Saying Farewell...

It was recently announced that our amazing leader, colleague, and friend, Anne Pereira, will be stepping down as Assistant Dean for Curriculum to pursue her dream of training in palliative care medicine.  She will be entering a palliative medicine fellowship next year here at the University - so she will not be too far away!  Plans will be made this spring to celebrate her contributions to the Office of Medical Education and to wish her well in her journey.  

Amanda Termuhlen, our Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, is the Chair the Search Committee for the new assistant dean. 

Of Special Note/Interest ...

Security Access Coordinator Change: Over the past few years, Mary Winger was the security access coordinator  or Department Facilities Representative (DFR) for OME and was responsible for all office keys/code locks, and signage. Starting last month, Christine Kiel is the new access coordinator/key authorizer.  Please contact her when  keys need to be replaced or are needed for new staff. 

Also - we have not yet received a confirmed date  for changing all of the office/conference room locks (reported a few months ago). They are doing this in stages, as many AHC areas were affected by the theft of the master keys that happened several months ago.

Addy Irvine, one of our Academic Advisor in Student Affairs, recently wrote a guest blog  on  Lights, Camera, Crohn's blog about her experiences with ulcerative colitis while pregnant, with a newborn, and breastfeeding. Check out the post here.  

CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 

Jodi Brenden-Amir recently started in a new position in CPD as the Associate Director, Interprofessional Continuing Education and Accreditation. In this role she will be responsible for accreditation and program oversight, curriculum design and educational activity format application and supervising and coaching CPD's Educational Consultants. 

Anne Pereira, Assistant Dean of Curriculum,  was chosen by Impact Medicine as one who exemplifies the mission of the Medical School.  She is highlighted in a  video on the Impact Medicine website.  You can  also see her picture  in the hallway by GME.   Congratulations Anne!

Student Affairs

New "Houses" in Student Affairs

We are excited to have our full contingent of Academic Advisors all here and supporting our students. For the last couple years we have had a single advisor, Addy Irvine. This past winter she was joined by Luke Feuling Porter, and this fall we welcomed Abbe Holmgren to the team. Now each of our students, years 1-4, are assigned one of these three advisors based on their House. Addy supports students in the Beacon House, Abbe for Zestar!, and Luke Centennial House. These advisors are a huge resource to our students, helping them navigate their academic progression, manage the logistics of our school, and connecting them to resources. If you want to learn more about their role and how they are supporting out students, please stop in and say hi! Addy and Abbe can be found in B612 Mayo and Luke is in B615. 

Academic Advisors Present at MCPA

Academic Advisors Addy Irvine, Luke Feuling Porter, Abbe Holmgren, and MS2 Maggie Plattes, presented at the annual Minnesota College Professionals Association (MCPA) conference held at the Radisson Blu in Bloomington on October 31st. Their presentation was titled "Welcome to the House: Incorporating Intrusive Academic Advising Into a Medical School Learning Community". The presentation focused on both the new Houses model in the medical school as well as the intrusive/proactive advising approach being used by Academic Advisors in their work. Attendees were encouraged to consider which approaches could be applied in their own work to better serve students. 

The Shared Student Intern Program (SSIP) has grown, as announced at the quarterly all-staff meeting in October.  Several OME programs have requested interns to work in their area on a regular basis, and have also requested assistance on short/long term projects.  As a result, we've hired seven (soon to be eight) new student interns - some are replacing interns that will be graduating in December and May.  Please welcome them when you see them!  There will be a more formal (donut) welcome for them in the coming weeks!

Please note:  If you are looking for interns to work in your area for a few hours a week on a regular basis, please contact Marianne W.  If you are looking for assistance in short and long term projects, please complete an intern work request form.

Saying farewell to Jayson Sanchez and Yousuf Siddiqui!  Jayson and Yousuf will be graduating in December and leaving SSIP.  Jayson will be looking for a career in Health Care Administration and Yousuf is in the process of applying to medical schools.  We are grateful for the work they have done in OME and wish them the best as they pursue their careers!

To conclude our Spotlight on the Admissions team,  we feature the last two members on the team, Crystal Esparza, the Director of Admissions, and  Jeff Pilacinski, Admission's Business Analyst. 

