day preceding the 2020 CORD Academic Assembly in New York, NY. We chose the CORD AA since this is the foremost conference for EM educator-scholars.

Unlike many traditional workshops, we will make sure that this day is super high-yield. Our plan is to create an interactive and amazing experience that helps you bond with the mentors and your fellow Faculty Incubator participants. During this day you will even start to create plans for the year-long projects you will be working on!

Our Platform: Goodbye boring listserv. Welcome, Slack!

Slack, despite its informal name, is an incredibly powerful digital communication platform that has completely revolutionized how the ALiEM Editorial Board works and is the primary means of communication for many major companies (including eBay, the Wall Street Journal, and even NASA). It has also served as the successful platform for our other high-profile community, the Chief Resident Incubator. It has been described as “team communication for the 21st century” and efficiently transforms how teams work. This will be how we will be communicating, sharing, and working together in a private Faculty Incubator account.

Incubator Leadership Team

Sara Krzyzaniak, MD Co-Chair, Chief Operations Officer

Assistant Residency Program Director and Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of EM at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria | Sara’s professional interests are in resident wellness, remediation of struggling learners, and residency curriculum development. She has several national presentations as well as peer-reviewed publications and book chapters on these topics.

Michael Gottlieb, MD RDMS Co-Chair, Chief Academic Officer

Assistant Professor of EM and the Ultrasound Director at Rush University Medical Center | Mike has authored over 180 peer-reviewed publications, is a peer-reviewer for 25 journals, and an Editor for Annals of Emergency Medicine, Academic Emergency Medicine Education and Training, Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, and American Journal of Emergency Medicine. He also serves as Social Media Editor for Academic Emergency Medicine. His academic interests include resident education with a focus on ultrasound and procedural applications.

Teresa Chan, BEd, MD, MHPE, FRCPC Co-Chair, Chief Strategic Officer

Assistant Professor in the Division of EM at McMaster University | Teresa’s interests include residency assessment, physician communication, and online teaching and learning. She serves on the ALiEM Board and is the Editor of the ALiEM MEdIC series. As her department’s Continuing Professional Development Director, she has over 80 peer reviewed publications, is the inaugural CJEM Social Media Editor, and was selected as a top reviewer for Academic Medicine.

Our Core Mentors

Holly Caretta-Weyer, MD, MHPE

Alumni Mentor (Class of 2017-18, Alumni Mentor 2018-19) | Assistant Residency Program Director, Department of Emergency Medicine, Stanford University

John Casey, DO, MA, FACEP

Alumni Mentor (Class of 2017-18, Alumni Mentor 2018-19) | Associate Program Director, Department of Emergency Medicine, OhioHealth Doctors Hospital, Columbus Ohio

Robert Cooney, MD, MSMedEd, RDMS

Core Mentor (Core Mentor 2016-17, 2017-18, and 2018-19) | Director of Faculty Development, Geisinger Medical Center; Clinical Assistant Professor, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine

Abra Fant, MD

Alumni Mentor (Class of 2016-17; Alumni Mentor 2017-18 and 2018-19) | Assistant Residency Director, Department of Emergency Medicine, Northwestern University; Director of Patient Safety and Quality Improvement, McGraw Medical Center of Northwestern University

Andrew King, MD

Core Mentor (Class of 2016-17; Alumni Mentor 2017-18, Core Mentor 2018-19) | Associate Residency Program Director, Medical Education Fellowship Director, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

Anne Messman, MD

Core Mentor (Class of 2016-17; Alumni Mentor 2017-18, Core Mentor 2018-19) | Vice Chair for Education, Medical Education Fellowship Director, Sinai-Grace Hospital, Detroit; Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Wayne State University School of Medicine

Antonia Quinn, DO

Core Mentor (Class of 2016-17; Alumni Mentor 2017-18, Core Mentor 2018-19)| Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Associate Director of Clinical Skills, SUNY Downstate College of Medicine

Dan Robinson, MD

Core Mentor (Class of 2016-17; Alumni Mentor 2017-18, Core Mentor 2018-19) | Director of Simulation, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Emergency Medicine, University of Chicago

Our Alumni Mentors

Layla Abubshait, MD

Alumni Mentor (Class of 2018-19) | Assistant Professor, University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates Education Director, Department of Emergency Medicine, Al-Qassimi Hospital

Christopher Fowler, DO

Alumni Mentor (Class of 2018-19) | Assistant Professor and EM Clerkship Director, Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

Geoffrey Jara-Almonte, MD

Alumni Mentor (Class of 2017-18) | Assistant Residency Director, Department of Emergency Medicine, Elmhurst Hospital Center, Elmhurst New York; Assistant Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Simiao Li-Sauerwine, MD, MS

