Dr. Regan is a Teaching Associate Professor in the Department of Health Sciences Education and Pathology at UICOMP. She specializes in medical genetics and contributes to the teaching of physiology and other foundational sciences. She also serves as the college-wide Block 5 lead and co-chairs the Phase 1 Management Committee.
Can you briefly share your educational background, when you joined UICOMP, and the levels of learners you primarily work with?
I went to Bradley for my undergrad work, then completed my PhD at UNC Chapel Hill and a postdoctoral fellowship at Washington University, St. Louis. I joined UICOMP in 2017, just before we launched the integrated curriculum and welcomed our first class of M1s onto campus. Right now, I work pretty exclusively with Phase 1 students, but I’ve been working on co-developing an elective that would be offered in Phase 3.
What inspired you to become a medical educator?
I have always been interested in and enjoyed teaching, but prior to joining UICOMP, I had mostly been focused on laboratory work and research. However, I got quite excited by the chance to switch over to the education side when we were moving back to Peoria. Working with such high-level learners can definitely be challenging, but I enjoy working through reasoning together with our students. And although I personally never had any desire to pursue medicine as a career, it’s very rewarding to think that I’ve had some small part in developing our future physicians who will go on to impact so many patients' lives.
What core values or beliefs shape your teaching?
I think it’s really important to recognize and respect that our learners come to medical school with different levels of experience, learning preferences, and innate abilities to assimilate the massive load of information that comprises their first 18 months of medical school. Every interaction is a chance for me to think of a different way to explain a concept, consider an alternative angle from the student’s view, or to recognize a gap in my own knowledge or understanding.
What’s a teaching moment that’s stuck with you, one that perhaps surprised or challenged you?
I feel like I’m challenged every classroom session! Unfortunately, the moments that seem to stick with me the most are when I mess up - blank on something that I should know or give misleading information and need to correct myself later. But I think those aspects are also important to model - that we aren’t always going to have all the answers, and if you mess up, you have to own up to it and correct yourself.
What’s something you’ve learned from your students that has influenced your teaching?
That all too frequently, their preferences and what they view as effective are very different than what I expect! Sometimes sessions and materials that I think are just ok turn out to be the most valued by students. It’s a good reminder to keep an open mind and try to consider how to reach a variety of styles and preferences.
What inspires you to keep going as an educator?
In medical education, maybe even more than a lot of other fields, there’s a clear and apparent importance to what we do. Not only are we helping develop our learners as future physicians, but we are indirectly impacting all of their future patients as well. And something else that can be both motivating and daunting is that there’s always room for improvement. Every iteration, we can find something to change, and it’s very rewarding when those are successful improvements.
