Faculty Development Program
The Faculty Development program was instrumental in advancing my research interests. The secondary data analysis module was especially valuable because I was unaware of the abundance of publicly available data and how to use it to analyze health outcomes. The course unlocked the data and provided a strong foundation for me to mature as a researcher.”
~ Megan Douglas, JD, Director, Health Policy Division, NCPC - Morehouse School of Medicine
Overview
For more than 30 years, the Faculty Development Program (FDP) has provided high quality workshops and training programs for healthcare teachers, leaders and researchers dedicated to eliminating health disparities. The Faculty Development Program was conceived to address the scarcity of medical school faculty of color and the lack of programs for enhancing clinical teaching, scholarship, and leadership skills among these faculty.
Today, the NCPC Faculty Development Program continues to ensure that there is a pool of highly trained and culturally competent primary care faculty and practitioners dedicated to addressing the health needs of underserved communities. The program also trains the next generation of primary care providers who are committed to eliminating health disparities.
History of the Faculty Development Program
In 1992, Morehouse School of Medicine’s Family Medicine Department was experiencing challenges recruiting and retaining minority faculty. At the same time, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) reported that there were only 52 African-American full-time academic family physicians in the nation, one-third of whom were on faculty at historically-black institutions.
In response to both our own challenge and the broader implications of the lack of minority faculty, we began offering a one-year faculty development program for faculty from all clinical disciplines within MSM, as well as community-based preceptors, senior residents and other health care professionals. Training modules included teaching and writing skills, curriculum development, grant writing, clinical research and career development and leadership skills.
In 2003, we reached out to a national audience through our Executive Faculty Development Program. Until 2014, primary care faculty and preceptors from across the nation came to our facility four times a week for one week to receive training in a compressed version of the 36-week longitudinal program. One participant from California said, “as a woman of color, this was the first positive experience I have had in an academic setting”. She later received word that the grant she wrote for a community intervention project was fully funded.
We further adapted the program during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. When participants could no longer attend the program in person, we successfully transitioned the program to virtual courses. In 2021, we had our first virtual Faculty Development Program Graduation.