The Academy of Medical Educators program targets junior educators (approximately 1-5 years out of training) as well as faculty who are newly incorporating teaching excellence into their careers. This certificate program will span from October to June each academic year. The program will focus on providing instruction in foundational teaching skills and establishing a community of educators with each program cohort. Over the course of the academic year, participants will receive mentorship as well as feedback on their teaching skills through direct observations. Additional instruction in teaching skills will be provided with monthly workshops.

Program Structure

  1. Participants will meet monthly (October-June) for didactics, workshops, and discussions. Attendance is required.

  2. Participants will work independently on creating a clinical educator portfolio and will review progress with mentor.

  3. Participants will be directly observed in teaching environments & complete direct observation forms and reflections.

Invited participants are junior faculty members (~1 to 4 years out of training). In addition, those who are newly entering or reengaging into teaching as a career are also encouraged to apply. Entrance into the program will be through an application process.


Application Materials

Participants must submit the following materials in the application:

  1. Brief statement of interest in the Academy of Medical Educators program (do not exceed one page). The statement should include:

    - Description of your current teaching activities. Include the level of learners taught, setting (classroom, inpatient, procedural, ambulatory) and estimate of hours per month with learners.

    - Your personal goals for the program (two specific goals for the program; a goal can include a specific education-based project in which you would like to focus)
  2. Current CV
  3. Letter of support from division chief which details an agreement to provide protected time for this activity which will include the mandatory attendance at monthly workshops.

Application Due Date

Aug. 5, 2023

Participation Notification

Aug. 15, 2023

Program Term

October 2023 – June 2024


FITS Topics (tentative)

Month Topic
October Intro to FITS program; Establishing an Effective Learning Environment
November Setting Expectations—for you and your learners/team
December Accurate Assessment
January Feedback—Brief and summative
February Teaching clinical reasoning
March Teaching in Small Groups
April Teaching in Large Groups and Virtual didactics
May Diagnosing and Remediating the Struggling learner
June The Clinician Educator CV and Teaching Portfolio

Learning Objectives

  1. Employ behaviors to establish a positive learning climate

  2. Create learner expectations for your clinical setting

  3. Utilize assessment tools to accurately describe learner performance

  4. Write a personal teaching philosophy

   4. Utilize established frameworks to guide clinical reasoning

   5. Describe methods for teaching small groups

   6. Describe approaches to successful large group didactic teaching

   7. Demonstrate approach to effective feedback