Academy of Medical Educators celebrates teaching, welcomes new members

Helping educators to be their best through promoting teaching excellence and scholarship and providing an opportunity for mentorship and collaboration is the goal of the Academy of Medical Educators (AME) within the MUSC College of Medicine.

AME has a huge mission: to promote excellence in education and to support educators to grow in ways that allow them to show up fully as they work with learners and prepare them for their future careers. 

The academy held its spring meeting on April 14 – an exciting time for the organization as it inducted 16 new members from multiple basic and clinical science departments, honoring their commitment to teaching medical students, residents, fellows and peers and their scholarly work in medical education.

“This is an important effort,” said Paul McDermott, Ph,D., a professor in the Department of Medicine and the AME co-leader. McDermott co-leads AME with Maryellen Gusic, M.D., a professor in the Department of Pediatrics. Together, they guide the group’s 60+ members, overseeing professional development programming across a variety of domains: teaching, curriculum development, assessment, educational scholarship and academic advancement. 

Gusic has held leadership roles in medical education and faculty development at multiple institutions and has had a longstanding commitment to educational innovation and the professional development of academic faculty. She is a strong advocate for teaching academies, such as the AME, and other programs that support educators in their academic growth and development.

“There have been a number of articles in the literature citing the benefits of academies. Perhaps most importantly, academies create a “home” for educators through providing a sense of community and connection with others who share a commitment to, and passion for, education. Having an academy also says a lot about an institution. Institutional support of an academy and its members is a clear demonstration of the value that the organization places on education and the work that the members do every day,” said Gusic.

The AME was established in July of 2012 through the College of Medicine’s Dean’s Office. McDermott, a founding member of the academy, has seen it grow and evolve throughout its 13 years. He is excited about the natural evolution taking place in higher education, especially within academic health centers like MUSC. He sees opportunities for educators to evolve their practice to incorporate new approaches to meet learners’ needs. 

“For students, the volume of information they must learn is enormous, and students must learn to manage their time. And figuring out methods that work for them takes time,” said McDermott. Today, McDermott and AME faculty members are incorporating innovative teaching methods into the medical school curriculum, including team-based learning and other active learning strategies to foster critical thinking among medical students.

At the spring event, Donna Kern, M.D., the senior associate dean for medical education, greeted the Chapter AME members and guests. She shared insights and congratulated the newly inducted members.

“The community that AME provides is so important,” said Kern. “I believe that teaching academies as communities can be an antidote to burnout. When educators are faced with balancing clinical and research demands with teaching, making curricular improvements and innovations, the hard decisions and late hours, it is communities like AME that can inspire educators and restore some of the energy that they pour into others every day in the service of medical education and taking care of our students. The academy is here to inspire us to achieve excellence, but it’s also here to give us the tools we need to achieve it.”

 

Kern, Gusic and McDermott recognized the 16 AME inductees, which included early career faculty members from various departments, including Surgery, Emergency Medicine, Regenerative Medicine and Cell Biology and Psychiatry.

Helen Jensie Burton, M.D., was among the new AME members inducted into the MUSC Academy of Medical Educators. Burton completed her Internal Medicine residency at MUSC in 2022. As chief resident, she was introduced to medical education and working with students, teaching and mentoring resident physicians during an especially challenging time, post-COVID. She was charged with creating curriculum, as well as coordinating in-person learning activities with her team to build community, as people were cautiously returning to the hospital and in-person patient appointments.

“Going through that experience helped me realize how much is gained working with others in person and one on one. The connections between people are very important,” said Burton, who is looking forward to accessing more educational resources, such as workshops and seminars planned by the AME, plus engaging with this community of teachers in the coming months.

Burton also credits a strong culture of teaching at MUSC, starting with Ben Clyburn, M.D., former Graduate Medical Education program director and now chair of the Department of Medicine, and Ashley Ann Duckett, M.D., an associate professor and the Division of Internal Medicine residency program director. “Both they and others were very strong teachers,” she said.

Neurointensivist Jimmy Suh, M.D., was inducted alongside Burton in the meeting. Suh completed his Neurology residency at MUSC as well as a two-year Neurocritical Care fellowship at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He returned to MUSC, joining the Department of Neurosurgery as a faculty member in 2022. Suh, who is the associate fellowship director of the Neurocritical Care fellowship, was inspired to teach based on his own experiences studying with various teachers and learning from their different teaching methods.

“As a junior faculty member, I have a unique perspective where I can relate to the challenges of teaching and learning as a young resident. Students today learn differently. Not everyone learns the same way sitting in a classroom,” said Suh, a proponent of using social media, podcasts, apps and other digital tools to complement traditional textbooks and support learning.

Looking ahead, McDermott and Gusic plan to continue to expand programming through workshops, Med Ed grand rounds, journal clubs, the AME fellowship and faculty peer review of teaching. The academy seeks to increase membership and welcomes applications from educators who teach learners across the continuum of education and in classroom and clinical settings. 

“We welcome faculty, residents, fellows and educational specialists to join the academy. Our goal is to bring people together who are passionate about education and to provide the opportunity for us to learn from and with each other so that together, we can continue to contribute to the mission of the College of Medicine and the University,” Gusic said.

2024-2025 College of Medicine AME inducted members include:

Krishna Bhandari, M.D., Surgery; Helen Jensie Burton, Medicine; Maryellen Gusic, M.D., Pediatrics; Nancy Hagood, M.D., Medicine; Fernando Herrera, M.D., Surgery; Julia Hohn, Ph.D., Regenerative Medicine and Cell Biology; Brianyell McDaniel Mims, Ph.D., Pharmacology and Immunology; Mitali Mehta, M.D., Emergency Medicine; Brandon Miller, M.D., PhD., Neurosurgery; Sara Ritchie, M.D., Pediatrics; Dan Ritter, M.D., Emergency Medicine; Jimmy Suh, M.D., Neurosurgery; Madison Tluczek, M.D., Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; Catherine Tobin, M.D., Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine; Leon Walthall, M.D., Medicine; and Maggie Thomas, M.D., Medicine.