Current Members & Spotlights

What attracted you to working in academic medicine?
I find significant satisfaction in getting to wear many different hats, all with the goal of excellent patient care and interprofessional medical education.  Each day in my work week is different, between creating new curricula, working on a research paper, taking care of patients in the ED with residents and students, collaborating with faculty for courses, etc.  This variety keeps me engaged, and I love that each facet of my job refines the other facets.

What made you decide to call UVA your home?
I am actually a quintuple Hoo (undergrad, med school, residency, fellowship, MPH), so I suppose you could say I fell in love with the people and the place in my early adult life.  My husband and I moved away for three years, which affirmed our desire to be here long term.  I feel so lucky to count all the wonderful educators at UVA as my colleagues.

What do you enjoy most about teaching?
I love students’ and trainees’ energy to learn and get better.  I also enjoy the way learners keep me on my toes – I’m always being challenged by learners to know more.  It is immensely satisfying to watch learners grow over time into highly capable professional.

What interests do you have in educational research and scholarship?
I enjoy studying simulation and interprofessional education.  I’m currently focused on the question of how to build interprofessional models of education that mirror and improve our team practice environment.

How would you summarize your philosophy of teaching?
Empathy – my priority is always to design curricula and teach at the bedside from the standpoint of the learner.

How do you spend your free time outside of work?
My greatest joy is spending time with my family and friends, especially outdoors, getting exercise or over a good meal, and I am learning the violin.

What advice would you give to a new faculty member getting involved in education in the UVA SOM?
The opportunities are endless, so it is important to find the facet of education you most enjoy.  Identify someone doing that type of work and ask for mentorship and opportunities to get involved.  I actually recommend reading as well – there is so much good advice about how to improve teaching in the literature and within FOAM resources.  I find a lot of inspiration reading about innovative work.

What do you look forward to about the new Academy?
I’m excited that there will be an emphasis on faculty engagement across disciplines, creating opportunities to network.  I think there are many of us doing similar educational work, but we’re in different departments and don’t know about each other.  I see many new collaborations growing out of the AEE in the future!

What attracted you to working in academic medicine?
During my internal medicine chief resident year, I realized that I absolutely love teaching medical students and residents.  This pushed me to seek out academic medicine jobs after fellowship.  The variety in my work with patient care, clinical research, medical education, and curriculum development has kept every aspect of my job exciting to me for all of my years at UVA.

What made you decide to call UVA your home?
I originally came here to join the exceptional liver transplant group by doing a fellowship in transplant hepatology, when I discovered the opportunities in medical education too.  Through all these channels I found the collegiality of the faculty, the strong trainees, and the academic focus unbeatable from any other place I had trained or worked.  My wife grew up in Charlottesville and her father started the practice she joined (Pediatric Associates), so it became an easy decision to stay.

What do you enjoy most about teaching?
I think one of the most rewarding things for me is to meet the first years before they start the GI system, and realize how little they know about clinical medicine.  By the end of our course, I love having deep conversations about very complicated GI topics that they hardly knew about 4 weeks prior.  Then a year later, I can see those same students on the wards as we work together on a team to take care of these complex cases.  Watching this growth over time is something that is very rewarding to me.

What interests do you have in educational research and scholarship?
I am very interested in the use of technology in the classroom.  This topic area has grown immensely during the pandemic in 2020 as more technology is being used in place of the classroom.  Trying to harness technology and promote engagement of learners has become my new area of focus.

How would you summarize your philosophy of teaching?
Building connections – I think the best learners build connections with their patients, colleagues, and between the diseases and science.  These scientific and humanistic connections are essential to making good physicians.

How do you spend your free time outside of work?
My favorite thing to do outside of work is spending time with my wife and our daughters.  I also love photography and taking photos to capture the moment.  Sometimes, I try to mix the two, but my daughters often get frustrated when I am trying to capture the perfect shot – so I have learned to love candids!

What advice would you give to a new faculty member getting involved in education in the UVA SOM?
UVA is one of the most collegial places I have ever worked.  Everyone I have met has always been so helpful in trying to help me succeed.  It is important to find the right person to mentor you through this process as you start on faculty, and try to look beyond your own division or department.  Set up times to chat with people over the phone, over zoom, or when we are able….meet for coffee.  I have found informal chats to be the basis of some exceptional projects.

