One of the greatest joys in serving as the president of the Macy Foundation is the opportunity to interact with committed, passionate educators in the health professions from organizations and institutions across the country. And each year, I have the honor of welcoming many of these committed, passionate educators into a single room for the Annual Meeting of the Macy Faculty Scholars. Our Scholars, National Advisory Committee members, Macy staff, and guest speakers learn from one another; we share ideas, we engage in thoughtful discussion, and we leave the meeting feeling energized and inspired, ready to return to our respective corners of the country to continue doing meaningful work in service of our learners, our patients, and the greater public.
This year’s Annual Meeting, which took place in early June in New York City, was particularly powerful, as the group had the opportunity engage in robust, interactive discussions about professional identity formation, character strengths, the Foundation’s priority areas, and professional development topics—all in addition to highlights and updates from our current Scholars about their project work.
Thanks in large part to the guidance of this year’s Annual Meeting Planning Committee, composed of six Scholars, the meeting included more thematic content than ever before. Our keynote speaker, Dr. Lara Varpio, delivered the plenary on “Professional Identity Formation as Immigration” and challenged the group to think deeply about the personal, sometimes painful, work that learners experience in their journeys toward becoming health professionals. She reminded us all not to make the mistake of believing that our students’ professional identity formation begins when they enroll in our schools or to negate all the work that students have done to bring them to the point of matriculation. Emboldened by a safe space of colleagues and fellow educators, our Scholars and National Advisory Committee began to challenge and question the existing “mold” of how health professions education shapes professional identity and also consider what elements might be essential when rebuilding a mold appropriate for today’s learners.
On a personal level, the individual and collective wisdom of our Scholars and National Advisory Committee often challenges me to think critically about the Macy Foundation’s responsibility to the health professions community, as well as think about my own personal contributions to health professions education. This year, in the context of professional identity formation and the concept of “professionalism”—an area that is becoming increasingly polarized—I was asked about my past scholarship related to professionalism. The thoughtful question offered the opportunity to share reflections on how beliefs change and evolve with time and experience.
The new 2023 Scholars had the opportunity to introduce themselves during this year’s Annual Meeting, and I look forward with great anticipation to meeting the next cohort of Scholars who will become part of the powerful conversations that will take place during the 2024 Annual Meeting. During this period of accepting applications to the Macy Faculty Scholars Program, I hope that many of you will take the opportunity to learn more about the program—and perhaps consider applying or sharing the information with a colleague. Keeping in mind that professional identity formation is not a finite experience, I should also note that many of our Scholars applied to the program multiple times before being accepted! Whether you ultimately join the community of Macy Faculty Scholars or not, we hope that each of you will continue the worthy pursuit of bettering health professions education to make the spaces where learning happens more equitable, more inclusive, more collaborative, and more humane.