Issue 96, April 2026

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about transitions.

Many people conflate change and transitions, but William Bridges, author and organizational change expert, described the difference as: "Change is an event but a transition is the process that you go through in response to the change." Transition is inherently an emotional process that begins with recognizing something is ending, moves through the “neutral or transition zone”- also described as the nowhere between two somewheres – and finally, leads to the hope of new beginnings. | Full Excerpt

The Future of Medical Education Scholarship & Role of Research
Date/Time: Tuesday, April 14, 2025, 3-6PM | Register
Location: Fort Neuroscience Research Building, 4370 Duncan Ave
We are honored to welcome Dr. Louis Pangaro, MD, MACP, our 2026 Goldstein Visiting Professor. Dr. Pangaro is a Professor of Medicine and Chair Emeritus at the Uniformed Services University, and the creator of the RIME framework. He will speak about the future of medical education scholarship and the role of research. Additionally, Drs. Dorothy Andriole, MD, Janice Hanson, PhD, EdS, MH, and Donna Jeffe, PhD will present on the history of MERU/MERE at WashU. A reception will follow.

Clinical Reasoning and Learner Assessment Workshop
Date/Time: Wednesday, April 15, 2026, 12:00-2:00PM | Register
Location: Provided upon registration via calendar invitation
Join us for a lunchtime discussion with Dr. Louis Pangaro, our 2026 Goldstein Visiting Professor. This session will include a focused discussion on clinical reasoning and learner assessment, drawing on Dr. Pangaro’s RIME framework and its application to teaching, supervision, and remediation in undergraduate and graduate medical education. Space is limited.

A full list of WashU graduations can be found here. 

Roy and Diana Vagelos Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences Hooding and Recognition Ceremony
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 12, 2026, 9AM | Details
Location: Danforth Campus, Graham Chapel
Keynote remarks: Dr. Jarrett Glasscock

Doctor of Medicine Commencement Ceremony
Date/Time: Thursday, May 14, 2026, 9AM
Location: Danforth Campus, Field House
Keynote remarks: Dr. Jeffrey Gordon

The School of Medicine, Masters Recognition Ceremony
Date/Time: Thursday, May 14, 2026, 4PM
Location: Eric P. Newman Center, Medical Campus

University-wide Commencement Ceremony
Date/Time: Friday, May 15, 2026, 9AM
Location: Danforth Campus, Olympic Field

Program of Physical Therapy Recognition Ceremony
Date/Time: Friday, May15, 2026, 1:30PM
Location: Royal Sonesta Chase Park Plaza, St. Louis Khorassan Ballroom

Program of Occupational Therapy Recognition Ceremony
Date/Time: Friday, May 15, 2026, 1:30PM
Location: Graham Chapel, Danforth Campus

Program in Audiology & Communication Sciences Recognition Ceremony
Date/Time: Friday, May 15, 2026, 1:30PM
Location: Eric P. Newman Education Center, Medical Campus

Commencement Festival
Date/Time: Friday, May 15, 2026, 9AM
Location: Danforth Campus, Mudd Field extending to Tisch Park

The WashU Medicine Clinical Research Training Center offers robust training for researchers and physician-scientists to develop skills needed to advance medicine and improve human health. Learn more about our two-year postbaccalaureate mentored research program advanced training opportunities in clinical investigation, and be sure to join us April 14 as we wrap up the 2025-2026 CRTC Career Development Seminar Series with Keith Lohse, PhD, PStatⓇ. | More info

2026 Awards Nominations
Deadline: Tuesday, May 5, 2026 | Criteria & Submission Details
Nominations are open for the 2026 Lifetime Achievement, Exemplary Educator, and Rising Star awards, recognizing outstanding contributions by WashU faculty in health and basic sciences education. Awards are given at the annual Academy of Educators Ceremony held on October 8, 2026. Please read the Award Criteria Matrix carefully and use the required format to give your nominee the best chance of success.

