Position Statement for Sally R Raty, MD

I received my anesthesiology training at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in Houston, Texas. In 1993, I joined Baylor’s faculty and became the Director of Residency Training in 1995. Since 1993, education has been the dominant focus of my career.

Being a member of SEA, attending SEA meetings, and being a member of the SEA Board has been central to my accomplishments. Quite frankly, I owe a great deal to SEA. SEA inspired me to complete an 18 month Master Teacher Fellowship Program at BCM and has given me the confidence to introduce a variety of educational initiatives into our residency program. The family feel of SEA is remarkable to me, and is what keeps me coming back for more! I received two Fulbright Jaworski Excellence in Teaching Awards for Educational Leadership and Teaching/ Evaluation, no doubt as a result of what I have learned at SEA meetings. While residency training is my true passion, I have been involved in college and medical student teaching, developed OSCEs, led workshops, presented PBLDs and posters, directed a CME course, and designed curriculum for the Houston Fire Department.

Throughout my membership in SEA, I have tried to contribute to the Society by presenting posters, leading workshops, and participating on committees, and I am honored to be Co-Directing the 2011 Spring SEA Meeting with my colleague and friend David Young. The meeting theme will be “Using Milestones to Achieve Excellence.” Our hope is to foster both faculty and resident development and improvement with our meeting program. Through my participation in SEA, I have been able to learn from other educators, brainstorm, improve my own program, and have formed lasting friendships. I believe SEA, with its history of dedicated, enthusiastic leadership has made significant progress in promoting the importance of a strong, organized, creative approach to education in anesthesiology. It has been a privilege to be a member of the SEA Board for the past two years, and I am hopeful to continue in that role. During my first term on the Board, I learned a great deal about the behind the scenes working of the Society, the governance, finances, vision, and long range plans of SEA. With this foundation of knowledge, I hope to build on my contributions as I serve the membership. I recently participated in the strategic planning process for SEA and was struck by the Board’s constant attention to membership needs and desires. The Board serves the membership, and I want to ensure that the membership voice is heard.

If re-elected to the Board, I will use my 15 years of experience in medical education to help further develop SEA’s positive impact, by working to increase membership, exploring multi-program educational research, expanding the variety of offerings at meetings, enhancing our “brand name” recognition and above all else, bringing the membership voice to the Board. In short, I would consider it an honor to continue to serve the members of SEA on the Board of Directors. Thank you for your support.

Position Statement for Michael C. Lewis, MD

I graduated Medical School in 1983 at University College London. My anesthesia training took place in the UK, Israel and USA. Since graduating from my US residency in 1995 I have served as Chief of Service at the Miami VA, Director of Medical Student Teaching, and now Program Director, Professor Department of Anesthesiology, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami.. Several years ago I was a Fulbright Scholar. During my sabbatical I developed a web based program designed to teach Anesthesia residents about Geriatric issues. I have been active in the Society serving on a number of committees and have chaired the spring meeting in Miami. I am the immediate past President of the Florida Society of Anesthesiologists. In the ASA I serve as Chair of the Committee on Geriatrics and am a member on the Resident and Medical Student Affairs and Ethics committee. I am a ASA-PAC Board member and have for many years a member of the House of Delegates. Recently I have been appointed Assistant Dean of International Graduate Medical Education and Vice Chair for Residency Affairs at the Miller School, University of Miami. Over the last few years I have served the Board and several of its committees. In the future I would like to continue to serve and possibly advance to a leadership position in order to advance the cause of the academic practice of anesthesia.

Position Statement for Manisha S. Desai, M.D.

 I received my training in Anesthesiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston about 22 years ago. Currently, I am Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at UMass Memorial Health Care, and Director of Educational Development and the Faculty Advancement Departmental Liaison [FADL] for the hospital.

 The first time I attended an SEA meeting was about 4-5 years ago. The experience changed my whole outlook towards being an academic anesthesiologist! Since then, with the help of our dedicated SEA faculty, I have been successful in changing the whole culture of my department towards education and faculty development. I have been conducting workshops and seminars for the Massachusetts Society of Anesthesiologists. For these successful efforts, I give 100% credit to our ‘SEA family.’

I enjoy working with colleagues who are co-members of the Educational Research and Faculty Development Committees. Although I am relatively new to SEA; reviewing abstracts for the spring meeting and discussing faculty development workshops for the next year have made me more enthusiastic about giving back to the SEA.

My goal as a member of the Board of Directors would be to reach out to all the 132 academic departments across the nation through SEA. I would aim to increase membership, standardize educational teaching and learning wherever needed. My main expertise and strength lies in the junior and mid-career faculty development programs. These include professional development, as well as research and educational development. It is my hope that I can use my experiences and skills to continue to advance the mission of our society.

 Position Statement for J. Thomas McLarney, MD

I have been a member of SEA since 2005 and have witnessed a period of unprecedented growth in our Society’s influence on anesthesia education. I have served in multiple capacities within the SEA and these opportunities have fueled my desire to now serve as a member of the SEA Board of Directors. I am seeking a position on the Board to contribute to this growth and to continue to foster the spirit of mentoring and collaboration that I have been privileged to be a part of over these five years. This spirit of mentoring and collaboration are hallmarks of our organization and are a significant part of the reason our Society functions at such a high academic and administrative level.

As Chairman of the Milestones Task Force, I have been privileged to see firsthand the strength of the SEA, which is our membership. Since beginning the Task Force last fall, the number of people interested in serving has been inspiring. Not just interested in serving, but getting right to work and sustaining a very high level of academic quality and commitment to the project. It is that kind of character that our Society attracts, inspires, develops and puts to work, and that is exactly what has happened. The milestones project is huge in its scope, and we are fostering a spirit of collaboration both within the SEA and between every stakeholder academic group within our specialty, including SAAA, our RRC, the ABA, every subspecialty society, ACGME, and others. This is simply modeling what I have always seen within the SEA and I am honored to chair this initiative that is such a huge part of the mission of the SEA.    

I attended my first SEA Workshop on Teaching (WOT) in 2005. What a fantastic introduction to the SEA that was! My passion for teaching was fueled like it never had been before and I returned to the workshop twice as an attendee and have now been faculty for the past three years. From my experiences in the SEA and WOT, I have received four University of Kentucky (UK) Abraham Flexner Master Educator Awards and am Chair of our Anesthesia Education Committee as well as Co-Director of our Center for Simulation at UK. The WOT faculty especially inspired and mentored me to get more involved nationally in anesthesiology education and the SEA has been the perfect venue for this involvement, once again modeling within our Society our tradition of mentoring which I wish to pass on.

I also chaired the Chief Resident Program at this year’s Spring Meeting after becoming faculty for the program last year. The faculty spent a whole day with the future of our specialty and our Society, helping them get ready for the next year and beyond, an honor and privilege I do not take lightly.

The SEA is a strong, vibrant, growing organization and my goal as a Board member would be to promote our spirit of development as we increase our impact on anesthesiology education.   It would be an honor and pleasure to serve on the SEA Board of Directors.

• Ensure members achieve personal development through mentorship and support at every level of SEA, turning teaching into scholarship
• Have SEA lead in the development of national educational initiatives through association with other institutions, organizations and specialties with common goals.
• Create meetings and products for teaching every level of learner which can benefit the membership here and overseas.

Thank you for your support and the chance to give back to others.