On Friday, October 7, we held the first meeting of the Dean’s Task Force on the Learning Environment: Enhancing Well-Being and Changing Culture.
The task force will address three important topics: mental health, well-being, and academic culture change at the Icahn School of Medicine.
Dean Charney charged the group, after which we laid out the plan for the next few months. Attached is the agenda from the first meeting, our timeline and the membership roster of the Task Force.
Members of the task force have been divided into three working groups, each of which will tackle one of the three focus areas listed above. Each group has student representatives from all degree granting programs, faculty, administrators, house staff and post docs. The working groups will be recruiting additional members from each of these constituencies, and will also be reaching out to you for suggestions and ideas.
The working groups will be meeting frequently for the next several months and are expected to develop a proposal that will then be reviewed by the task force in late December. The final proposal will be shared with all of you as well as Dean Charney in early January. Once the proposal has been submitted, a subgroup of the task force will retain a permanent oversight function, meeting quarterly to keep an eye on proposal implementation and progress.
The task force will be meeting again in mid-November to get a progress report from each working group, and we will send you an update at that time.
We want to thank all the members of the task force and the working groups for their willingness to devote considerable time and energy to this very important initiative.
David Muller, MD, FACP
Dean for Medical Education
Marietta and Charles C. Morchand Chair
Department of Medical Education
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai