Faculty Development

In 2009, under the leadership of Susan L. Rosenthal, PhD, vice chair for faculty development, the Department of Pediatrics implemented a program designed to enable faculty to achieve career advancement and professional satisfaction. Over the past decade, the Faculty Development Program has helped faculty flourish professionally by providing them opportunities to enhance their skills and competence and develop leadership skills consonant with individual goals and the departmental and institutional mission and strategic priorities. Our program is among a small number of comprehensive departmental programs across the country, according to a recent study in the Journal of Pediatrics.

Leadership

Susan L. Rosenthal, PhD

• Vice Chair for Faculty Development

Lisa Saiman, MD, MPH

• Vice Chair, Faculty Affairs

Columbia Women's and Children's Health Faculty Leadership Academy

The Columbia Women’s and Children’s Health Faculty Leadership Academy is an annual program offered to 10 participants from the Department of Pediatrics, the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the pediatric division of the Department of Psychiatry.

Participants in the program work toward:

• Developing a leadership style that draws on personal strengths
• Developing negotiation and conflict management skills
• Increasing their understanding of academic health centers’ structural complexities, operational challenges, and financing
• Understanding basics about financing within an academic health center
• Providing peer mentoring to address challenges

Learn More About the Leadership Academy

2020-2021 Leadership Academy Graduates

• Sandhya Brachio, MD (Neonatology)
• Alexandra Canetti, MD (Child & Adolescent Psychiatry)
• Eva Cheung, MD (Cardiology)
• Aliva De, MBBS (Pulmonology)
• Namrata Jain, MD (Nephrology)
• Jennifer Lee, MD (Critical Care & Hospital Medicine)
• Kara Gross Margolis, MD (Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition )
• Nobuko Hijiya, MD (Hematology, Oncology & Stem Cell Transplantation)
• Anita Holman, MD (Obstetrics & Gynecology)
• Noelia Zork, MD (Obstetrics & Gynecology)

2021-2022 Leadership Academy Participants

• Jennifer E. Cruz, PhD (Child & Adolescent Psychiatry)
• Jennifer R. DeFazio, MD (Surgery)
• Rachelle G. Gandica, MD (Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism)
• Melissa E. Glassman, MD (Child and Adolescent Health)
• Sabrina P. Law, MD (Cardiology)
• Joseph A. Picoraro, MD (Gastroenterology)
• Devon Rupley, MD (Obstetrics & Gynecology)
• Katherine R. Schlosser, MD (Critical Care & Hospital Medicine)
• Taylor B. Sewell, MD, MBA (Critical Care & Hospital Medicine)
• Caryn St. Clair, MD (Obstetrics & Gynecology)

Leadership Academy 2.0

This program addresses the current leadership development of Leadership Academy graduates. In 2021, the following sessions were given:

• Making the Move to a Major Leadership Role
• I BLEW IT!!! Leadership Mistakes I Learned From
• Highlighting Leadership Accomplishments on Your CV

CV Working Group

The CV Faculty Development Committee includes the vice chair for faculty development, the vice chair for faculty affairs, and faculty members from various divisions within the department. The purpose of the committee, which meets about six times a year, is to:

• Help faculty consider how to best present their accomplishments using the Columbia University Irving Medical Center format
• Build capacity among participants so that they can aid others in their divisions

Foundations for Building a Career in Academic Medicine

This seminar series provides faculty attendees with insight on developing an academic niche and on steps for planning career growth. Many of these seminars also are given to division-specific groups and fellows. 

Programming for Specific Groups

In 2021, programs developed to meet the need of specific groups included the following:

• Junior Faculty of Hematology, Oncology & Stem Cell Transplantation
  • Seminars focused on strategies for career advancement and enhancing well-being
• Heart Failure, Transplant, Cardiomyopathy
  • Two sessions on addressing implicit bias and ways of “creating friction”
• Divisional Administrators and Directors
  • Mini-leadership academy with the following objectives:
    • To develop a leadership style that draws on personal strengths and uses those strengths to work effectively in leadership roles
    • To increase skills in working with others across the organization to effectively meet personal and institutional goals
    • To learn to manage energy and time to reduce the risk of burn-out
    • To experience use of a peer group to provide peer mentoring to address challenges.
• Tea with . . . Series with the following objective:
  • To meet with a range of leaders within Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian so that participants might understand the types of positions, pathways to those positions, and leadership styles.