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Today’s episode of the Faculty Factory podcast is an interview with Megan Palmer PhD, MS.
Dr. Palmer is Associate Dean of the Indiana University (IU) School of Medicine Office of Faculty Affairs and Professional Development in Indianapolis. Dr. Palmer also serves as Vice Chair for Education and Faculty Development, and Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the IU School of Medicine.
You might remember Dr. Palmer from a previous podcast episode featuring her colleague, Dr. Mary Dankoski. Dr. Dankoski is Executive Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Professional Development at IU. She raved about the great work that Dr. Palmer has been a part of at IU in Episode 9 of the Faculty Factory podcast.
If you’re interested in hearing that episode with Dr. Dankoski, you can listen to it here:
The Faculty Vitality Survey
Indiana University is one of the largest medical schools in the country and has been involved with some of the most innovative programming in the country. As part of the tools IU uses to help gather longitudinal data on faculty vitality, Dr. Palmer discussed the Faculty Vitality Survey in this episode. It helps measure wellness of individual faculty, faculty groups, and delivers a view of how departments and leaders are doing in regards to vitality, health, and overall contributions to the institution.
Within the opening minutes of this podcast we discuss the survey. Dr. Palmer compares it to the AAMC Faculty Forward Survey as it has similar objectives. This survey gives Dr. Palmer’s team an idea of how engaged and satisfied the faculty are at IU. It is administered every third year at IU.
Once again I encourage you to listen to the opening minutes of today’s podcast for some strong takeaways about what Dr. Palmer has learned from this robust survey.
“Local vs. National” Faculty Development
As someone who works in Faculty Development at the school/”national” level I was curious as to Dr. Palmer’s observations on the differences (if any) that may exist between faculty development taking place at local levels.
Dr. Palmer is a firm believer in the importance of faculty development taking place at both levels. Contextual differences notwithstanding, she also commented on how similar the end goals of faculty development programming are regardless of what level it takes place at.
“Good teaching is good teaching,” Dr. Palmer said.
This is a great podcast to check out if you’re interested in faculty vitality; as you’ll soon discover, Dr. Palmer is one of the world’s leading minds on this subject! To listen to today’s entire episode, please use the embedded podcast player above, or visit out Podcast home page.