Creating and Enhancing Leadership Development Programs for Medical Students

Shira Kaplan is the Director of Leadership Programs and has been with the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) since 2016. In this role, Shira is responsible for the creation and execution of leadership development programs that provide executives, faculty, administrators and learners at AAMC’s member institutions with the skills required to lead and transform today’s dynamic academic medical centers. Shira has worked in the field of leadership development for over 20 years and is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis. Shira is certified in the Conflict Dynamics Profile (CDP) and in Emotional Intelligence (EQ-I 2.0).

Dr. Cutrer received his M.D. with high distinction from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and completed his Pediatrics residency, chief residency and Pediatric Critical Care fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital.  He also has a Masters of Education from the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Cutrer is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM).  He is actively involved in medical student education, including curriculum development, student assessment, and program evaluation, where he serves as the Senior Associate Dean of Undergraduate Medical Education. Additionally, he serves as the Associate Vice President for Educational Affairs at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) where he oversees the simulation center and ongoing learning environment efforts.

Dr. Cutrer is very interested in understanding how students learn in the workplace and how to help them more effectively.  He was the Vanderbilt PI for their participation in the AMA’s Accelerating Change in Medical Education (ACE) Consortium and was the leader of the Vanderbilt team participating in the AAMC pilot project Core Entrustable Professional Activities for Entering Residency (Core EPAs).  He currently serves as the Chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges Group on Educational Affairs (GEA). He has published and presented widely on these topics.

Tom Hurtado serves as Senior Director of Student Affairs and Professional Development at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the University of Utah. Over the past 17 years, he has held various leadership positions in higher education and performed research related to student leadership development, co-curricular involvement, and professional identity formation for graduate populations. He is Co-Director of the RealMD program and an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics. He is also Co-Lead of the AAMC’s Annual RISE Leadership conference which convenes national cohorts of medical students. He received a doctoral degree in Organizational Change and Leadership at the University of Southern California.  

Tony Tsai is the Director of Career and Leadership Develop for University of Utah Health Sciences, a Co-Director in the Utah Coaching Advancement Network (U-CAN), and a Co-Director in the RealMD program. He helps learners and professionals connect to their meaning and authentic purpose in their careers through coaching and leadership training. In previous roles, he has led strategic transformation efforts in medical education at the University of Michigan Medical School and University of Utah Medical School. Prior to his roles in healthcare, he worked in finance and was head of career advising at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. He was a former officer in the U.S. Army. He holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and an BBA from the Wharton School of Business.

Beth Ann Yakes, MD is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM) and is a General Internist in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Public Health at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC).

At Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Dr. Yakes has served as a faculty mentor in the "Colleges" program where she mentors one-quarter of each matriculating class longitudinally until graduation.  She is the Course Director of the Learning Communities, a four-year longitudinal course focused on the professional development of undergraduate medical students. As an Associate Program Director for the Internal Medicine residency program, Dr. Yakes leads an Intern Ambulatory Clinic Didactics series focused on the needs of medical interns and hosts a quarterly Morbidity, Mortality and Improvement Conference which provides an opportunity to discuss adverse outcomes and provide opportunity for systems-based quality improvement initiatives.  Additionally, she has developed a comprehensive Resident Remediation program to provide structured coaching for struggling learners. Additionally, Dr. Yakes precepts residents in clinic and serves as an attending on the general Internal Medicine inpatient services at VUMC.

Dr. Yakes completed her undergraduate medical education at the University of Florida.  She subsequently completed her Internal Medicine residency training and a chief medical resident position at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, MA.  As a clinician-educator, she has focused on mentoring, teaching, learner remediation, physician well-being, curriculum development and medical education research throughout the course of her career.

Brian J. Zink, MD is Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine and Senior Associate Dean for Faculty, and co-Director of the University of Michigan Medical School’s medical student Leadership Program (LDP) since 2018. Dr. Zink’s primary areas of educational focus are leadership development, faculty development, mentoring, medical humanities, the history of emergency medicine, and current policy-making in health care. He was a founding faculty member of the Department of Emergency Medicine and served as Associate Dean for Student Programs from 2004-2006. In 2006 he became the inaugural Chair of Emergency Medicine at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Chief of Emergency Medicine at Rhode Island Hospital and served in this role until 2018 when he returned to the University of Michigan. Dr. Zink has served as President of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (2000-01) and the Association of Academic Chairs of Emergency Medicine (2012-13) and founded and is Director of the SAEM/AACEM Chair Development Program. He and his LDP co-Director, Dr, Mary Haas, are continually looking at the best methods and approaches to incorporate leadership development into medical education in a way that benefits all students.