DGSOM Medical Education Day

Workshop Description: Raising awareness of ableism and its manifestation in medical education is essential for enabling leaders, faculty, and learners to recognize, address, and dismantle ableist barriers. This session will review the origins of ableism, placing it within the broader context of structural and personal biases. Participants will engage in interactive exercises designed to crystallize the concept of ableism and illustrate its impact on learners’ experiences, from admissions through training. The session will also provide actionable anti-ableist strategies to promote a more inclusive and equitable educational environment for all learners.

Lead Facilitator: Lisa M. Meeks, PhD, MA is an Associate Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School and the executive director of the DocsWithDisabilities Initiative. Her work helps inform policy and best practice in disability inclusion for medical education, training, and practice. Dr. Meeks is the lead author of AAMC Special Report: Accessibility, Inclusion, and Action in Medical Education: Lived Experiences of Learners and Physicians with Disabilities, co-creator of the social media campaign #DocsWithDisabilites, and founder and co-host of the DocsWithDisabilities Podcast. 

Workshop Description: In development

Lead Facilitator: Tina Mosaferi, MD is the Core Educator for the Scientific Foundations of Medicine (SFM) Endocrine Theme at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. After receiving her medical degree from Harvard Medical School, Dr. Tina Mosaferi completed her Internal Medicine Residency and Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism Fellowship training at UCLA. As a Clinical Instructor in the Department of Medicine, she works in both the Division of Primary Care and the Division of Endocrinology. Dr. Mosaferi values caring for our veterans within the Greater Los Angeles VA Healthcare System, and she notably serves as the Clinical Lead for the Sepulveda VA Endocrine Clinic. Her dedication to clinical care is paralleled by a longstanding passion for medical education. Dr. Mosaferi has delivered numerous original conferences and small-group didactics to medical students, residents, and fellows and was most recently recognized by the UCLA Internal Medicine Residency Program with the 2023 Outstanding Subspecialty Teaching Award. With the goal of further supporting trainees during their career milestones, Dr. Mosaferi is also the Assistant Director of the UCLA Internal Medicine Residency Professional Development Coaching Program and the Chair of the Fellow Career Development Committee of the Clinical Association of California Endocrinologists. 

Workshop Description: Faculty, housestaff, and administrative staff play a critical role in a learners experience and are in a position to notice and respond when a learner is in distress. This presentation will help participants understand how to identify learners in need of assistance; what resources are available to learners; how to approach learners in distress and assist them in getting connected with resources; emergency procedures; and how to reach professional staff for consultation regarding distressed or distressing students. 

Lead Facilitators: Anthony Chambers, LMFT & Jean Wang, LCSW, licensed clinicians with the Behavioral Wellness Center. The Behavioral Wellness Center provides personalized confidential mental health care for learners completing their training at DGSOM. The BWC is committed to practicing in a way that recognizes how racial, political, cultural, and spiritual processes operate on implicit, explicit, institutional, and individual levels to impact minoritized populations, populations of color, and LGBTQ communities' experiences. Behavioral Wellness Center staff at David Geffen School of Medicine are comprised of professionals from diverse cultures and backgrounds. BWC clinicians have experience with mental health issues, and offer expertise in a variety of modalities to improve well-being.

Panel Description: By the end of this session, participants will be able to describe the principles of educational scholarship, characterize features of educational innovations, and list strategies for maximizing publication potential. 

Panelists: 

• Yue-Ming Huang, EdD, MHS
• Rashmi Mullur, MD
• Aparna Sridhar, MD
• Christine K. Thang, MD

Moderator: Sarah Larson, MS

Pre-work & Required Materials: Workshop participants should plan to bring their own laptops and sign up for UCLA Microsoft Copilot using their MedNet or UCLA email in advance of the session. 

Workshop Description: In development

Lead Facilitators: Serena K. Wang, MD is an Assistant Professor in Internal Medicine and serves as one of the Educators for Excellence, a small group of accomplished and dedicated faculty teachers with expertise in small group facilitation who work with students longitudinally providing career and clinical coaching. She is a leading educator in developing the evidence-based medicine curriculum at DGSOM and is passionate about utilizing artificial intelligence in medical education. Dr. Wang completed her medical school training at Northwestern University in Chicago and her Internal Medicine residency at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. 