Alumni Mentor (Class of 2018-19) | Assistant Program Director, Department of Emergency Medicine, The Ohio State University

Lexie Mannix, MD

Alumni Mentor (Class of 2018-19) | Assistant Residency Director, Assistant Clerkship Director, University of Florida – Jacksonville

Elissa Moore, DO

Alumni Mentor (Class of 2018-19) | Assistant Professor and Clerkship Director for Medical Toxicology, Department of Emergency Medicine, Division of Toxicology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles

Sreeja Natesan, MD

Alumni Mentor (Class of 2017-18, Alumni Mentor 2018-19) | Assistant Residency Program Director, Assistant Professor, Duke University

Melissa Parsons, MD

Alumni Mentor (Class of 2018-19) | Assistant Professor, Assistant Program Director, Department of Emergency Medicine, Emergency Medicine Residency, University of Florida – Jacksonville

Benjamin H. Schnapp, MD, MEd

Alumni Mentor (Class of 2017-18, Alumni Mentor 2018-19) | Assistant Residency Program Director, Assistant Professor, BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Wisconsin

Christine Stehman, MD

Alumni Mentor (Class of 2018-19) | Assistant Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine

Membership Cost

The cost for this year-long program is $1,500 per person. Scholarships may be available if the applicant demonstrates significant need. Compare this to other faculty development courses:

• ACEP Teaching Fellowship ($1,615) for 11 days
• The Teaching Course ($1500) for 3 days
• Harvard Macy Institute for Educators in Health Professions ($5,800) for 14 days

Prerequisites

Preference will be given the following applicants:

1. Available and will attend the Faculty Incubator Launch Day on March 7, 2020 in New York, NY on the day preceding the CORD Academic Assembly Conference.
2. Have previously participated in national (or institutional) faculty development courses, which include the ACEP Teaching Fellowship, The Teaching Course, Medical Education Research Certification courses, or longitudinal institutional courses. Individuals who have demonstrated early leadership in education within their institution (e.g. Clerkship coordinator or Assistant Program Director) will be exempt from this prerequisite, but must explain this in their application.

Application Process

In order to apply for the 2020-2021 cohort, the following materials should be submitted in the embedded form below:

• Current Curriculum Vitae (with Educator’s Portfolio, if available): This should outline specifically all the formal training and previous experiences in medical or health professions education.
• Letter of interest – Share with us why you are interested in our Faculty Incubator program. Describe prior experiential and formal training in education and how they have/will contribute to the community. Also share with us how you envision the program helping you achieve your career goals. (Do not exceed 3 pages)
• Letter of Support Form completed by Section Chief, Academic Chair, or Dean/Vice-Dean – The letter of support template should be downloaded HERE. Please relabel this letter with your name and the words “ChairSupportLetter” (e.g. Gottlieb_Michael-ChairSupportLetter.docx) before uploading. You may upload as a Word Document or PDF.
• Letter for special consideration (optional) – Please include this, if you feel you qualify for need-based financial assistance (do not exceed 500 words).

Application Deadline

Applications are closed for the 2020-21 program. We will be opening applications for the 2021-22 program in November 2020.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Can I be a non-emergency medicine faculty member and still apply?

Absolutely! Diversity of backgrounds will be key in the success of the incubator. Our shared experiences will make the collaborations more rich.  Our participants come from many fields of medicine including GI, IM, Peds, Pulm/Critical Care, and pre-clinical education.

2. Why are we launching at the 2020 CORD Academy Assembly?

We feel that the CORD’s Academic Assembly is an ideal networking venue for members interested in education scholarship. Our Incubator leadership team will be attending, as well as many of our mentors. Furthermore, most residency program directors and clerkship directors, as well as established education scholars, attend this annual event.

3. Why build this Incubator? Aren’t there enough faculty development opportunities already?

We have found that junior faculty, who have attended various faculty development courses and workshops, acquire the foundational theoretical knowledge to launch their educator-scholar careers. However, there are very limited opportunities for longitudinal mentorship, especially outside of their own institution. In the digital age, we have recruited an international panel of mentors and experts in the field to take you to the next level — applying your knowledge towards actual projects and publications.

4. How much protected time is necessary to ensure a proper level of engagement? 

The more time you have to put into the Faculty Incubator, the more you will get out of it. That being said, we would recommend setting aside a minimum of 8 hours per month, though this may vary by person based upon previous training, technological proficiency, etc.

5. I am graduating from a fellowship in June 2020. Can I still apply even though the Faculty Incubator technically starts in March 2019? 

Absolutely! If you are unable to get a letter from your new faculty job’s Chair/Dean, please send in your Fellowship Director’s letter of support, attesting to your potential in academia and especially education scholarship.

Have questions? Feel free to contact us!