Education Day '26 Breakout Proposals
Deadline: Thursday, March 12, 2026 | Submit a Proposal
The 2026 theme is Teaching in Times of Uncertainty: Opportunities, Challenges, and Emerging Ideas. All proposals that fit this theme will be considered. Interprofessional collaboration is welcome.

Application Deadline: Sunday, May 31, 2026, 11:59pm | Apply to TSP
The Teaching Scholars Program is a certificate program intended for health professions faculty who wish to obtain scholarly expertise in curriculum development, design, and evaluation. The program consists of twice-monthly seminars on Thursday afternoons during the 2026-2027 academic year, a curriculum project completed under faculty mentorship/guidance, and a capstone presentation event.

Application Deadline: July 10, 2026 | Apply to PD Bootcamp
Applications are open for the 2026-2027 Program Director Bootcamp. This certificate program is open to new, aspiring, and experienced residency and fellowship PDs from both accredited and non-ACGME accredited programs as well as current Associate Program Directors. This course aims to enhance GME knowledge, foster connections with other GME leaders, develop new skills, and tackle common PD challenges. This course includes 11 monthly sessions: 10 half-day sessions on Wednesdays from 1-4pm and one full-day session in the spring. 80% attendance is necessary to achieve the certificate.

Date/Time: Thursday, April 9, 2026, 11AM-6PM
Location: Farrell Learning & Teaching Center Atrium, Connor Auditorium | More Information
The Roy and Diana Vagelos Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences is co-hosting the 4th Annual INSPIRE Conference (Interdisciplinary Conference for Networking, Supporting, and Promoting Inclusive Research Endeavors). This event is in collaboration with the WashU Medicine Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Association of Black Biomedical Graduate Students; Graduate Association of Latinx, Native American and Caribbean Students; and Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science.

Date/Time: Friday, April 10, 2026, 8AM-4:15PM
Location: St. Louis Club, 7676 Forsyth Blvd.
This medical business ethics conference will include topics that engage the healthcare and ethics community. There will be five panels with panelists who are clinician leaders, healthcare administrators, attorneys and ethicists. | More Information

Date: April 13, 2026, 11:15AM-1:15PM | More Information
Location: Eric P. Newman Center | Register
The Institute for Informatics, Data Science and Biostatistics (I2DB) is pleased to announce its annual symposium. The keynote speaker for the 2026 symposium will be Marina Sirota, PhD. Dr. Sirota serves as a professor and interim director of the Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute at the University of California, San Francisco.

Date/Time: Tuesday, May 5, 2026, 4-8PM | Register
Location: Farrell Learning & Teaching Center |Submit an Abstract
We are excited to announce an indigenous health summit hosted at the WashU Medical campus. This symposium aims to bring together students and faculty members dedicated to improving health outcomes in indigenous communities. The event will include student poster presentations, selected student oral presentations, a faculty panel and group discussion, and a plenary speaker session. Undergraduate, master’s, graduate, medical, PT and OT students as well as residents and fellows are invited to submit abstracts for consideration. Questions? Contact Meagan Chriswell at cmeagan@wustl.edu or Mansi Garneni at g.mansi@wustl.edu

Dates: May 6-9, 2026 | Submit an Abstract
Location: Eric P. Newman Education Center | Register
WashU is excited to host the first International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Cognition, Aging, and Speech Communication (CASC). This conference is appropriate for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty, and other scientists working in the fields of aging, cognition, and communication sciences and disorders. | Attendance fees: Faculty $650, Post-doctoral Fellows & Graduate Students $350 | Questions? Contact Kate McClannahan, AuD, PhD | More Information

Date/Time: Thursday, April 9, 2026, 4-6PM | Register
Location: The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, 1 Brookings Dr
Explore the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum on Wash U’s Danforth Campus with CIPE. Consider stories told or imagined through artworks on view, and how they intersect with your stories and those of your peers. Presented by Kira Hegeman, PhD, and  Yoko Kiyoi, MA.

