Centre for Faculty Development

Day 3 of TforT marked the end of an energizing conference centered on purposeful learning, authentic engagement, and reimagining how we shape transformational spaces for students and educators.

We are grateful to everyone who contributed their stories, curiosity, and courage. Looking forward to the next Tfort already!

Day 2 of the Teaching for Transformation Conference was filled with inspiring short talks and engaging workshops. Thank you to all of the presenters and facilitators who shared their knowledge!

Photos from Day 1 of our Teaching for Transformation Conference with the Centre for Advancing Collaborative Healthcare and Education!

Day 1 was filled with talks on Trust and Trustworthiness, Redistributing Care, and Education Design for Systems Transformation from our amazing speakers Maya Goldenberg, Sabrina Deutsch Salamon, Aaron Orkin, Munira Abdulwasi, Aman Sium, & Nicole Woods; and building connections in our community.

Stay tuned for more updates from the rest of the conference.

Leadership in medicine is often framed in terms of skills and competencies. Yet many of the challenges clinicians face require something deeper: character. This session introduces character-based leadership as a complementary and necessary lens for understanding leadership in health professions education and clinical practice.

Drawing on the Leader Character framework, the session will explore how character-based leadership differs from competency-focused models, with particular attention to courage as a core dimension of character. The session will share insights from a narrative study exploring acts of courage in medicine, offering concrete stories that illuminate how clinicians recognize and enact courage. Participants will be invited to reflect on these narratives and consider how courage might be cultivated and enacted within their own professional and leadership roles.

👤 Speaker: Dr. Jacqueline Torti
🗓️ Date: March 10, 2026
⏰ Time: 12PM - 1PM ET
💻 Location: Online
🔗 Register: https://centreforfacdev.ca/events/?eventtemplate=522-character-and-courage-foundations-of-leadership-in-medicine

Best Practices in Education Rounds (BPER) are co-hosted by the CFD, The Wilson Centre and Centre for Advancing Collaborative Healthcare & Education (CACHE).

Our upcoming workshop 'Our Evolving Professional Values' engages participants in reflective activities and discussions about desirable and undesirable professional behaviours and the bi-directional relationships that exist between these behaviours, healthcare professional wellness, and the creation of psychologically and culturally safe environments.

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to describe the characteristics of psychologically and culturally safe healthcare environments; analyse the relationships that exist between such environments and individual wellness and adherence to professional values; and, identify knowledge and skills required to support professional values in their own careers and institutions and to develop a learning plan to support their acquisition.

👤 Facilitated by: Pier Bryden, Meeta Patel
🗓️ Date: March 2, 2026
⏰ Time: 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET
💻 Location: Online
🔗 Register: https://centreforfacdev.ca/events/?eventtemplate=1-our-evolving-professional-values-using-positionality-and-relationship-to-ensure-inclusive-environments-for-all

Late Career Community of Practice - Session 6
Physician Identity and the Mind-Body Connection

This interactive presentation will explore the challenges and opportunities of having a strong work identity and taking care of the body. For physicians, the relationship between work and personal life can have far-reaching implications for individuals and the healthcare system. Any form of transition for a physician is important for personal reasons; however, it can also have repercussions for patients, interrupting continuity in patient care, and affect members of allied healthcare teams.

As more of us are living longer, thinking about work identity and work transitions has become an increasingly relevant topic. Longevity also prompts the need to think more carefully and critically about how to keep aging bodies healthy. While evidence suggests that regular exercise is the most important modifiable factor that can increase the chances of aging with agility, some of us exercise enthusiastically and others of us avoid it like the plague. This talk will examine work identity in a way that is linked to exercise and somatic processes drawing from Michelle Pannor Silver, Ph.D.’s recent book Aging with Agility, and findings from Retirement and Its Discontents.

