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Education News
Marieke Kruidering (University of California-San Francisco) and Joe Blumer (Medical University of South Carolina) as junior and senior faculty society representatives, respectively, represented ASPET at the 2022 Association of American Medical Colleges Council of Faculty and Academic Societies (AAMCCFAS) annual meeting. ASPET participates as an AAMC-CFAS member society. CFAS provides a platform for faculty at academic medical centers to identify critical issues facing medical school faculty and academic societies and provide a voice for faculty in the creation and implementation of AAMC programs. A total of 130 AAMC-CFAS representatives attended the 2022 annual meeting, held virtually on April 11–13.
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The AAMC-CFAS featured topics including the relationship between faculty and institutional leadership, shared governance structures, leadership development, faculty wellbeing, professional identity for faculty, and the influence of diversity, equity and inclusion on the faculty experience.
Several sessions centered around the intersection and interaction between leadership of academic medical centers (e.g., CEOs, presidents, chancellors) and faculty. The first session highlighted the intrinsic value of academic medicine, in particular research, discovery, and education, to non-medical leadership who may be more focused on fiscal concerns. Examples of such intrinsic value include innovation and discovery, lower mortality rates for patients admitted to teaching hospitals at academic medical centers compared to non-teaching hospitals and the energy of students and trainees that helps foster stimulating research and learning environment. Participants indicated that many institutions do not appear to be sufficiently valuing faculty contributions to their missions; this was felt particularly among basic science faculty who perceive more value being placed on the clinical enterprise rather than research and education.
The attendees also expressed concerns about the merging of basic science departments and the increasing number of non-tenure track faculty who feel they have very little voice, whose employment can be easily terminated, and who feel viewed as second-class citizens in academic medical centers. In response, the AAMC-CFAS Mission Alignment Committee advocates for a strong faculty voice to ensure that governance structures ultimately serve core departmental missions. Given the many governance models that exist, CFAS is exploring pros and cons of the various models to help identify what a healthy governance structure looks like so that faculty can feel supported.
Sessions on the second day focused on leadership, including the journey from faculty to institutional leadership, drawing from personal experiences from the invited speakers. Leadership development was emphasized as part of the new 10-part AAMC strategic plan (see https://www.aamc.org/what-we-do/ strategic-plan/healthier-future-all-aamc-strategicplan#actionplans), in which Plan #6 seeks to enhance the skills and capacity of people in academic medicine. AAMC’s leadership development initiative will allow member institutions to grow and diversify their leadership pipelines with increased access through new delivery models. Models include offering
Leadership Development Flagship Programs with open enrollment that do not require a leadership appointment to allow a focus on core leadership skills and Foundational Programs for trainees and students to learn foundational leadership skills. Leadership Development Enrichment Programs, some of which are currently available, are more targeted for a specific role or demographic, e.g., leadership programs for early career women. ASPET will provide updates to members as to when these Leadership Development Programs are available for enrollment.
Efforts to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in medicine were discussed in a presentation by Malika Fair, MD, MPH, FACEP, who shared Plan #3 of the AAMC strategic plan, “Equipping Academic Medicine to be more Inclusive & Equitable.” She shared the work that has been done thus far regarding DEI competencies https://tinyurl.com/4xawazrt and stated that advancing equity, diversity and inclusion in academic medicine will require intentional engagement of all individuals and leaders in our nation’s medical schools and teaching hospitals. The goal of Action Plan 3 is to equip institutions and leaders at every level with data, tools, training, and evidence-based best practices. Action Plan 3 has seven areas of focus including: 1. Gender Equity 2. Anti-Racism 3. Climate & Culture Assessment Tools 4. Leadership Development 5. DEI Research 6. RJAM (Restorative Justice in Academic Medicine). This involves facilitator training that provides guidance to effectively incorporate the practice of restorative justice for advancing DEI in academic medicine. Participants gain the tools to address the impact of harms, deter recidivism, and facilitate collaborative solutions within medical schools, teaching hospitals, and allied health professional institutions. 7. Ideas, e.g., a monthly webinar series that brings in experts from across academic medicine to help foster inclusive environments, create equitable advancement, promotion, and tenure policies, and promote anti-racist policies, education, and institutional practices. www.aamc.org/ideas
For more information on Action Plan #3, visit www. aamc.org/diversity.
The 8 CFAS subcommittees updated participants about the Advocacy Committee actions to help coordinate a sign-on opportunity for the AAMCconvened Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research’s recommendation of at least $49 billion for the NIH’s base budget and for additional funding for other targeted programs like pandemic preparedness; it should be noted that ASPET is one of the sign-on societies. The Biomedical Research and Education Committee announced efforts to explore the impacts of regulatory burden on research and discovery efforts of faculty.
ASPET will continue to engage with CFAS to ensure the AAMC and the public hears ASPET members’ voice and concerns as pharmacologists. As representatives to CFAS, ASPET is keen to advocate for the concerns of members at CFAS meetings. Please email ASPET with issues you would like raised at the next CFAS meeting. Visit the CFAS website for more information and resources: https://www.aamc.org/members/cfas/.
Joe Blumer, PhD
Department of Cell and Molecular Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics Medical University of South Carolina Charleston, SC blumerjb@musc.edu
Marieke Kruidering-Hall, PhD
Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology University of California San Francisco San Francisco, CA marieke.kruidering@ucsf.edu
ASPET congratulates three students who have been named 2022 individual Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURF). The individual fellowships support students whose home campus lacks an institutional program, or who seek more specialized training opportunities at a different university. Each student participating in the SURF program will be introduced to pharmacology research through a 10-week summer laboratory research experience.
Alexandra Dunstan will be working with Dr. Amreen Mughal to evaluate vascular pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Alex will conduct vascular function assessments using pial vessels from the mouse brain to identify possible vascular pathology in AD.
Madeline Elsey will be working in the Behavioral Pharmacology Laboratory under the mentorship of Dr. Katherine Serafine at The University of Texas at El Paso, where she will investigate the impact of eating a high fat diet on the therapeutic effects of morphine.
Alyson (Xiaolei) Meng will be working in the laboratory of Dr. Przemyslaw Radwanski at the Ohio
Alexandra Dunstan Madeline Elsey Alyson (Xiaolei) Meng State University College of Pharmacy. Her summer research will focus on how dysfunction of a specific pool of sodium channels contributes to impaired electrical impulse propagation in the diabetic heart through immunolabeling, optical mapping, and electrocardiography. ASPET offers both institutional and individual SURF awards. The program uses authentic, mentored research experiences in pharmacology to heighten student interest in careers in research and related health care disciplines. Institutions with funded fellowship programs are listed at: http://www.aspet. org/awards/SURF/institutional-Funded/. Programs like the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows are not possible without continued financial support. Funds are used solely to provide stipends and housing during the summer research period. To donate, please visit https://www.aspect.org/donate/
