McGovern Shines at Health Science Education Conference
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.
J. Chase Findley, MD, associate professor in the Louis A. Faillace, MD, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and assistant dean of Accreditation and Educational Quality Improvement, completed the Shine Academy New Member Nomination Process and was selected as a member of the Shine Academy. Findley received three independent reviews conducted by the Membership Committee over a one-month period to complete the process and joins Christine Markham, PhD, chair of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences at the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, as a new member for 2024-25.
A trio of McGovern Medical School faculty were awarded Shine Academy Small Grants, including Mihir Patel, MD, associate professor in the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging, for the project, “Ultrasound Simulation Training: An Innovative Approach to Enhance Competency and Patient Safety.” Additionally, Krislynn Mueck, MD, MPH, MS, assistant professor in the Department of Surgery, won for “Clinical Language Evaluation with AI for Residents (CLEAR),” and Chinyere O’Connor, MD, FAAP, assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics, 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.
Additionally, McGovern Medical School students and faculty won poster awards for five separate presentations at the conference. Winners and their projects included:
- Isha Parikh, Richa John, and Irene Stafford, MD
“Boosting Confidence and Competency in Maternal Health Counseling: A Clinical Education Model for Medical Students Serving in Underserved Communities” - Sydney Brand, Cassidy Edwards, Alberto Bueso-Perez, Jonathan Le, and Panayiotis Kontoyiannis
“Evaluating the Impact of a Summer Research Program on Residency and Career Outcomes: A 10-Year Retrospective Analysis” - Bansari Rajani, Alana Cecchi, MS, CGC, Dianna Milewicz, MD, PhD, and Siddarth Prakash, MD
“Efficacy and Impact of the UTHealth Houston Adult Cardiovascular Genomics Certificate Program on Non-Genetic Healthcare Professionals: A Two-Year Evaluation” - Zuha Khan, Amber Maredia, Olivia Tran, Jordan Jafarnia, Ashna Karpe, and Karen Zhang
“Advancing Refugee Health through Student-Led Educational Initiatives and Interprofessional Collaboration” - Lucia Martinez-Sanchez, Valerie Lomonte, Asia Bright, Renee Flores
“Exploring Medical Spanish Confidence, Proficiency, and Attitudes in Pre-Health Professional Students”
“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 was 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.