TLC Leadership

As Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning, I oversee the Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) and Continuing Medical Education (CME) at Yale School of Medicine. I am thrilled to work closely with John Encandela, PhD, TLC Executive Director, and Allison Rentfro, PhD, CME Executive Director, to advance the critical missions of both organizations. During the summer of 2022, the TLC and CME were restructured to prepare us to address the challenges and opportunities for advancing medical education in the 2022 YSM Medical Education Strategic Plan. We are deeply committed to serving the needs of educators, with both foundational and innovative programs. Drs. Encandela and Rentfro are leading exceptional teams of faculty and staff and I invite you to view the Teaching and Learning Center and Continuing Medical Education websites to learn more about the programs they offer.

Thank you for your interest in the Yale School of Medicine Teaching and Learning Center (TLC). The Center opened its doors in 2012 under the impactful leadership of Janet Hafler, EdD.On October 1, 2022, I assumed the newly created role of TLC Executive Director. I am honored to lead an amazing team of faculty and staff as we continue the critical work of supporting our educators in achieving excellence in medical education and scholarship.The TLC has expertise in many areas of medical education including educator development, student and teaching assessment, curriculum design and evaluation, and scholarship. We hope you will join us for events such as the monthly Medical Education Discussion Group and our annual conference—Medical Education Day at Yale. Please consider how the Medical Education Fellowship or MHS-Medical Education Pathway Degree Program may enhance your skills as an educator and medical education researcher. These events and programs are all described on this website and we encourage you to read more about them.All of us at the TLC are available to help you in a variety of ways including developing and enriching curricula, enhancing teaching and assessment skills, and designing a medical education research project to name a few. Please use the Request a Consultation form to connect with us to explore how we can work together.We invite you to join to our mailing list to receive emails about our events and opportunities in medical education. You may email me directly john.encandela@yale.edu or at tlc@yale.edu to join our list and learn more.We are excited to work with you.

I oversee assessment of students’ clinical competence throughout the medical school curriculum. In particular, my role includes:Developing a programmatic assessment system that tracks students’ development within a competency framework, provides meaningful information for learning and improvement and certifies students’ readiness for graduation and residency training.Ensuring that students receive timely, longitudinal and meaningful formative feedback and support in guided self-assessment and reflection.Supporting curriculum leaders in their development, implementation and evaluation of  assessment strategies and interpretation of assessment data. Interpreting examination item analyses and revising or rejecting poorly performing questions. Collecting, analyzing and interpreting medical school-wide assessment data to guide curriculum evaluation and refinement.Offering faculty development programs in assessment in medical education.Providing individual consultation and mentorship to students, residents and faculty in their medical education scholarship. Chairing the Clinical Skills Assessment Committee, overseeing the pre-clerkship and clerkship OSCEs and remediating poorly performing students.Leading YSM’s participation the American Association of Medical Colleges national Core Entrustable Professional Activity Pilot.Representing Yale School of Medicine on matters of assessment to key local and national stakeholders and the Liaison Committee on Medical Education.If you would like to contact me, I am available by email or phone.

As the Director for Technology Services I look forward to providing consultation to YSM's learning community about a wide range of topics pertaining to digital technology as it applies to medical education. My areas of expertise include: application development, mobile computing, e-learning systems, augmented reality (AR)/virtual reality (VR), survey design, data analysis and educational videos.I look forward to our discussions, contributing to the enhancement of the curriculum and your development as an educator by applying the latest technology where it is appropriate. Please email or call me anytime.