What do you look forward to about the new Academy?
I am excited about the possibility of the School of Medicine having a “home” for educators.  Many people across the school are interested in similar topics and I think the synergy that is possible through cross departmental collaborations could be extraordinary.  Having different perspectives on the committees will be helpful to ensure a strong Academy that will serve the entire membership.

What attracted you to working in academic medicine?
What originally attracted me into academic medicine was the opportunity to devote a lot of time to biomedical research, but also providing me the environment in which to teach both medical students and graduate students (and even undergraduates, on occasion).

What made you decide to call UVA your home?
My first faculty position was at a rather isolated medical center (heavily focused on research) in a very big city environment involving significant commuting. UVA provided me with an opportunity to work in an academic medical center that was fully integrated into a complete University that had high quality students while being located in a lovely small town with lots of cultural opportunities and good public school systems.

What do you enjoy most about teaching?
Although I was initially focused on research productivity because of the realities of obtaining tenure, I later came to realize that I received enormous satisfaction from interacting with the highly qualified students that are admitted to UVA.  The medical and PhD students at UVA are passionate about their education and eager to learn and to challenge the faculty intellectually. I enjoy interacting with students at all levels, individually, in small groups and in whole class settings. Being in education is highly energizing. Like the change in seasons, every year brings a new crop of bright, young, idealistic men and women full of energy and ambition.  It keeps one feeling young.

What interests do you have in educational research and scholarship?
Although I conducted done research in cell biology throughout my 40 years at UVA, my educational scholarship has been focused in the following areas: 1. Innovative ways to teach histology in an active learning, small-group setting utilizing new technology, such as Virtual Slides and 2. The impact of a change in grading system on academic performance and psychological well-being of medical students.

How would you summarize your philosophy of teaching?
I think that active learning in small groups utilizing the faculty as coaches or guides to learning can be the optimum situation in the pre-clerkship curriculum. When you are dealing with people of the quality admitted by UVA, I think we need to enable each student to have the maximal control over their own education, while providing them with easy access to all the tools that may be needed, including qualified faculty.

How do you spend your free time outside of work?
I have always been a big reader of fiction (particularly related to spycraft and the WWII and Cold War eras).  I have greatly enjoyed studying the history of medical education, particularly at UVA, where we have a lot of original resource materials available in the Historical Collections in the Health Sciences Library as well as the University’s spectacular Special Collections library.

What advice would you give to a new faculty member getting involved in education in the UVA SOM?
Like all major medical centers today, faculty are under enormous pressure to bring in income to the SOM, either through clinical care or through research grants (indirect costs and salary reimbursement) and the incentive systems reflect those priorities. It takes sacrifice and a special effort to carve out time and energy for medical and graduate education, but doing so is worth the effort and has its own special rewards, albeit of a rather different type.

What do you look forward to about the new Academy?
I think the new Academy for Excellence in Education holds a lot promise, in terms of promoting the careers of those who want to be actively involved in education, helping to educate faculty about how to be the best kind of medical educator they can and helping to provide incentives for making quality educational contributions and educational research an important part of one’s career at the UVA School of Medicine. I hope that the new Academy can successfully involve many more of its members in the various activities of the Academy, than was the case with our previous Academy.

What attracted you to working in academic medicine?
As someone with a doctorate in epidemiology, with professional focus on the integration of research methodology, ethics, and regulations, I was attracted to the potential for interprofessional education and collaboration in academic medicine. Bringing together people from different disciplines and professions is fundamental to conducting responsible and respectful research that promotes research integrity, protects research participants, maintains trust in the research enterprise, and ultimately advances science and improves health.

What made you decide to call UVA your home?
In many ways UVA was really my first home. I was born in C’ville when my parents were in graduate school, and I even lived in graduate student housing as a baby! Even though I grew up for the most part in the DC area and lived on the West Coast and in New England for graduate school, I always felt strong ties to C’ville and UVA and so was thrilled to have the opportunity to move back when my husband matched for ID fellowship here (he is also SOM faculty now). I especially appreciate the collegiality at UVA and the good hiking and tennis in the C’ville area.

