Poetry Corner

• W. S. Merwin: To the New Year

Your Turn

• This Week's Reflection Prompt: What is your new year's resolution?



Upcoming Events/Announcements

To the New Year

By W. S. Merwin

With what stillness at last

you appear in the valley

your first sunlight reaching down

to touch the tips of a few

high leaves that do not stir

as though they had not noticed

and did not know you at all

then the voice of a dove calls

from far away in itself

to the hush of the morning

so this is the sound of you

here and now whether or not

anyone hears it this is

where we have come with our age

our knowledge such as it is

and our hopes such as they are

invisible before us

untouched and still possible

Congratulations to Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment (AHW) Seed Grant Winners

The Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment (AHW) will fund 31 projects selected through a competitive application process focused on promising biomedical research and community-based initiatives to improve Wisconsin residents' health and well-being.

During its Aug. 1 – Sept. 12, 2022 application period, AHW received 40 proposals seeking Seed Grant funding, with 31 submissions receiving approval by the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) Consortium on Public and Community Health, the AHW Research and Education Advisory Committee, and MCW Board of Trustees – AHW's three oversight bodies.

Congratulations to several members of the Kern Institute that have been selected to receive Seed Grant Funding from AHW. To learn more about these projects, visit the funded projects page on the AHW website.

Lawrence University's 'Doing Nothing' course; many things are learned

Drs. Cassie Ferguson and Himanshu Agrawal were interviewed for a story on a "Doing Nothing" course at Lawrence University in Appleton.

Join a campus-wide educators’ community read of Thanks for the Feedback, by Douglas Stone & Sheila Heen 

As a key component of the new MCWfusion Curriculum set to launch in July 2023, we will discuss strategies for preparing for, seeking, understanding, and applying feedback – and consider how we might help our students develop these skills as part of their personal and professional development. This book is full of practical tips that we can also adapt in our own practices of giving and receiving feedback. 

As we understand how busy everyone is, we plan to offer several different ways to interact as a community in book discussions – including asynchronous/online discussions, virtual sessions, and shared reflective writing. Everyone who signs up for this will receive invitations to participate using all methods. While these are not mandatory, we hope that the output of these community discussions will enhance our shared understanding of the topic and lead to enhancement of our MCW learning environments. 

We have many print copies of the book available to use throughout the Spring 2023 semester – though we will ask all of you who receive a book from us to gift it back to an incoming MCWfusion student with a message welcoming them to our community in July 2023, so they can begin their work to develop this skill. Please complete this Qualtrics survey if you are interested in participating and would like a book supplied to you. 

The read is also available on Audible if you’d like to purchase the audio version on your own. Here is a sneak peek as found on Amazon.

Please contact Marty Muntz with any questions.

Letters of Intent for Kern Medical Education Transformation Collaboratories now being Accepted

We are pleased to announce that we are now accepting Letters of Intent for the second cohort of Medical Education Transformation Collaboratories, a research funding opportunity for audacious ideas to transform medical education. Funded by the Kern Institute for the Transformation of Medical Education at the Medical College of Wisconsin, this grant opportunity provides funding and a community of practice for transforming medical education through the values of caring, character, and competence. Please see the attached Request for Proposals for full details and submission instructions. 

Letters of Intent are due Friday, January 13, 2023. All letters will be reviewed, and all will receive feedback. 

Full proposals are due Friday, March 31, 2023. Funding decisions will be announced by Friday, May 19, 2023.

Funding begins July 1, 2023. 

Please Join Us!

Kern Institute Connection Café: Piloting Patient-Based Discussions in Discovery Curriculum: Lessons Learned to Inform MCWfusion, Perspectives of Students and Faculty

Patient-based discussion (PBD) is a key component of MCWfusion Phase 1 Integrated Science Blocks. The goal of PBD is to use inquiry-focused learning to support student curiosity as they apply foundational science knowledge to patient assessment and management.

Current Discovery curriculum has piloted a number of PBDs with M1 and M2 courses. Connection Café will explore what exactly PBD is and what pilot data revealed. Current students and faculty will be part of panel to answer questions and speak to lessons learned.

January 5, 2023

4:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Hybrid Event: Join via Zoom or in Person

MEB – M1540 - Kerrigan Auditorium

Please Join Us!

