Gary L. Beck Dallaghan, Ph.D., is the assistant dean for evaluation and assessment and professor of medical education at the University of Texas at Tyler School of Medicine.  Dr. Beck Dallaghan collaborates with faculty and staff to develop program evaluations and assessment strategies for the medical students.  

Dr. Beck Dallaghan has nearly three decades of experience in medical education. For over 20 years, he was at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine, completing a masters in mathematics and doctorate in educational psychology.  He served as their assistant dean for medical education for five years.  In 2018, he joined the University of North Carolina School of Medicine as director of educational scholarship. During that time he published nearly 80 peer-review articles with a variety of collaborators. 

Nationally, he is actively involved in several medical education organizations, including the Alliance for Clinical Education, Association of American Medical Colleges, and Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics.  

Dr. Cayla R. Teal is the Associate Dean for Assessment and Evaluation and an Education Associate Professor in the Department of Population Health at the University of Kansas School of Medicine (KUSOM).  Dr. Teal received her B.A. degree in Chemistry from William Jewell College and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Community/Clinical Psychology from Wichita State University, with emphases in applied research methods and psychometrics. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Health Services Research at the Center of Innovation in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety at the Michael E. DeBakey Houston VA Medical Center.  She served as the Director of Educational Evaluation and Research at Baylor College of Medicine and an Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs and Associate Dean for Evaluation and Assessment at Texas A&M College of Medicine prior to coming to KUSOM.  Dr. Teal is responsible for the assessment of student performance in and program evaluation of the KUSOM’s curriculum and a member of its continuous quality improvement team.  She is a mixed-methods medical education researcher, an Associate Editor for Medical Education Online, a Deputy Editor for Teaching and Learning in Medicine, teaching faculty for AAMC Medical Education Research Certificate (MERC) program, and a 2022 AMA Scholar in Health Systems Science.  Dr. Teal recently completed her two-year term as the national chair for the Medical Education Scholarship, Research and Evaluation (MESRE) section at the AAMC’s Group on Educational Affairs (GEA) and serves as the Treasurer for the Society of Directors of Research in Medical Education (SDRME). 

Dr. Katie Huggett is the Robert Larner Professor in Medical Education, Director of the Teaching Academy, and Assistant Dean at the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine. As Director of the Teaching Academy, Dr. Huggett leads and develops faculty development programs to support inclusive teaching, assessment, curricular design, mentoring, and educational leadership. She leads medical education research activities and works with faculty to foster educational scholarship. Her research and publications address academic program quality, curricular innovation, interprofessional education, and mentoring. She is co-editor of the book, An Introduction to Medical Teaching: The Foundations of Curriculum Design, Delivery, and Assessment, now in its third edition.

Dr. Beth Bierer is professor of medicine and director of assessment and evaluation at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine (CCLCM) of Case Western Reserve University. In this role, she oversees CCLCM’s portfolio-based assessment system and program evaluation activities. She also teaches graduate-level courses in research methods and facilitates professional development seminars and workshops. Dr. Bierer served as national and regional chair of the AAMC’s Medical Education Scholarship, Research, and Evaluation (MESRE) section and received the medical education Laureaute Award from the AAMC’s Central Group on Educational Affairs. Her research interests focus on competency-based education, programmatic assessment, outcomes evaluation, and educator development.  

Dr. Dana Larsen is an assistant professor of medicine in the department of nephrology at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She earned her medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine in 2017 where she began her medical education research in assessment of time-compressed education. In 2000, she completed her internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, conducting research on spaced education and wellness. During her fellowship at UCSF, she also earned a master’s in health professions education as a combined program at UCSF and University of California, Berkeley. Her master’s project focused on quantitative measurements of trainee engagement with online educational resources. In her current role, Dr. Larsen co-directs medical student courses on the kidney and foundational sciences and serves as the associate program director for the nephrology fellowship program. She is a current member of the MERC Steering Committee and served as a deputy editor for Journal of General Internal Medicines Special Issue on Medical Education, released January 2025. 

Dr. Britta M. Thompson earned her B.S. from Kansas State University, her M.S. from the University of Missouri at Columbia, and her Ph.D. from Texas A&M University. After receiving her Ph.D., she joined the faculty at Baylor College of Medicine in 2004 where she served as the Director of Evaluation and Assessment and the Director of the Simulation Program. In 2009, she became the Assistant Dean for Medical Education and Director of the Office of Medical Education at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. 

In March of 2015, she joined the faculty at Penn State Hershey College of Medicine as the Associate Dean for Evaluation and Assessment. She also serves as Core Faculty with the Woodward Center for Excellence in Health Sciences Education and Directs the Clinician Educator Pathway. In 2018, she created and initiated the Clinician Educator Pathway, in which medical students can earn a joint degree culminating in not only MD degree, but also a master’s degree in Education.

  Her research interests include: Team-functioning and team-performance in medical education; Faculty and Resident Teaching, Evaluation, and Assessment Skills; Medical Student Reflection and Self-Assessment; Health systems sciences education; the Clinical Learning Environment; and facilitators, barriers, and outcomes of educational innovations. Through her work, she has been awarded several teaching and educational research awards. Her research has resulted in over 70 peer-reviewed articles in some of the most prestigious medical education journals. She has won multiple awards for her research articles, including the Silver Quill Award for the most downloaded as well as the best research article in the journal, Medical Education. She has presented over 250 peer-reviewed and invited oral and poster presentations at regional, national, and international meetings.

Judy Spak, MLS is Head of Academic Research and Education at the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library at Yale School of Medicine. She regularly collaborates with educators on evidence and knowledge syntheses projects across the continuum of med ed, providing expert searching and methodological expertise.

Ms. Spak is faculty in several medical education fellowships as well as the Master of Health Science - Medical Education Pathway Degree Program. Her personal research focuses on the role of librarians in teaching and assessing the evidence-based information seeking skills of health professions trainees.

Jorie Colbert-Getz, PhD, MS, is Associate Professor in Internal Medicine and the Assistant Dean of Education Quality Improvement for the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine. She is also an adjunct faculty member for Johns Hopkins Masters of Education in the Health Professions. At the national level, Dr. Colbert-Getz serves on the Research in Medical Education (RIME) program planning committee. She has also served on the executive committee for the Society of Directors of Research in Medical Education, was the Medical Education Scholarship, Research, and Evaluation chair for the Western Region Group on Education Affairs and was the founding director of the Learning Community Institute Research Network. She has over 50 publications in medical education, mostly focused on assessment.  Her overarching mission is to ensure assessments measure developmentally appropriate learning objectives / milestones. To that end, her research focuses on validity frameworks and other elements of assessment utility, survey design, and program evaluation. Dr. Colbert-Getz received her MS degree in Psychology from Illinois State University and her PhD degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Utah.