McGovern shines at Health Science Education Conference
(L-R) Associate Professor Joseph Alcorn, PhD, stands with fellow award winners Hilary Fairbrother, MD, MPH, and J. Chase Findley, MD.
McGovern Medical School was well-represented at the 2025 Innovations in Health Science Education 21st Annual Conference for The University of Texas System Kenneth I. Shine, MD, Academy of Health Science Education, with 40 attendees and a multitude of grant and award winners highlighting the weekend.
A trio of McGovern Medical School faculty were awarded Shine Academy Small Grants, including Chinyere O’Connor, MD, FAAP, assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics, who won for “From Dilemma to Development: Assessing Professional Identity Formation and Resilience in Pediatric Residents.”
Hilary Fairbrother, MD, MPH, professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine, and assistant dean for Educational Programs, won the second-place prize for the Judith Drew Innovation in Health Science Education award for her presentation “From Pandemic to Progress: Reinviting Team-Based Learning at McGovern Medical School.” Fairbrother’s project was a collaboration with Findley, Phillip Carpenter, PhD, professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Joe Alcorn, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Division.
Additionally, McGovern Medical School students and faculty won poster awards for five separate presentations at the conference. Winners and their projects included:
“The 2025 SHINE Academy Annual meeting was, by all accounts, a watershed moment for McGovern Medical School,” said Vineeth John, MD, chair of the Academy of Master Educators and John S. Dunn Professor in the Louis A. Faillace, MD, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, “With Dr. Allison Ownby at the helm, Dr. Findley getting inducted, and our faculty, residents, and students winning major innovation awards and delivering exceptional workshops and poster presentations, McGovern was represented in a truly outstanding fashion.”
The Kenneth I. Shine, MD Academy of Health Science Education was established in 2005 to enhance the educational mission of health science institutions and later renamed in honor of Dr. Kenneth I. Shine, in appreciation of his visionary leadership for founding the academy. Today, the Shine Academy continues to promote excellence in health science education through educational research, scholarship, and leadership development.
This year’s spotlight theme was “Harnessing Technology and Personalized Learning to Improve Health Science Education.” Keynote presentations focused on “Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Health Science Education: Promises, Pitfalls, and Possibilities,” and aimed to inspire innovation in educational settings, address hesitancy around AI, and share best practices for cultivating communities of practice and institutional working groups.