Faculty Development

Our Mission

The Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine is dedicated to enhance and support an environment where faculty can achieve their full potential in clinical service, research, scholarship, teaching, and academic service.  The department recognizes that junior faculty need both specific/content-oriented mentoring (e.g., specialty-specific career information) and content expertise (e.g., teaching skills, or professional writing skills used in grant writing, publications and manuscripts), as well as overall career advice relevant to advancing as a medical school faculty member.  Successful development of junior faculty will help strengthen the department and prepare it for the next generation of Pathologists and researchers.  The department will provide a strong mentoring program for junior faculty.  A career mentor will be assigned to serve as a general career mentor. Others within or outside of the department may also to serve as additional project mentors.

Purpose

The Faculty Development program will provide a mechanism to assist and propel junior through a smooth career, promoting the advancement and retention of new faculty into our next generation of academic physician and researcher leaders. This program is based on the School of Medicine's Faculty Mentoring Program.

Goals

The overall goal of the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine Faculty Development Program is to develop healthy, successful individuals, guiding them on career paths utilizing their strongest assets.  To that end, we strive to establish, develop, and facilitate positive, enduring, and mutually beneficial mentoring relationships, which allow Mentees to plan, learn and grow, and which renew and reward mentors through the experience of encouraging, motivating, and inspiring others. The objectives of the mentoring program are to assist junior faculty in developing the following critical skills:

• Managing a productive academic career in medicine or research, or both:
  • In support of their own academic career needs and desires, while
  • In support of the institutions missions and goals.
• Understanding the formal (and informal/implicit) values, rules and operating procedures in academic medicine.
  • Understanding criteria for advancement, and
  • Understanding how the merit and promotion system works
• Developing and sustaining a network of professional colleagues.
• Knowing where to go for  advice, help and training

To participate in the mentoring program contact Diane Persons, MD, Chair, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Professional Development Committee, or Robert Klein, PhD,  Associate Dean for the Office of Professional Development and Faculty Affairs.

Department Mentoring Program

Forms are available on the KU School of Medicine Faculty Mentoring Program site.

• Written information will be supplied in the form of an offer letter and contract summarizing the term of appointment, responsibilities, lines of communication, privileges and benefits.
• All new recruits are expected to complete the On-Boarding New Faculty Instructions beginning as soon as the offer letter has been signed and completing the steps before arriving on campus. This On-Boarding process guides the new faculty member through requirements and tasks necessary before you can see patients or begin your research. This includes routine human resource steps and orientation.  See KU School of Medicine Faculty On-Boarding website. Within the first month of employment our newest members will be asked to complete the Mentee Application Form and participate in the department program. 
• As members of the department develop and are able to serve as mentors, they will be asked by the chair to complete the Mentor Application Form.

NOTE: Forms will be submitted to the Chair of the Department Pathology & Laboratory Medicine Faculty Development Program. The purpose of the Mentee and Mentor Application forms is to help assist with the match and help shape the relationship in the initial meeting between mentor and mentee.

• The members of the FDP will review the information on the application forms and recommend a career mentor in the Department with a mentee based as closely as possible on the needs of the mentee. If deemed applicable, mentor(s) from another department may also be recommended.
• The appointed mentor will email an invitation to the mentee offering mentorship. The mentee will acknowledge or accept the invitation, confirming their participation in the program.
• After 6 months of the initial meeting, mentee completes the 6-Month Trial Tool (form).
  • The mentee and mentor will discuss the 6-month trial evaluation together understanding:
    • that the career mentor is not the "end all" to their mentee;
    • that the match is based on needs and is not a popularity contest; and
    • it is to be expected that some mentor-mentee matches may need to be reassigned.
  • At this point:
    • the mentor-mentee pair may decide additional support mentors are needed to help meet the needs of the mentee; or
    • a different relationship can be defined or the mentee can be re-matched; or
    • this mentor-mentee relationship will continue.
• Mentors and mentees are encouraged to utilize the SOM's Faculty Mentoring Program resources for Mentoring Towards Promotion.
• Meetings will be scheduled by the mentee. To begin, a frequency of at least meeting quarterly is highly recommended.
• Mentees and mentors will determine together at the first meeting:
  • the recordkeeping tools they wish to use as documents which will reflect the progress made over time, both the mentees growth as a junior member of the faculty and the mentors success in working with the junior member;
  • the items, documents, tools or forms each need to bring to meetings;

the frequency the mentee should bring their updated KU School of Medicine P&T formatted CV to these meetings. At minimum, the CV should be updated every 6 months.

Department Promotion & Tenure Expectations

The Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine recognizes that junior faculty need overall career advice relevant to advancing as a medical school faculty member.  Part of the tasks of the career mentor are to help the junior faculty member navigate the responsibilities required for promotion and tenure.  We have tried to clarify P&T expectations and guidelines at the department level based upon clinical and basic science service which are congruent with the School of Medicine's. The School of Medicine provides faculty members with numerous online professional development resources regarding Promotion and Tenure so that a faculty member can see at a glance the expectations detailed in the official School of Medicine guidelines.  Visit KU School of Medicine Faculty Mentoring website for information.

Development of teaching skills is primarily monitored by the Director of Graduate Studies and Module Directors.  The School of Medicine Office of Professional Development, the Office of Medical Education and the Faculty Leadership Academy provide seminars, workshops, retreats and other opportunities designed to improve teaching skills, enhance skills in research/scholarship and grant procurement, develop leadership skills, and obtain advice on professional development.

Scholarship  for promotion - Each faculty member is expected to be committed to continual scholarly productivity.  Scholarship is defined as discovery with dissemination of findings or new systems. Discovery is a form of creativity. Examples of discovery and creativity include: research, both basic and clinical. However, discovery is not limited to traditional research. Discovery includes quality improvement, curricular development and advances in educational systems, health policy and management that can also be disseminated. Traditional mechanisms of dissemination include publication and presentation. Other non-traditional but still valid mechanisms of dissemination include impacting or influencing the adaptation by medical education professionals or institutions of discovered or new educational or health care systems information.  The faculty mentor and Chair will review faculty scholarship each year.  In addition, the Departmental Promotion and Tenure Committee will periodically monitor each faculty member's scholarly activity.

Faculty Development Committee

The Chair of the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine will assign a senior faculty member to serve as Chair of the Faculty Development Program (CFDP).  The CFDP will appoint faculty members (with the approval of the Chair of the Department) to the Faculty Development Program Committee and will serve as Chair the Faculty Development Committee (FDC)

• Diane Persons, MD, Professor, Director, Cytogenetics Laboratory, Chair of the Faculty Development Program
• Michael J. Soares, PhD, Director, Division of Cancer and Developmental Biology, University Distinguished Professor
• Mark T. Cunningham, MD, Associate Professor, Director, Hematology and Flow Cytometry
• Fariba Behbod, PharmD, PhD, Assistant Professor
• Rashna Madan, MD, Assistant Professor, Director, Post-Sophomore Fellowship Program

Duties of the Faculty Development Committee

• Establish and revise Program goals and objectives
• Develop and revise format of Mentoring Program
• Match mentee with mentor and monitor mentoring activities
• Oversee ongoing program and mentor/mentee pairs
• Evaluate and improve Program at regular intervals