What do you enjoy most about teaching?
I love getting to know, and learn from, so many people around the School of Medicine, Cross Grounds, and beyond! My teaching-at the interface of research methodology, ethics, and regulations-spans academic disciplines and professions, and I regularly teach undergraduate and graduate students, clinicians in training, researchers, and study teams. I am also a leader in the Virginia IRB Consortium, which brings together HRPP professionals and researchers from across Virginia for education and collaboration on issues related to human research protections and research integrity.

What interests do you have in educational research and scholarship?
I am interested in how education that integrates research methodology, ethics, and regulations can be used to promote research rigor and integrity and protect research participants.

How would you summarize your philosophy of teaching?
We can all learn from each other and grow together.

How do you spend your free time outside of work?
I love spending time with my family and playing tennis and the piano. Lately I’ve also been trying to learn bridge and resurrect my Spanish. Rereading Agatha Christie mysteries is my guilty pleasure.

What advice would you give to a new faculty member getting involved in education in the UVA SOM?
Be creative and explore the possibility of cross-disciplinary and interprofessional collaboration.

What do you look forward to about the new Academy?
I look forward to being part of a community of educators that explores integrating innovative educational approaches such as those using technology, case studies and role-playing, and applied practice experiences. 

What attracted you to working in academic medicine?
As a young person, I was drawn to teaching, psychology, and mathematics.  I ended up studying engineering and then going to medical school.  I think that my career has almost always, in part, been an experience seen through the lens of those early interests.

A moment of clarification came for me when I spent a year or so in community practice.  It was a great experience in many ways, but I realized, by its absence, how much the academic setting mattered to me.  The energy of learners and mentors of various specialties and disciplines, the valuation of learning, the discovery of knowledge, and the innovation of an academic center create a palpable force that sustains me and to which I hope that I make contributions.

What made you decide to call UVA your home?
The UVA Department of Anesthesiology is legendary.  It has a reputation for producing fantastic clinicians and researchers and I remember as a resident hearing it referred to as the “cradle of chairs”  nationally.  There was a shortage of academic anesthesiologists in the late 90’s, and I had the flattering luck of being recruited by the big names in academic anesthesiology.  Ironically, UVA was not particularly interested.  A friend did wrangle an invitation for me to give a lecture and meet some of the faculty and they eventually warmed to me.  A little.
Conversely, I immediately fell in love with the department, the hospital, the school and the community.  A defining moment occurred during a visit when I witnessed a physician (with whom I would later spend many hours in the OR), stop his conversation with a bevy of residents and students to assist a distressed visitor in finding their loved one in the PACU.  The gratitude and relief of the elderly woman spoke to me about the values of this institution.

When I did start working here in ’99, it was with the caveat to not expect to have any of the roles of my previous institution (residency director, liver transplant anesthesia, cardiothoracic anesthesia.)  I decided it was better to be here with a different career than somewhere else albeit in my comfort zone- although I was actually back in my old roles within a year.

There is an important back story.  My incredible spouse of now 40+ years had fallen in love with Charlottesville many years before.  As an amazing novelist, she was drawn to the local writing community as well as this wonderful place in general.  She demonstrated her own skills as an educator by allowing me to believe that I had come to the decision myself.

I have been so fortunate in my time at UVA. Being part of the Educational Task Force that developed the NexGen Curriculum, a member of the workgroup that designed the Medical Education Building, and now an Assistant Dean helping to bring this all to life has been an extraordinary honor.

What do you enjoy most about teaching?
Practically everything:  The substance, capabilities and devotion to excellence of the learners and peers with whom I work every day.  Watching novices become experts with a wonderful combination of accomplishment and humility.  Mentoring superstars that go on to international recognition and success. Working with a struggling student that guts it out and reaches their dream despite any number of hurdles that would defeat many. Seeing our students match into top residencies and our residents recruited by the premiere fellowships. The self-discovery that occurs in the pursuit of educational excellence.  Honestly, the opportunity to explore some really fun technology with innovators from around the world.
Perhaps the most fulfilling aspect is the belief that what we do here improves the lives of patients cared for by our students and trainees when they go out to practice across the country and the world.

What interests do you have in educational research and scholarship?
I am fascinated by the world of educational and cognitive psychology.  I hope that the final chapters in my career help healthcare providers to better understand how they think and learn. We need to be true life-long students, but with greater efficiency.  We also need to understand the limitations and opportunities of our neurocognitive architecture as we function in increasingly complex and stressful environments.

