Statement of Educational Philosophy: 

Teaching is both a significant professional goal and major source of fulfilment for me. The focus of my teaching efforts to date have been the promotion of pathology as a profession and small group facilitation. I enjoy being able to connect learning to actual patients. When speaking to pathology interest groups I like to think of myself as a role model for demonstrating what a career in pathology is like. Having started as an Anatomic and Clinical Pathology resident as is standard and then deciding to wholly commit to Clinical pathology I can bring a somewhat unique experience and perspective to this discussion. In contrast when facilitating small groups my focus is more centered on demonstrating how pathology is relevant to a broad range of potential paths in medicine.  Over the past several years I have focused on my role as an educator both formally in the medical school setting and in the larger medical community. Although I am most comfortable teaching in a small group setting and one on one, as my research portfolio has expanded, I have gained more opportunity to share my work at national conferences. 

I have taken my love of teaching to a higher level by participating in Northwestern’s Medical Educational Certificate Program. This program focused not only on how to enhance my teaching skills, but how to maximize my impact as an educator through curriculum development and educational research. I have tried to use these skills in a number of ways. First, I serve as a faculty facilitator for medical decision making, problem based learning and introductory bioethics. I additionally help with curricular development as part of the National Collaborative for Education to Address the Social Determinants of Health, an effort seeking to accelerate the spread of the best approaches for identifying, understanding and addressing social determinants of health.  In this capacity, I assist in the curation of an indexed database of curricula and assessment materials (including courses, simulation, cases, and experimental learning opportunities) to assist in educating about and subsequently mitigating deleterious impacts of social determinants of health. Beyond this I served as an abstract reviewer for our institutions annual Medical Education Conference. All these efforts taken together have resulted in my induction into the Trainee section of the Feinberg Academy of Medical Educators (FAME). 

Most recently, I am working on an ambitious project Dr. Ritu Nayar in the department of pathology to create a curriculum for internal medicine residents to better understand the results of pathology tests and examinations they order. This project has required me to partner with national leaders both in pathology and internal medicine. The goal of this project is to create an educational product that will be useful for early career physicians. We plan to complete the prototype of this program within the year. As a senior resident I focus on my role as teacher and mentor to junior residents and especially medical students. Not only do I feel it is my responsibility to mentor, I gain great joy from the success of those around me.