GFA Professional Development Webinar: Helping Institutions Achieve a Coaching Culture for Faculty - October 18

Interim Dean
University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine

Dr. Lee Buenconsejo-Lum is the Interim Dean at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM). Before joining the Dean’s office in 2016, she was faculty in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, serving in various leadership roles, including its Residency Program Director and Department Vice-Chair. She was the Designated Institutional Official at JABSOM for 6.5 years and built a team whose focus is to ensure that the JABSOM GME programs graduate excellent physicians who can productively engage in healthcare activities to achieve health equity in the populations they serve. She served as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for 3.5 years, responsible for addressing strategic educational program development, alignment, and accreditation of JABSOM’s health sciences programs across all pre-clinical and clinical departments and the continuum of medical education, from pathway programs through faculty affairs. She has been integrally involved in all major strategic initiatives since 2016, including the transformative academic affiliation agreements with Hawai‘i’s two largest health systems. She was the founding co-lead of the JABSOM Coordinating Committee on Opportunity, Diversity, and Equity, a multi-stakeholder group that reviews and advises the school on diversity and equity initiatives across all of the school’s missions.

Her scholarly activities have focused on reducing health disparities in Hawai‘i and the US Affiliated Pacific Island (USAPI) jurisdictions through building health system capacity in the USAPI. Efforts include improving prevention and screening for cervical cancer and maintaining a regional cancer surveillance system built under her leadership. 

Equity, inclusivity, capacity building, and strong partnerships with key stakeholders committed to achieving health equity remain significant focus areas for Dr. Buenconsejo-Lum and JABSOM. Her work, in partnership with the entire JABSOM ‘ohana, across the University of Hawai‘i and with the major affiliated health systems, is to continue transforming medical and healthcare education and care delivery in Hawai‘i as part of JABSOM’s vision of ALOHA: Attain Lasting Optimal Health for All.

Associate Provost for Faculty
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

Dr. Wendy Ward is a Clinical Psychologist and Professor with tenure in the UAMS College of Medicine.  She serves UAMS as both the Director of Interprofessional Faculty Development and Associate Provost for Faculty.  She serves all five colleges, the Graduate School, and Academic Affairs faculty in these two roles, including recruitment, onboarding, faculty development, mentoring, promotion, professional wellness, leadership development, retirement transitioning, and emeriti engagement.  Her expertise is in integrated care models and collaborative practice, team-based telehealth, behavioral medicine, faculty affairs, and faculty development. For the UAMS IPE office she trains new facilitators to support the UAMS IPE Student Curriculum.

Vice Dean for Faculty Affairs and Equity
Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University

As a lifelong academician and administrator, Dr. Vaidya has spent considerable time recognizing and cultivating resident and faculty members' talents and enhancing their teaching and academic skills. 

Dr. Vaidya assumed the role of Vice Dean of Faculty Affairs and Equity in July 2021. Prior to that, she served as Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Talent Recognition and Enhancement from 2014 -2016. She has conducted several faculty development seminars for CMS clinical faculty. In January 2016, Dr. Vaidya took the helm of the newly created Office of Academic Learning Environment, which included Faculty Development Diversity, Student Learning Environment, and Global Health, and began several new initiatives to improve the student learning environment. Under her leadership, the medical school has implemented measures to promote professionalism and build resilience in faculty, staff, and students. Dr. Vaidya was instrumental in starting the medical school’s clinical faculty recognition program. She leads the Professionalism Committee of Chicago Medical School, which teaches, promotes, and recognizes professionalism in the students and Faculty. Since she took the helm of CMS Faculty Affairs and Equity, she has been instrumental in starting several new faculty-focused initiatives, including but not limited to the Career Transition Series, Research Center Direct or Leadership, CMS Leadership Programs for Early, Mid-Career Faculty, and Senior Leadership Development Programs. Mentoring, Coaching, and Shadowing Program and CMS-Women in Medicine & Science.

Dean Emerita
Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine
President
Great Road Leadership

Valerie Weber is a health care executive with experience in both academic and integrated health system settings. A collaborative, interdisciplinary bridge-builder, she is known for her track record of sustained change in academic and health systems settings and her innovative coaching and leadership development programs. She has substantive operations and management experience in diverse academic and clinical venues, including hospitals and group practice, and expertise in health care quality, patient safety, population health and health informatics. Her clinical background in Internal Medicine informs her view of the greatly needed changes in health care. 

In her previous role as Dean at the Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University, she oversaw the academic operations of the medical school, a multi-specialty group practice, and community-academic partnerships with regional health systems. Prior to that, as Senior Vice Dean for Educational Affairs at Drexel University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, she led all aspects of undergraduate and graduate medical education, creating multiple new clinical campuses, including a new four-year medical school campus, and spearheading a wide-ranging curriculum renewal process that resulted in a state of the art, innovative medical curriculum. Dr. Weber is a consistent advocate for issues of diversity and inclusion and has been instrumental in advancing pipeline programs for groups underrepresented in Medicine.

During her ten years in a clinical and operational leadership role at Geisinger Health System, she was responsible for a large clinical division, transforming financial performance and improving quality indicators, creating several new clinical programs, and championing the implementation of the EPIC electronic health record.

Dr. Weber has extensive experience in research and scholarship and has served as a Principal Investigator for a number of federal grants and contracts spanning areas such as medical education, informatics, quality improvement and geriatrics. She has Institutional Review Board experience and also served on scientific advisory boards for health systems. 

She is noted for her skill in recruiting and talent development and is a certified executive coach, and is founder of Great Road Leadership, an executive leadership development firm. 

Dr. Weber received her MD degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an MS in Health Care Management from the Harvard School of Public Health. She is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine. She has won multiple awards for patient satisfaction and community service, including the Philadelphia Business Journal Best of Healthcare Award, the Dayton Business Journal’s Top 50 award and the University of Pennsylvania Community Service Award.