View details & register for all events here. 

Education Scholarship next session: Wednesday, March 11, 2026

Teaching w/ Joy & Creativity Series: Begins Monday, March 30, 2026

Education Coordinator for Continuing Medical Education, Michelle Padgett, MS, ATC, has served as a school board member for Bayless School District for 15 years. Padgett recently volunteered during National Read Across America Day at the Bayless Early Childhood Center reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? to the children in the Orange Room. "I'm passionate about education at every stage of life. Reading is the basis of learning so reading to our youngest Bayless students is one of my favorite things to do," said Padgett.

WashU Medicine students Leah Tolby, Kamal Kolluri, and Syeda Jannath research resources to assist patients in meeting their healthcare goals.

The WashU Sickle Cell Hotspotting Group is a new, interprofessional initiative dedicated to supporting patients living with Sickle Cell Disease. Hotspotting is an approach that specifically targets complex health and social needs patients may face outside of the hospital, such as challenges with accessing medications, identifying social supports, and finding transportation to and from visits. Our volunteers meet with patients outside of their regularly scheduled clinical appointments to equip them with strategies to limit future hospitalizations. This group consists of medical, occupational therapy and graduate students as well as residents. To learn more or volunteer, email: cickad@wustl.edu

 Carolyn Dufault, PhD

Amanda Emke, MD, MHPE

Amanda R. Emke, MD, MHPE and Carolyn L. Dufault, PhD are part of a multi-institutional team awarded a $1.1 million grant from the AMA ChangeMedEd Precision Education initiative to support their project, “Enhancing Precision Education Using ‘Feed-Back’ and ‘Feed-Forward’ Learning Analytics Data Systems." The project aims to improve learner preparedness for residency training by developing meaningful precision signals that integrate medical school and residency outcomes to create data-driven learning analytics. Their multisite project leverages the expertise, resources, and data infrastructure of 15 collaborating institutions and builds upon prior work identifying medical school to residency predictive variations.

Casey Reimer, PhD

Casey Reimer, PhD, Director of Deaf Education and Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology, delivered her presentation “Retaining High-Quality Teachers in Deaf Education,” co‑authored with Amanda Rudge, PhD, Clinical Education Coordinator for Deaf Education, at the 2026 Council for Exceptional Children conference. Dr. Reimer was also honored with the Division for Communication, Language, and Deaf/Hard of Hearing (DCD) Excellence Award. In addition, Dr. Reimer and PACS alumna Krista Rey (MSDE ’17) participated in the DCD Board meeting, contributing to the national conversation about advancing education for all students with exceptionalities including those who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Timothy Yau, MD

Bethany Sacks, MD, MEd, FACS

The graduating Medicine class of 2026 has selected two individuals, one preclinical faculty and one full-time clinical faculty, to receive a Teacher of the Year Award. This year’s Pre-Clinical Teacher of the Year is Timothy Yau, MD of the Division of Nephrology in the Department of Medicine. Bethany Sacks, MD, MEd, FACS, of the Division of General Surgery in the Department of Surgery, has been named the Sydney S. Pearl, MD, ’32, Clinical Teacher of the Year.

Angela Aromando (Supervising Teacher), Wes Blythe, and Casey Reimer, PhD (PACS Director of Deaf Education).

We are thrilled to announce that Wes Blythe, a 2nd-year MSDE student, has been named a 2026 Missouri Teacher Leader of Tomorrow by the Missouri Milken Educators! As an aspiring teacher of the deaf or hard of hearing, Wes has demonstrated outstanding leadership, a dedication to student success, and a deep commitment to the profession. He will receive a year of coaching and one-on-one mentorship from a Missouri Milken Educator, a teacher who has been nationally recognized by the Foundation for outstanding achievement in the classroom.

