Achievement

The Michigan Medicine Department of Surgery provides a platform in which all surgeons reach their highest academic potential and eliminate underrepresentation at all ranks.

This intentional and sustained effort requires:

1. Education, guidance, and effective mentoring for junior and midlevel faculty as they navigate the academic promotion process.
2. A collective awareness of and responsiveness to the professional goals and associated challenges of established faculty. We will rigorously prepare all faculty to achieve promotion to the Associate Professor and full Professor ranks, beginning in Year 1 and continue throughout advancement.

"Someone who is a good mentor, is someone who has a genuine interest in your success and who has the time to invest in doing that."

Dr. Chandu Vemuri

The Faculty & Resident Launch Program is a multifaceted, 3-year program that creates an intentional, team-based approach to mentorship and development of early-career faculty members and residents. The program is open to all faculty members and residents within the Department on each track, and is designed with flexible elements to tailor the program toward an individual’s professional and personal needs.

Mentorship occurs through teams that include faculty members within the Department of Surgery, as well as mentors from other disciplines with unique expertise in key areas of faculty growth. Teams will support and guide faculty members through the first few years of practice and residents during their academic development time, focusing on aspects of performance that are critical for success and well-being: clinical care, academics, education, and leadership.

Boost Teams

Boost Teams is an initiative within the Faculty & Resident Launch Program for newly promoted Associate Professors in the department. We developed this program based on feedback from faculty members who expressed the need for support once they transitioned from Assistant to Associate Professor.

Each participant in this program will be assigned a Boost Team consisting of 4-6 members with relevant knowledge and experience who will assist in the following areas:

1. Help you clarify your phenotype
2. Discuss and identify long term goals
3. Map your career trajectory, with an eye towards development needs for reaching your long-term goals
4. Perform an overall mid-career assessment

Newly appointed Associate Professors (3 or fewer years in rank) are eligible to apply for this program. If you have any questions, please contact Laura Rivard at rivardla@med.umich.edu

The academic success of the Department of Surgery is contingent upon faculty and resident mentorship.  Mentorship and sponsorship require a bi-directional relationship between mentor and mentee that inherently must build upon the unique talents and diversity of the faculty and residents. The Department of Surgery has established a collection of training efforts to promote effective mentorship and sponsorship, incorporating traditional mentorship strategies as well as new functional and dynamic mentoring partnerships.

Our mentorship training programs include:

• Anastomosis: This is a program in which groups of medical students, residents, and faculty members come together as a mentoring "family" throughout their time at Michigan Medicine.
• Mentorship Academy: This opportunity is a full-day educational experience for those interested in learning about how to mentor and be mentored.
• MASKING UP (Mentorship for the Advancement of Surgical Knowledge, Inclusion, Networks, and Growth of the Underrepresented Pipeline): This program is aimed at fostering a community of mentorship for underrepresented and first-generation medical students. Students are matched with faculty mentors and have opportunities for shadowing and exposure to different surgical specialties.

We are creating a departmental environment that rigorously prepares all faculty to achieve promotion to the Associate Professor and full Professor ranks. This will begin in Year 1 and continue throughout advancement. This will entail devising efforts that empower all faculty to overcome barriers to promotion and eliminate under-representation. We aim to incorporate a portfolio of opportunities for lifelong professional advancement and personal fulfillment.

We will work closely and integrate with the following groups to develop, sustain, and evaluate intentional innovative strategies for faculty rank advancement:

• Michigan Medicine Office of Faculty Affairs & Faculty Development
• Office of Health Equity & Inclusion
• Michigan Women’s Surgical Collaborative
• Departmental Internal Promotion Advisory Committee (IPAC)
• Faculty Launch Program
• Department of Surgery Leadership Development & Mentorship Task Teams

The Department of Surgery leverages the services of an executive coach in several ways. Our Boost Team participants benefit from the services of a coach through quarterly group coaching sessions. Boost Team members also receive 360 Evaluations followed up with one-on-one coaching sessions with an executive coach to process and actualize that feedback. Additionally, faculty who are new to the department form a cohort to receive leadership coaching as a group on bi-monthly basis to support them through the transition to attending surgeons. Many of our faculty also receive one-on-one coaching with an executive coach to support them in their various leadership roles across the department.  

Coaching Academy

In response to faculty and resident expressed need for continued leadership development and building coaching skills as a leadership competency, we have developed the coaching academy curriculum in partnership with executive coaching experts Janet Dombrowski and Lynn Torossian of JCD Advisors. The program includes:

• A didactic curriculum of coaching skills
• Independent learning through reading and self-assessments
• Mentored practical coaching experience
• 1:1 individual coaching support.

Participants learn about the different types of coaching, the philosophical models and frameworks for coaching, adult learning theory, inquiry, observation, expectation setting, and supporting individual change and growth. Graduates of the program are able to provide coaching to residents and their faculty peers.