KICS Journal Club with Eloho Ufomata, MD, MS and Sarah Merriam, MD, MS

Register to join us at our monthly Kern Institute Collaboration for Scholarship Medical Education Journal Club! Each month, we discuss recent medical education scholarship with its author for a lively, intimate conversation about the transformation of medical education.

In January, Drs. Ufomata and Merriam will be discussing working with your national society policy papers. 

Eloho Ufomata is an assistant professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and serves as an advisory dean in the Office of Student affairs. Sarah Merriam is a physician at the VA Pittsburgh and serves as a senior consultant to the VA Office of Women's Health.

January 11, 2023

12:15 PM - 1:00 PM

Live via Zoom

Please Join Us!

Mobile Clinic Design Input Sprints

The Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Institute at the Medical College of Wisconsin, 

Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin, and the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee are collaborating on a community-centered project design focused on designing two mobile health clinics to serve the greater Milwaukee area. These units are primarily focused on providing community members with services such as mammograms, diabetic retinal exams, and maternal child care.

To create the most effective and community-centered unit design possible, we invite you to participate in a guided conversation and walk-through of the mock-up design. You will be given the opportunity to offer input on design elements, and to ask questions. 

The focused design-input sessions will take place at the site of the prototype unit, inside the Medical College of Wisconsin, in the Medical Education Building (MEB) - Cafeteria Lobby and all are welcome.

Visit in person or register to be part of our design input sessions held at the following times:

Friday, January 6, 2023, 12:00 – 1:30 pm

Wednesday, January 11, 2023, 5:30 – 7:00 pm

Wednesday, January 18, 2023, 5:00 – 6:30 pm

Friday, January 20, 2023, 12:00 – 1:30 pm

Please Join Us!

Kern Institute Grand Rounds: The Four Pillars of Well-being: A Scientific Framework for the Cultivation of Human Flourishing

Can mental training actively influence our level of well-being? Research suggests that even small amounts of meditation can lead to important outcomes for our mental and physical health, as well as our success at work and in relationships. In this live talk, Cortland Dahl will share a groundbreaking scientific model that highlights four pillars of well-being — awareness, connection, insight, and purpose — as well as practical strategies for applying them in daily life.

February 9, 2023

9:00 AM - 10:00 AM

Hybrid Event: Join via Zoom or in Person

MEB – M1540 - Kerrigan Auditorium

Developing Medical Educators of the 21st Century

Join us for the 5th Developing Medical Educators of the 21st Century course in San Francisco! We are back with an in-person course, focused on supporting medical educators to engage in transformational change during challenging times. How do we create equitable, inclusive and welcoming learning environments for all?  How do we foster a growth mindset among our learners so they become effective life-long learners? How do we ensure the wellbeing of our learners while also maintaining our own? These and other topics will be addressed in a variety of formats, including plenary sessions by renowned educators, skill-building workshops, consultations with experts, and engaging lunch-time discussions. Participants will have opportunities to network with others and create actionable plans to take home to their own institutions. A group discount will be available for teams from one institution. 

This 3-day intensive course, organized in collaboration with the Kern National Network for Caring and Character in Medicine, targets medical educators from undergraduate and graduate medical education seeking to develop or improve skills in teaching and educational program design. Flexible programming allows participants to select sessions aligned with their interest and experience level. 

February 13-15, 2023

Golden Gateway Holiday Inn, San Francisco

IWill 3.0 Will Begin in March 2023

AWSM is excited to kick off IWill 3.0 in March 2023 as we host the AWSM Women's History Month Symposium. Our event includes our three speakers as well as a research poster presentation with awards! Learn more about submitting your poster abstract to our scientific session!

Jeff Fritz, PhD, Editor-in-Chief



Editorial Board: Bruce Campbell, MD, Kathlyn Fletcher, MD, Adina Kalet, MD, Wendy Peltier, MD, Erin Weileder, Nabil Attlassy, Julia Bosco, Ana Istrate, Wolf Pulsiano, Eileen Peterson,  Anna Visser, James Wu & Emelyn Zaworski

Reproductive system vector created by pikisuperstar - www.freepik.com