Alyssa Labonte, a 5th year PhD candidate in the Neurosciences program planning to graduate in Spring 2026, has earned the John E. Majors Award. Labonte has been completing her dissertation research in the lab of Dr. Chad Sylvester, in the Department of Psychiatry, where she uses precision functional MRI to study the development of functional brain organization in early infancy. Her focus is on understanding how the brain is organized into cortical areas and large-scale functional systems around birth and the extent to which this organization is specific to individuals. | About the Award

Rebekah Colson joined the Medical Education Research and Evaluation (MERE) unit as a Data Coordinator on January 20. She will be working on program evaluation data for the Gateway Curriculum including evaluation and reports, and will also assist with honest brokering and data requests for medical education research. Rebekah has been at WashU for over 8 years.

Brad Parton joined the Office of Medical Student Education (OMSE) as the Curriculum Phase 1 Manager on March 9. He transitioned from WashU Arts and Sciences in the Department of Art History and Archaeology where he was a Curriculum Coordinator. He has been in higher education for 8 years. Brad will work with faculty, staff and students to ensure the Phase 1 Curriculum operates smoothly and cohesively. 

Sarah Friesz joined the Office of Medical Student Education (OMSE) as the Office Manager on March 9. She has extensive experience in medical and higher education and we welcome her to WashU. Sarah will support the Gateway Curriculum governance structure, office operations, and compliance-related tasks/projects and will bring her experience and organizational expertise to ensure the suite is a welcoming place for all visitors while running efficiently and effectively.

Lenin Grajo, PhD, OTR/L, CLA, FAOTA

Abby Kehrer-Dunlap, PhD student

Kerri Morgan, PhD, OTR/L, ATP

Grajo named Director of Entry-Level Master of Science and Doctor of OT Programs
Lenin C. Grajo, PhD, OTR/L, CLA, FAOTA has been named Director of the Entry-Level Master of Science and Doctor of Occupational Therapy Programs. This is an official title recognition to expand his current role as Director of the Division of Professional Education for external facing entities including the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) and the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy. Dr. Grajo has overseen the entry-level programs since he joined WashU OT in 2022.

Kehrer-Dunlap Accepted into ESCAAR Program
Rehabilitation and Participation Science (RAPS) PhD student Abby Kehrer-Dunlap was accepted into the Entrepreneurship and Science Communication for Aging and Aging-Related Research (ESCAAR) Program, a highly competitive 10-month fellowship through the University of Maryland for doctoral and postdoctoral trainees with a defined research focus in aging or age-related topics.

Morgan Lab Receives 2026 Provost Impact Award
Associate Professor Kerri Morgan’s Enabling Mobility in the Community Lab will receive the 2026 Provost Impact Award for their work program: "Wheelchair user physical activity training intervention to enhance cardiometabolic health (WATCH): A community-based randomized control trial." The award will be given at this year’s William H. Danforth St. Louis Confluence Award ceremony later this month. | About the Confluence Awards

In March, medical students, faculty, and staff gathered to celebrate the 2026 Distinguished Service Teaching Awards (DSTA) recipients. This student-led event honors faculty for their outstanding contributions to medical education. In total, 11 Phase One and 10 Phase Two awards were conferred including the Humanism in Medicine Award given to Lindsay Kranker, MD, from the Department of Surgery. | Full List of Honorees

This ASME article, co-authored by WashU Medicine Assistant Dean for Student Success and Access Kristina Petersen, PhD, examines time-limited tests. These tests remain a standard in medical education, but evidence shows that strict time constraints can undermine fairness and validity by disadvantaging capable students who need more time, while research does not support the idea that faster test-takers make better clinical decisions. To improve equity and accuracy, experts recommend removing time pressure—such as by offering extended time to all examinees—and using technology and thoughtful test design to maintain efficiency. | Full Article

Manage your preferences | Unsubscribe
Got this as a forward? Sign up to receive our future emails.