Our association is a robust and diverse set of educators, students, researchers, medical professionals, volunteers and academics that come from all walks of life and from around the globe. Each month we choose a member to highlight their academic and professional career and see how they are making the best of their membership in IAMSE. This month’s Featured Member is Amy Wilson-Delfosse.
Amy Wilson-Delfosse
Professor, Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Associate Dean for Curriculum, School of Medicine
How long have you been a member of IAMSE?
I have been a member for about 19 years.
Reflecting on your time with the Association, what have you most enjoyed doing? What are you looking forward to?
To be honest, I cannot think of a role, responsibility or activity with IAMSE that I have not enjoyed! I started out as chair of the membership committee, then joined the Board, then became vice president, served as a program chair and then was president of the organization for 4 years. I love attending the conferences and seeing all of my education friends and learning from them. But what I think I enjoy most is supporting my colleagues as they grow and watching the amazing impact they have to make IAMSE the premier international health professions education association! I feel so blessed to have been surrounded by so many amazing educators who have supported me and whom I hope I have supported.
What interesting things are you working on outside of the Association right now?
My day job as associate dean for curriculum at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine keeps me pretty busy! I’m passionate about the use of generative AI to support teaching, learning, and curriculum development and improvement and trying to absorb all I can. I also continue to dedicate my free time to the non-profit medical education company, Aquifer, and serve as the Academic Director for Sciences there. My work with Aquifer has been particularly rewarding as it has allowed me to dedicate creative time developing approaches to integrate the teaching and learning of basic science and clinical medicine and also allows me to spend more time working with so many of my IAMSE friends who are part of the work.
Congratulations on being selected as this year’s recipient of the Finnerty Award! Looking back at your time with IAMSE, what have you been most proud of? Where do you see your impact within the Association?
I am so enormously grateful for being recognized with the Finnerty Award. Honestly, being with my IAMSE family and receiving that award has been the highlight of my career. During my time as an officer, we did a lot to “professionalize” how we run the organization and that has just improved more and more with subsequent Boards and officers. I feel really pleased about the steps that we took to be more welcoming of all health professions educators, particularly working to make our clinician educator colleagues feel valued. Basic science in health professions education is nothing without the context of clinical application!
Anything else that you would like to add?
Just a word of advice to the more junior health professions educators. Engage with IAMSE, I mean, really engage! Participate in meetings by presenting, do the certificate and fellowship programs, but also look for other ways to get involved. This organization can be a really critical piece of your professional advancement, but more importantly, it can be your professional home where you are surrounded by people who will support you and care about you.