Faculty Factory

Heather Brod is back on the Faculty Factory Podcast this week for a look at finding and owning your own "Main Character Energy," a concept borrowed from internet culture that has very real implications when taken to heart by faculty.

"What I've learned is that main character energy, at its core, is about agency. It's about how you are writing the script of your own life and not being a supporting character in your own life story," Heather said.

Heather is a prolific executive coach and consultant. Prior to branching off on her own to go into coaching full time, Heather was Executive Director at the Center for Faculty Advancement Mentoring and Engagement with the Ohio State University's College of Medicine in Columbus.

Heather digs into why so many faculty members struggle to answer a deceptively simple question: what do you want? Working through this concept of main character energy with them is about identifying their values, their non-negotiables, and the type of impact they actually want to make throughout their career. 

For more information about Heather and her work, please visit the website of Heather Brod.

Along with the voice of the Faculty Factory Podcast, Kimberly A. Skarupski, PhD, MPH, Heather is the co-author of The Insider's Pocket Guide to Navigating a Faculty Career in Academic Medicine, which was published in 2024 by Springer Publishing Company. The book aims to outline a pathway to achieving a rewarding and prosperous career in academic medicine.

Kathryn Burtson, MD, MHPE, FACP, is our guest on the Faculty Factory Podcast this week for a look into academic coaching and individualized learning plans, part of a broader effort to move graduate medical education forward.

Dr. Burtson is a first-time guest on our show and a colonel in the United States Air Force Medical Corps. She is Director of Medical Education at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Associate Professor of Medicine at Wright State and Uniformed Services Universities, and Vice Chair of Faculty Affairs at the Wright State Department of Medicine.

Here are the links to her articles mentioned at the start of this podcast:

Academic Coaching to Enhance In-Training Examination Performance in Internal Medicine Residency - PubMed

Academic Coaching to Promote Self-Directed Learning in Graduate Medical Education - PubMed

Empowering Learning: Self-Directed Strategies of Internal Medicine Residents in an Academic Coaching Program - PubMed

The House Cup: Using Longitudinal Gamification to Improve Didactic Attendance - PubMed

Since our Faculty Factory podcast's launch in 2019, we have had the honor of interviewing some of the world's most impressive people, with a constant recurring theme being that these folks know how to safeguard their time.

In this Faculty Factory best-of compilation episode, we're diving into some quick-hitting time management tips packed into a quick 15-minute broadcast with some of the most powerful mic-drop segments in this show's 7+ year history.

Three-time management experts in academic health are featured this week, with clips from the following episodes:

Episode 63: Time Management and Efficiency with David M. Yousem, MD, MBA

Episode 68: Using Time Productively with Donna L. Vogel, MD, PhD

Episode 119: Habits and Hacks with Shameema Sikder, MD

Themes covered throughout include goal setting, prioritizing, list-making, saying no, and how to face the items on your list that you dread most (or simply eliminate them if that’s an option).

"Time is ultimately our most precious commodity, so if you are saying yes to certain projects, it eventually means you will be saying no to something else," said Dr. Sikder.

Drs. Yousem and Vogel discuss the importance of prioritization, particularly in the context of Stephen Covey's (author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People) Time Management Matrix, which is mentioned in-depth in both Dr. Yousem's and Dr. Vogel's clips.

In the final stretch before retirement, the anxiety about an impending change in identity can be palpable, but Angela Sharkey, MD, has a lot of encouragement for folks who are struck with those feelings as they approach the closing years of a career in academic health.

She joins the Faculty Factory Podcast this week for her third appearance and a triumphant return to our show.

Dr. Sharkey is Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She had a multidecade career in academic medicine featuring patient care, health professions education, and clinical research. She has held leadership roles at four different academic institutions.

She retired in 2025 and continues to present at a national level on strategic career planning, conflict management, and other critical faculty development topics.

Dr. Sharkey began to think about stepping away from her career in a full-time capacity and immediately reflected on how it would impact her “identity.” When we introduce ourselves in social situations, we tend to say our name, title, and institution, and when we retire, we take a step away from that identity.

As an accomplished thought leader in career planning, Dr. Sharkey approached retirement through the lens of how she teaches others to make strategic career decisions.

"With retirement, I thought I should be advising myself about the strategy of planning for retirement around my purpose, my passion and my people, to best move forward into this really exciting time," she said.

Daniel S. Eiferman, MD, MBA, FACS, Professor of Surgery at The Ohio State University in Columbus, joins us to discuss his new book, “Cut Open: A Surgeon's Stories of Loss, Resilience, and Growth,” and to explore some of the most important leadership skills in medicine you won't learn in formal training, this week on the Faculty Factory Podcast.

Learn about the book: https://www.amazon.com/Cut-Open-Surgeons-Stories-Resilience-ebook/dp/B0GGZFD4HT 

Dr. Eiferman shares the leadership skills medical training often leaves out:

How to lead a team

Navigating difficult conversations

Building trust with patients and colleagues