The University of Michigan Medical School and American Medical Association (AMA) will co-host the “Student-led Conference on Leadership” Aug. 4-5 in the A. Alfred Taubman Biomedical Science Research Building and Taubman Health Sciences Library.
The theme of the conference, which has been planned exclusively by medical students from around the country, is: learn, connect, empower, impact.
Participants will number nearly 200 and include faculty and students from 32 institutions that are part of the AMA’s Accelerating Change in Medical Education Consortium — a collaboration between the AMA and select medical schools to create a transformative system of education that trains physicians to be part of the healthcare of the future.
At Michigan, and throughout the AMA consortium, students have played a vital role in efforts to change medical education.
“Medical students have long served a singular role in medical education — the learner. This narrow view neglects the larger contributions students can provide,” said Kylie Steenbergh, a M4 and one of the conference organizers. Other Michigan students involved in planning the conference: Evan Merryman, Maria Pliakas, Hanna Saltzman and Katie Zurales. Additional members of the planning committee hail from Case Western Reserve University, East Carolina University, Oregon Health & Science University, University of North Carolina, University of Utah and Vanderbilt University. U-M Class of 2017 graduates Korie Zink and Jesse Burk-Rafel also helped to develop the vision for the conference.
“Conference attendees will learn leadership skills throughout the conference, connect with other medical students, and be empowered to impact the future direction of medical education. We will continue to learn, but we will also take a leading role in improving the training of the future physicians,” Steenbergh said.
Michigan students Seth Klapman and Kathryn S. Brown will facilitate the leadership workshop, “Sexual Assault and Medical Education: Students Driving Change.” Several U-M students will deliver oral presentations:
The conference also will feature a MedEd Impact Challenge. Faculty has submitted questions that address the most pressing issues in medical education — from how to train future physicians to be better leaders to wellness. Students will work together in teams to formulate and pitch their solutions to a panel of faculty judges. The winners will have an opportunity to share their efforts with other key figures in medical education at the ChangeMedEd 2017 Conference in September in Chicago.
On Aug. 5, Alisha Moreland-Capuia, M.D., executive director of the Avel Gordly Center for Healing and assistant professor at the Oregon Health & Science University, will deliver the keynote address: “Learning to Lead from Where You Are.”