Main Content

Professional Development Series 2024 Virtual Sessions

Sponsored by the Department of Biomedical Education and Open to All UMMC Faculty

Enhancing Scholarship of Clinical Practice
Thursday, March 7 | 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. | Presented by Dr. Michael Hall
Increasing understanding of practices that advance teaching, research, and the practice of medicine is the heart of scholarship in clinical practice. At an academic medical center, scholarship also supports faculty advancement. This session offers strategies to enhance scholarship among clinicians while considering the clinical demands that faculty must manage. 

Leadership Development
Thursday, April 19 | 12:00 – 1:00 pm | Presented by Dr. Mitzi Norris
Effective educational leadership is a process that utilizes and builds influence among followers in order to support the development of competence and motivate followers. The leadership process is developmental as the leader learns more about the context and those engaged in the work. Effective leaders engender commitment through a shared vision and understanding of goals and their importance. Multiple leadership theories are examined, and participants are encouraged to explore their own values and mission to inform their approach to leadership.

Critical Conversations
Thursday, May 2 | 12:00 – 1:00 pm | Presented by Dr. Kathryn Schneider
Engaging in and initiating critical conversations is daunting and most people tend to avoid them. Yet, at an academic health center with human life on the line, having critical conversations in a timely manner is vital to maintaining a safe and conducive learning environment. This session provides strategies to enhance your skills and build confidence in having difficult conversations that may involve controversial opinions, constructive feedback, and giving bad news. 

Effective Collaboration
Thursday, June 6 | 12:00 – 1:00 pm | Presented by Dr. Babbette Lamarca
There are various ways of working together. Collaboration involves opportunities to share ideas in order to co-construct concepts, processes, or products. These concepts, processes, or products result from the team's work and yield benefits of increase communication, a deeper understanding of each team member's perspective, increased productivity, and increased engagement. Collaboration may be employed in a myriad of ways in an academic health center, and this session equips you to do so effectively.

Enhancing Scholarship and Innovation
Thursday, June 13 | 12:00 – 1:00 pm | Presented by Dr. Angela Grayson
Faculty engage in various creative activities in which they add to the field's knowledge, resources, or processes. Peer-reviewed and publicly disseminated creative works and innovations, including research, curricular materials, and educational quality improvement, are a few forms of scholarly activity. The relevant field and its constituents as well as the scholar's career advancement benefit from scholarly activity and innovation. This session offers strategies to enhance scholarship and innovation and increase scholarly activity.

Medical Education Programs and The Future of Health Care
Thursday, June 20 | 12:00 – 1:00 pm | Presented by Dr. Paul Wallach - In Person
Undergraduate medical education (UME) lays the foundation for lifelong learning and professional identity formation. This foundation of values and skills acquired during UME shapes the physician, the field of medicine, and the future of health care. This session draws connections between the education we provide today and the future for which it prepares us. 

Mentoring
Thursday, June 27 | 12:00 – 1:00 pm | Presented by Dr. Demondes Haynes
Mentoring relationships provide support to individuals to help them determine and achieve their goals through sustained interactions over a significant period of time. Multiple strategies and configurations of a mentoring relationship, formal or informal, are available to support both personal and professional development. Formal mentoring programs may be employed to advance faculty development and engagement which may result in successes for mentees, satisfaction for the mentor, and a more inclusive environment. 

Grant Management and Preparation
Thursday, July 11| 12:00 – 1:00 pm | Presented by Dr. Barbara Alexander 
Preparing a grant proposal is a monumental undertaking. A fundable submission includes a coherent narrative description, a thoughtful budget that is aligned with the goals of the proposal, a research strategy and specific aims page, and other supporting documents. Completing the process requires clear and concise writing and time management skills. Understanding the institution's resources and best practices for grant preparation can support your smooth submission of a solid proposal.

Analyzing Assessment Data
Thursday, July 18 | 12:00 – 1:00 pm | Presented by Dr. Kenneth Thompson
Designing learning experiences and developing curricula should include opportunities for assessment to ensure that students' understanding and appropriate skills are developing. These data are rich with information that can be used to evaluate instruction, student learning, and curricular materials. This session outlines strategies for mining assessment data to improve student learning.

Assessing Professionalism
Thursday, July 25 | 12:00 – 1:00 pm | Presented by Dr. Michael McMullan
Beginning with the first day of medical school, students begin the process of developing their identity as a physician. This development is supported by formal learning experiences and assessments in the medical education program as well as informal learning experiences. Curricular learning experiences are informed by a set of behaviors outlined in the School of Medicine Policy and Procedure on Professional Behavior. This session outlines these behaviors, where they are taught and assessed in the curriculum, and how teaching and supervising faculty and residents support instruction, assessing, and modeling professionalism.

Quality Improvement in Academic Medicine
Thursday, September 5 | 12:00 – 1:00 pm | Presented by Dr. Norma Ojeda
Quality improvement involves systematic and continuous actions that lead to measurable improvement. At an academic health center, quality improvement may address health care services, the health status of targeted patient groups, or the practices employed in an educational setting. Quality improvement is critical to enhancing the practices in which faculty and staff engage in educational and clinical settings to increase efficiency, effectiveness, performance, accountability, outcomes or other indicators in services or processes which achieve equity and improve health. Efforts may be for a defined period of time or it may be continuous occurring cyclically over time. 

Responding to Student Feedback
Thursday, October 3 | 12:00 – 1:00 pm | Presented by Dr. Hanna Broome
Students provide feedback through multiple means including course or clerkship evaluations, national surveys such as the Association of American Medical Colleges Graduation Questionnaire, institutional surveys, and informally through comments and questions that they ask. This feedback can be valuable to continuous quality improvement for learning experiences, curricular materials, and the learning environment. Once student feedback is reviewed and utilized, it is also important to inform students of how their feedback has been used to support improvements.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Academic Medicine
Thursday, November 7 | 12:00 – 1:00 pm| Presented by Dr. Kristen Alston
The University of Mississippi Medical Center is committed to providing high-quality health care to all of the state's citizens. It is challenged on multiple fonts including resources and a political context. This session provides insights and strategies for maintaining a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in academic medicine in the face of challenges. 

2025 Medical Educators
Thursday, December 5 | 12:00 – 1:00 pm | Presented by Dr. Loretta Jackson-Williams
Learning is changing for medical students and residents as technologies such as adaptive strategies driven by learning analytics, virtual and augmented reality, gamification, and mobile/wearable technologies, continue to be integrated into learning experiences. How do these changes and new discoveries about diseases and treatments impact the role of the medical educator? The 2025 Medical Educator framework offers a framework for grappling with and adapting to changes in education, scientific discovery, and translational research.