Our association is a robust and diverse set of educators, 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 Sean Herrin, DC.

Sean Herrin, DC
Associate Professor, Department of Basic Sciences
University of Western States
Portland, Oregon, USA

How long have you been a member of IAMSE?
I’ve been a member since 2015. I began with the Essential Skills in Medical Education (ESME) training with Ron Harden and Adi Haramati. But even before then I did Mind-Body Medicine training at Georgetown University with Adi in 2012.

In your years with the association, what have you been up to?
I serve on the Membership committee as well as serving as a reviewer for Medical Science Educator. I’m also a reviewer for the Journal of Chiropractic Education. I actually received training on being a journal reviewer through MSE at the annual meeting. I’m actively working on a research paper with Amber Heck through the Fellowship program.

Fantastic! What’s the focus of that research?
The project we are working on is an extension of three years of survey research on student distress and burnout, depression and substance abuse. We are working together to combine everything into a presentation and written work to hopefully get published. I’m getting some support (from Amber) but more importantly I’m getting encouragement…from people who are doing the same sorts of things who have a proactive educational attitude.

As a multi-year member, what is a standout benefit that keeps you engaged in IAMSE?
As an educator from the chiropractic field – everyone just being so open and so collaborative has been amazing. You won’t believe how much you get just from sitting at lunch with faculty from other schools. It’s the intangibles that I value more than even specific technique. The broadening of my horizons of what’s being done in our field and the cross pollination is great. For (chiropractic), we’re just a much smaller industry and (IAMSE) has really helped us broaden our horizons. As a clinician coming into a teaching environment, I’ve learned more about what I do in the last three years with IAMSE than in the previous twelve years.

Want to learn more about our collaborative Fellowship program? Click here!

Our association is a robust and diverse set of educators, 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 Rob Carroll, PhD.

Robert G. Carroll earned his Ph.D. in 1981 under the direction of Dr. David F. Opdyke at the Department of Physiology of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Newark. Following a 3 year post-doc at University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, MS under the sponsorship of Drs. Thomas E. Lohmeier and Arthur C. Guyton, he moved to East Carolina University in 1984 as an Assistant Professor of Physiology. He is currently Professor of Physiology at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, and holds an administrative appointment as Associate Dean for Medical Student Education.

For the first 20 years of his career, Rob balanced an active research lab with his teaching and administrative duties. About 10 years ago, the research balance shifted to research in teaching and learning, and now administrative duties have limited the time available for research. Apart from his bench research publications, Rob has published 21 peer reviewed education manuscripts, edited one book, is a section editor for a Medical-Surgical Nursing textbook, and published “Elsevier’s Integrated Physiology” in 2007 and “Problem-Based Physiology” in 2010.

IAMSE was a critical part of Rob’s professional development. Rob was on the founding Board of Directors for IAMSE, served as the first secretary and as a member chair of the IAMSE membership committee. Prior to IAMSE founding, each professional society had groups interested in education, but IAMSE provided a valuable forum for interdisciplinary education conversations.

Rob was selected for the 2018 AAMC Robert Glaser Award for his contributions to medical education. He has also received the Arthur C. Guyton Physiology Educator of the Year from the American Physiological Society in 2004 and the Outstanding Alumni Award from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in 2005.