👤 Speaker: Michelle Silver and Moderator: Karen Leslie
🗓️ Date: March 26, 2026
⏰ Time: 5:00PM - 6:15PM ET
💻 Location: Online
🔗 Register: https://centreforfacdev.ca/events/?eventtemplate=518-late-career-community-of-practice-physician-identity-and-the-mind-body-connection

Research Roundup:

With the launch of the Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health, researchers at the Centre for Faculty Development (CFD) are examining faculty development not simply as the delivery of educational offerings, but as a practice that shapes culture, builds capacity, and supports system integration.

Learn more here ---> https://centreforfacdev.ca/ongoing-research-study-update-faculty-development-as-a-practice-that-shapes-culture-builds-capacity-and-supports-system-integration-in-clinical-education/

Congratulations to Dr. Latika Nirula, recipient of the AFMC Award for Outstanding Contribution to Faculty Development!

For more than fifteen years, Latika has been dedicated to advancing faculty development at a local, national, and international level. Through her innovative leadership, strong commitment to equity, and collaborative approach, she has transformed educational practices and strengthened communities.

Read about her impact here --> https://centreforfacdev.ca/latika-nirula-afmc-award/

CFD researchers published a new article examining how anti-oppression-focused faculty development programs are designed, implemented, and sustained in health professions education. The study explores how faculty developers navigate tensions between institutional priorities, pedagogical commitments, and broader efforts toward cultural change.

Learn more here ---> https://centreforfacdev.ca/new-study-in-medical-teacher-navigating-tensions-in-anti-oppression-focused-faculty-development/

*TEACHING FOR TRANSFORMATION CONFERENCE EARLY BIRD DEADLINE: JAN 31ST*

At the 2026 Teaching for Transformation Conference, we focus on trust as principle, purpose, and action. By connecting with our communities, honouring lived experience, and drawing from evidence, we aim to create learning spaces that transform not only education, but also our
health system toward a more trustworthy ideal.

The conference will feature speakers including:

Aaron Orkin
Aman Sium
Ed Conners
Kathryn Parker
Lindsay Baker
Maya Goldenberg
Munira Abdulwasi
Nicole Woods
Randy Boyagoda
Sabrina Deutsch Salamon
Stella Ng
Stephanie Nixon
Yasser Ismail

The TforT Conference is committed to financial accessibility. We have been working on ways to ensure that anyone who wants to attend can do so, and our approach has continued to evolve. If you have previously reached out about financial accessibility, or if you require support and none of our existing discounted registration rates are feasible, please contact us (again) at [email protected]. For those who are able, registration at our standard rates helps make this flexibility possible. However, if your financial circumstances have changed since you registered, please contact us as soon as possible so we can work with you.

🗓️ Date: March 9-11, 2026
⏰ Time: 9:00AM-4:00PM ET
💻 Location: Online or In-Person
🔗 Register: https://lnkd.in/gJ7ERXB7

Centre for Advancing Collaborative Healthcare & Education (CACHE)

Membership Mondays is for CFD members to engage in informal conversations on emerging curiosities, questions and tensions within health professions education. In our upcoming session, we will discuss the topic of Trust in Health Professions Education.

Our community will share experiences, tackle the challenges of building trust, and explore strategies to create a growth oriented feedback culture.

🗓️ Date: Feb 23, 12-1pm ET
💻 Location: Virtual
🔗 Register: https://centreforfacdev.ca/workshop-catalogue/508-trust-in-health-professions-education-can-learning-thrive-without-it/

Reimagine learning with Course Design Institute!

This two-day Course Design Institute (CDI), offered jointly by the Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation (CTSI) and CFD introduces frameworks and practical strategies to offer more inclusive, accessible, and flexible learning opportunities to your students using the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

🗓️ Dates: June 4 & 5, 2026, 9 am–4:30 pm
⏰ Applications due: April 8, 2026
💻 Location: Blackburn Room, Robarts Library (4th floor), 130 St. George Street
🔗 Register: https://teaching.utoronto.ca/cdi/