Kern Institute

Led by Alexandra Harrington, MD, Kristina Kaljo, PhD, Karen Marcdante, MD and Bipin Thapa, MD

KINETIC3 is a faculty development program which provides foundational and transformational training for medical educators in teaching competence, character and caring in medical education, and entrepreneurial-minded learning, using an interactive classroom. Great emphasis is placed on fostering the skills needed for the 21st century medical educator, building a community of highly skilled educators at MCW, and promoting faculty and student well-being.

Led by Mary Ann Gilligan, MD, MPH and Wendy Peltier, MD

Drs. Gilligan and Peltier have developed a list of faculty development resources for improved communication skills. Through their research, they have identified training in these skills is quite limited at the Medical College of Wisconsin and, thus, see an important need to improve on training offerings in this area. They are additionally working on collaborations with the Curriculum Pillar to improve the communication skills of students and their mentors.

Led by Bruce Campbell, MD and Wendy Peltier, MD

Demonstrating the value of and increasing engagement in humanities activities is an initiative being led by Drs. Campbell and Peltier. They are working on creation of a central database for such campus activities and are exploring how empathy, burnout and emotional drain may be influenced by humanities activities such as writing and reflection and discussion groups.

Led by Sandra Pfister, PhD and Christopher Davis, MD

Sandra Pfister and Chris Davis are fostering collaboration with the Office of Faculty Affairs by providing an additional conduit for strategies to educate and increase awareness to improve faculty well-being. A key initiative is Kern faculty participation in planning and execution of the inaugural Well-Being Summit for Learners. Additionally, members of the faculty pillar (Libby Ellinas, MD, Sandra Pfister, PhD, and Ali Harrington, MD) are developing a proposal for the NTN Women’s Leadership workgroup which will center on the role of life transitions for wellness in female faculty.