How would you summarize your philosophy of teaching?
There should be some fun to help learners engage, feel safe and become less guarded.  There should be seriousness about our sacred obligation to patients to be our best.  The mentor should seek out the needs of the learner rather than preening their own expertise.  Healthcare educators should seek out and value the practices of educational experts with the recognition that we are not always on the leading edge of innovation.  We should, with our learners, celebrate the work that we collectively do to make the world better.

How do you spend your free time outside of work?
I like to hike, kayak, and mountain bike- although I have given up the mountain biking after a few misadventures worried the people that care about me.  I love to spend time with my wife, ‘kids’ and grandchildren in our home, at a brewery for brunch, or on a trip.  In non-pandemic times, I traveled on a nearly monthly basis to meetings or other institutions and really relished the opportunity to visit art museums and landmarks as well as walk unfamiliar streets.

What advice would you give to a new faculty member getting involved in education in the UVA SOM?
Identify role models (and perhaps anti-role models) and think about what they are doing that seems to work.  Engage them and learn about their path and values.  (Educators tend to be incredibly enthusiastic and generous people- most will want to help.)  “Try on” some roles and techniques and approaches to find your true interests and ways of teaching.  Early on, never say no to an opportunity to publish, teach, or help create a program.  Have the conversation with your chair about your aspirations and how these will fit with your department’s needs and how they can be supported.

What do you look forward to about the new Academy?
Within the Academy’s mission statement, the phrase “…aims to build an inclusive learning community of educators…” resonates for me.  Beyond the concept that educators are really learners at a different place in their journey, I also hear a harsh reality.  Our school, and university, needs to take an unflinching stock of its history and current state.  We need to do better in achieving diversity of faculty, learners, and thinking.  In my time here, I think that we are moving from the concept of diversity as a pleasant goal when convenient, to a necessity for success and justice.  I hope that the Academy furthers that process through authentic discussion and action by forward thinking, exceptional educators.

What attracted you to working in academic medicine?
I’ve always loved teaching. But late in residency and during my first year on faculty, I learned there is so much more to medical education, namely the opportunity to be creative in teaching clinical skills, developing curricula, and engaging in scholarship. I enjoy variety and collaboration, working with a diverse group of educators to benefit students and residents in a number of different arenas.

What made you decide to call UVA your home?
I came to UVA for residency in internal medicine and never questioned staying. The people and the collaborative atmosphere, both on the clinical side and in medical education, is unparalleled. Charlottesville–an artsy college town in the mountains–is perfect for our family.

What do you enjoy most about teaching?
The connection with the learner; seeing them develop greater confidence, insight and self-efficacy. It is amazing to meet new medical students during their first week of Foundations of Clinical Medicine (FCM)–they know little clinical medicine but are so enthusiastic and dedicated to learning their craft—and then to see them rapidly grow into knowledgeable, skilled physicians.

What interests do you have in educational research and scholarship?
My focus is teaching and assessment of clinical reasoning (how doctors think), high-value care (providing the best, most appropriate care), and the intersection of these two concepts, management reasoning. I spend much of my time on remediation, creating and implementing individualized coaching plans to address clinical reasoning struggles for students, residents and fellows across a range of specialties.

How would you summarize your philosophy of teaching?
I aim to create a safe learning environment that fosters critical thinking. I frequently ask questions and push learners to think aloud while reflecting on their own thought processes. My goal is to promote autonomy while empowering learners to build confidence and poise.

How do you spend your free time outside of work?
Activities with my 6-year old such as soccer practice and Tae-kwon-do. Then hopefully making it out to a winery or local restaurant (pre-COVID). More recently, I’ve started running on trails around town.

What advice would you give to a new faculty member getting involved in education in the UVA SOM?
Explore outside of your clinical group. When asked, say yes early in your career. UVA is such a collegial place with approachable faculty. Meeting fellow educators and forming relationships will lead to unexpected opportunities.

What do you look forward to about the new Academy?
So many things–the opportunity to formalize collaborative relationships with a diverse group of medical educators. I also plan to take advantage of newly available faculty development sessions.