Anders Olav Garlid, Ph.D., earned his BSc in Biochemistry and Philosophy and MSc in Biology (cardiovascular and mitochondrial physiology) at Portland State University, diving headlong into research on intra-cellular and intra-mitochondrial cardioprotective signaling in ischemia reperfusion injury. Dr. Garlid earned his Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular, & Integrative Physiology (MCIP) at UCLA in 2019 under the guidance of Dr. Peipei Ping. He channeled his passion for physiology into exploring computational scientific research and biomedical applications. During his doctoral studies, he built natural language processing (NLP) pipelines that analyzed a vast collection of clinical case reports. This work aimed to characterize and distinguish rare mitochondrial diseases based on their clinical presentations, laboratory values, and medical narratives.

Building upon these efforts, Dr. Garlid has shifted his focus to biomedical informatics and education as a Postdoctoral Scholar at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine (DGSOM) under the mentorship of Dr. Alex Bui. His current work encompasses AI/ML development, evaluation, and implementation, with a focus on bias mitigation and ethical AI (EtAI), as well as standardization of development processes and documentation. Dr. Garlid is deeply committed to mentorship, education, and interdisciplinary collaboration in biomedical AI for students, faculty, clinical teams, and health systems. With the advent of generative AI (GenAI) and large language models (LLMs), he is excited about the future of biomedical informatics and the tremendous opportunities it presents in both clinical settings and education.

So Many Accommodations! How Did We Get Here and Where Are We Headed
Resources to Create an Inclusive Medical Education Experience

Workshop Description: In development

Lead Facilitators: Grace Clifford, MAEd is the Director for Disability Services at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine. Born and raised in Cleveland, Grace is a double alumnus of Baldwin Wallace University where she received her undergraduate degree in Psychology (’09) and a Masters in Leadership in Higher Education (’11). She has authored and co-authored several publications and pending publications regarding disability accommodation determination and disability access; including chapters in: Principles and Practice of College Health (Vaughn & Viera, 2020), Equal Access for Students with Disabilities: The Guide for Health Science and Professional Education, Second Edition (Meeks, Jain, Laird, 2020), and Disability as Diversity (Meeks & Neal-Boylan, 2020). Her current research focuses on developing group models to support students with executive functioning and psychological based disabilities, barriers to seeking accommodations for under-resourced students, and improving disability access in health science and professional education.

Workshop Description: Introduction to Specialty ACEs and the Residency Match Advising workshop will explore the available programming, career advising, and Match support resources for medical students at DGSOM. The Specialty Advisors for Career Exploration (ACE) program launched in 2021 to enhance career development opportunities for medical students at all levels. We will discuss the new ERAS application components, strategies for advising students on their past experiences (meaningful experiences and other impactful experiences), and discuss case scenarios to help guide future advising and mentorship. This workshop is for Specialty ACEs, mentors/advisors for medical students interested in matching into a residency program, and anyone interested in the advising process! 

Lead Facilitators: 
Jason Bergschneider is the Residency Application Counselor in the Student Affairs Office at DGSOM. Jason supports medical students as they navigate the residency application process and has a wealth of experience with ERAS, the NRMP, and the early Match systems.

Aurora Reyes, MAEd is the Director for Career Development and Well-Being in the Student Affairs Office at DGSOM. Aurora coordinates the Specialty ACEs program and is a leader on the career advising team for medical students at DGSOM. 

Workshop Description: This workshop will review evidence-based strategies educators can implement to help create community and foster an inclusive and effective learning environment. 

Lead Facilitators: 

JoAnn Roberts, PhD, is the Senior Associate Director of Professional Development for Equitable Teaching & Cultural Change at the UCLA Center for Education Innovation & Learning in the Sciences (CEILS). She received her doctorate in Molecular and Cellular Biology and Pathobiology from the Medical University of South Carolina and continued to enhance her skills as a postdoc in the Stein Eye Institute at UCLA before shifting to STEM Education Development & Research. Dr. Roberts has years of teaching experience in the Biology discipline, is a nationally certified facilitator for mentor/mentee training, and has developed and led numerous workshops at UCLA and other universities on advancing inclusive, equitable, and antiracist pedagogical practices in the STEMM classroom.  

Natasha Wheaton, MD, is the Assistant Director for Curricular Affairs and an Associate Clinical Professor in Emergency Medicine. Dr. Wheaton completed her medical school and Emergency Medicine residency training at Northwestern University in Chicago and is currently completing her MBA at UCLA-Anderson School of Management. She has particular interest in medical education at both the undergraduate and graduate medical education level. Dr. Wheaton is the Course Director for the MS1 Basecamp Orientation course and MS3 Discovery course at DGSOM. She serves on the Council of Experts in Curriculum Development with the national Foundations of Emergency Medicine, which creates and provides free, open-access, comprehensive curricula and instructional practices for Emergency Medicine trainees.