Crystal Esparza started as Admissions Director in August of this year.   Her main responsibility is to oversee the Medical School interview program.

Crystal came to us from the School of Public Health where she was the Coordinator for Student Recruitment and Enrollment. In her spare time she enjoys cooking, traveling, shopping, zumba, and snap-chatting filters/pictures with her nieces and nephew. 

Jeff Pilacinski  has been a part of the Admissions team for almost 18 years.  His current responsibilities as Business Analyst include: application screening/review, application processing, and admissions system development. 

Jeff  received degrees from the U in Religious Studies and Classical/Near Eastern Archaeology - and in a previous life he lived/worked in the Middle East as an archaeologist specializing in Hellenistic-era ceramics.  In his  free time he cooks vegan meals, helps coach his kids' hockey teams, studies labor history, and works as a regional scout for a Western Hockey League team. He likes strong coffee made with cayenne and cinnamon. 

Concluding comments from Associate Dean, Dimple Patel:

"The Office of Admissions including Pipeline Programs is where our learners begin their relationship with the Medical School and specifically the Office of Medical Education.  [The Admissions program contributes to the mission of the Medical School by working] everyday across the continuum of medical education to accomplish our goals of recruiting a broadly diverse medical student body. The Office of Admissions works with over 100 volunteers across the Medical School and broader community.  Without the support of all of these people we would not be able to accomplish our goals.  

We would  like to thank our colleagues across the continuum, especially UME, for allowing us to be involved in learning more about our learners once they are here.  This knowledge is critically important to our work and the betterment of our processes."

• "Kudos to Brinsley and Patty on the RPAP/MetroPAP team for all their work to prepare for RPAP/MetroPAP orientation and to support the students as they transitioned out to their sites across the state! All the work it takes to prep and run things smoothly can become invisible when a job is well-done, which makes that work all the more extraordinary. Thank you for everything you did for the faculty, staff, and especially the students to make orientation a success!"  [Liz Sopdie]

• "Addy Irvine has done an exceptional job on moving the new academic advising program forward. She has been a great colleague to go to for advice, training, and historical context of medical school processes. As a newer academic advisor, she ensured I onboarded smoothly and that I am able to do my job effectively." [Luke Feuling Porter] 

• "As a newer staff member, Scott Slattery has been incredibly welcoming to me. He always is checking on how I am doing in my role and outside of work. He has vocally expressed his appreciation of me being part of the staff numerous times, which has truly made me feel like I belong at the Medical School. It has been a pleasure to collaborate with him on different projects." [Luke Feuling Porter]  

• "Cynthia Johnson has been a great coworker to share an office with. More than a handful of times, Cynthia has brought in different new recipes and baked goods to share with staff members. Furthermore, I have constantly observed her going above and beyond to plan special social events and gatherings for staff members across OME to ensure their personal life events are acknowledged and celebrated by the staff." [Luke Feuling Porter]  

• "Thank you to Crystal Esparza-having you on the Admissions team is making a huge difference!" [Serena Jones-White] 

• "Thank you to Diane Hennan for your willingness to jump in a help with Interview Days. Your perspective and expertise is appreciated! " [Serena Jones-White]

• "[Kudos] Addy Irvine - for her amazing work organizing our new Academic Advisor program. The work she has done to organize this new role has helped our students get and find the support they need. Thanks Addy!!  [Scott Davenport]

• "Kudos to Luke Feuling Porter for doing such an amazing job advising our students! He was able to get fully up to speed at a record pace and is meeting with students regularly now. We are so lucky to have him here with us!"  [Addy Irvine]

• "Kudos to Abbe Holmgren for jumping right into her new role in Student Affairs! She's taught me so much over the years and continues to do so in her new role. So happy you're back, Abbe!" [Addy Irvine]

• "I'm happy to report Jon Froehlich has not hit a sophomore slump after his employee of the year award - he's still hitting home runs (I'm very good at sports metaphors)! A huge THANK YOU to Jon for always being willing to help me (usually without a lot of notice), but specifically when he stepped in to record some of the recent LIC info sessions and made my life much easier. We're lucky to have you, Jon!" [Rachel Rudeen]