The Paul Weber Award:
Create a Strong Application and Elevate Your Teaching Vision and Goals
to New Heights
Kim Boland,MD, FAAP
Sara Multerer, MD, FAAP
Ronald Fell, PhD, Chair of Biology
Objectives
• Articulate the Mission, Vision, and Values of your department
• Identify areas of strength within your department
• Reflect on your assessment, outreach, and process improvement
within these areas of strength
• Develop a unified message to describe the work within your
department
• Develop a framework for creating a competitive Weber Award
application
• Glean tips for a successful application
Agenda
Brief Introductions
5 minutes
Where do you begin?
15 minutes
Creating the Application
25 minutes
Moving Forward
5 minutes
Questions and Discussion
10 minutes
Mission, Vision, Values
• Mission: Why you exist
• Vision: Where you want to be
• Values: What is important
Mission, Vision, Values…For Example
Pediatrics
Biology
Mission
Excel in the education of future and current
physicians
Provide enhanced learning opportunities in
undergraduate and graduate education
Vision
Prepare the complete physician of
tomorrow
Enhance student learning experiences from
advising to curriculum
Enrich practicing pediatricians of today
Values
Provide ideal faculty, curriculum, and clinical Assess the curriculum
milieu
Promote evidence based learning strategies
Constant innovation in teaching
Reward individual faculty efforts
Motivating individuals to achieve their
highest potential
Part 1: MVV
• Take 10 minutes to think about your mission, vision, values
• Write a brief sentence or phrase to articulate your MVV, focusing on
the core elements
• Take 5 minutes to share these with a colleague or another member of
your table
Thinking about the Application
• Identify areas of strength
• Innovation
• Established excellence
• Assessment – what data do you have to support your good work?
• Outreach
• Local, national, global community
• Collaboration with other departments/schools
• Reflective Critique
• How have you positively or creatively handled challenges
• Taken your assessment data and improved a curriculum
• Constant evaluation of what you are doing
Application…For Example
Area of Strength
Assessment/Data
Outreach
Reflective Critique
Medical Students
Externship program
# students going
into Pediatrics
Students returning
to rural areas of the
Commonwealth
Residents
Crisis Simulation
Qualitative and
Quantitive data –
surveys, pre- and
post-knowledge,
behavior during
“real” crises
Multiple
publications,
expanded to multidisciplinary staff,
outreach to other
hospitals
Added difficult
communication
scenarios and
delivering bad news
Global Health
Long term: caring
for the underserved
Ghana, Ecuador
Samples of resident
reflections
Faculty
Faculty
Development
Program
Shared model with
other departments
within SOM
Application… For Example
Area of
Strength
Assessment/Data
Outreach
Reflective Critique
Undergraduates
Gen. Ed.
BA
BS
Assessment
Assessment Exam
Placement
Curriculum review
Internships
Research Ops
Well Organized
• Regimen
• DGS
Mentor/Student
Progress reviews
Science Fairs
High School Mentors
Great Faculty
Faculty Development
Teaching Award
Student Evaluations
Peer Evaluations
Community Outreach
H.S. Porjects
Sustainability
Led to Endowments
Graduate
MS
PhD
Faculty
• Annual Faculty Retreat
• Faculty Meetings
The Theme
• Unified message that describes who you are
• For Pediatrics:
• Development – one focus of our clinical work as Pediatricians
• Developmental continuum of the learner compared to that of a child
• For Biology:
• Focus was the variety from
Advising to Curriculum
• Probably too broad
Part 2: Create Your Application
• Identify three to five key areas of strength within your department
• Think about how you assess these areas of strength? What data do
you have to support your work in these areas?
• Think about how you are reaching beyond your department in these
areas. (i.e. outreach in the local or national community, collaboration
with other schools or departments)
• Reflective critique: What are the challenges you face? How have you
met previous challenges? Can you think of examples of how your
work is a “continuous quality improvement” process?
• Tie it all together with a unified theme/message
Using the Weber Award to Elevate Good to
Great
• Pediatrics
• Ultrasound Simulation
• Expanded online curriculum for our outpatient pediatrics
• Future directions
• Biology
• Enhanced teaching discussions
• Improved classroom experiences for all
• More collaborative team
Tips for Success: Part 1 Application
• Assemble a good team
• Clear vision with unified theme
• Be creative
• Don’t be afraid to brag!
• Use data as often as possible
Tips for Success: Part 2 Application
• Observations: Choose wisely and showcase your strengths
• Use data but a wide range
•
•
•
•
Surveys
Samples of written reflections
Graphs
Evaluations
• Breadth and depth of your educational impact
• Show that you are moving forward
Questions and Discussion