Amy Murray, MD - Committee Chair: Regional Director of Quality and Safety, Department of Anesthesiology 

• Ana Akkara, Stritch Class of 2027 
• Quinn Johnshoy, Stritch Class of 2025  
• Rebecca Lee, MD; Department of Anesthesiology  
• Gregory Ozark, MD; vice president, Graduate Medical Education  
• Maya Roytman, Stritch Class of 2025  
• Nicole Skora, Stritch Class of 2025

James Lau, MD – Committee Chair: Division Director, Department of Surgery 

• Thomas Boland, Stritch Class of 2025  
• Rohan Mandavilli, Stritch Class of 2027  
• Adriana Moses, Stritch Class of 2027 
• Jonna Peterson, MLIS, AHIP; interim director, Health Sciences Library  
• Austin P. Runde, Stritch Class of 2027  
• David Smith, MD; Department of Medicine, Hines VA Hospital 
• Gonzalo Torres, PhD; chair, Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Neuroscience 

Julia Bergquist, M1-SSOM Class of 2025  (jbergquist@luc.edu) 

Mary Mulcahy, MD, FAOA, FAAOS – Committee Chair: Division Director of Sports Medicine at Loyola Medicine 

• Dania Abu-Janara, DO; PGY3 resident, Emergency Medicine  
• Julia Bergquist, Stritch Class of 2025  
• Maha Khan, Stritch Class of 2027  
• Pierre Monice, MBA; president, MacNeal Hospital (Attn. of Cynthia Roche) 
• Michelle Pencyla, MEd; assistant provost for Faculty Affairs, Loyola University Chicago Health Sciences Campus  
• Karie Scrogin PhD; Department of Microbiology and Immunology

Richard Freeman, MD, MBA, FACS – Committee Chair: Regional Chief Clinical Officer LUHS 

• Matthew Dimond, Stritch Class of 2027  
• Taylor Drew, Stritch Class of 2025 
• Elizabeth Pappano, MD Hines VA Hospital faculty  
• Ari Peikes, Stritch Class of 2025  
• Amy Perrin Ross, APN, MSN, CNRN, MSCN; Diagnostic Program coordinator, Neurology
  Merharvan Singh, PhD; Vice Provost for Research for Loyola University Chicago

Nate Derhammer, MD – Committee Chair: Program Director of the Med-Peds Residency  

• Mary Boyle, MD; assistant dean for Clinical Formation; chair, Student Promotion Committee  
• Chantel Hilliard-Watts, PGY3, Department of Emergency Medicine  
• Ann Hillman, MDiv; director, Health Sciences Campus Ministry  
• Arleen Lamba, Stritch Class of 2025  
• Abigail Plum MPH, Stritch Class of 2027  
• Vera Schalansky, JD; director, Academic Center for Excellence

Infrastructure enhancements include an extensive update of our fourth-floor classrooms, study space and classroom electronic equipment. Security improvements include gated/restricted entrances, Campus Safety office located in the lower level of the Cuneo building and the continuous presence of the campus safety team.

The initial phase of the educational space renewal included the total renovation of the lower-level anatomy laboratory/dissection space and planning is underway to phase and extend these updates to the remainder of the building. Remodeling of the Academic Center for Excellence and Accessibility (ACE) will update its space for three full-time staff and provide seven adjacent private student testing rooms in addition to space for testing of up to 27 students. To further improve testing capabilities, we moved to software that will allow testing on a student’s laptop, enhancing student testing flexibility and classroom usage. We continue to transition to a new classroom scheduling system from a legacy curricular delivery system (LUMEN) to the Sakai learning management system.

The Department of Medical Education (DOME) has enhanced certificate programs to develop clinical educators, curriculum, anti-racist pedagogy, foundations of research and statistical analysis. In 2025, DOME will begin its master’s program in Medical Education. DOME also sponsors a medical education grant program. The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEI) supports student initiatives and created a Faculty Advocate Program with an advocate leader identified in each clinical and basic science department to help address their departmental DEI programs.

The Admissions team already had established an application process that allows students to express their personality, interest, values, and abilities, as well as their academic accomplishments. With Stritch's holistic admissions process, we consider all candidate applications while we seek to identify the most academically- and professionally prepared candidates who best match our Jesuit, mission-based values. Stritch School of Medicine recruits and admits students who will become physician-leaders and physician-scientists dedicated to service, improving health equity, and who will provide excellent patient care. With our recently updated Admissions software, we hope to expedite the review process and further guide our acceptance process. 

We completed a major curriculum change that shortened the pre-clinical portion of training and extended the clinical portion to address several areas: 1.) USMLE Step One licensing exam transition to Pass/Fail and further emphasis on Step 2 which focuses on “clinical knowledge” 2.) improve student residency interviewing opportunities 3). better align with Trinity Health (Stritch’s academic medical center partner) and residency program-related operational issues and 4.) follow similar initiatives (reducing pre-clinical education time) at other medical schools.

To monitor student progress and the impact of curricular changes, we implemented NBME shelf-exams for all third year required clerkships. Aligning to national student knowledge-based outcomes, provides students their own “comparison” data as well as our clerkship directors, Competency Evaluation/Assessment Review (CEARC), Curricular Innovations and Technology in Education (CITE) and Stritch Longitudinal Outcome committees. As we continue to develop our “educational dashboards,” more robust and timely information will be available. New curricular programs to further prepare students for their residencies include:

• The success of our Emotional Intelligence (EI) elective has led to expansion of various components into the remainder of the curriculum. The goal of EI is to build relationships and collaboratively work in teams, a crucial part of leadership. Additionally, EI is a key component for developing strong communications and interpersonal skills – essential aspects of establishing rapport and trust with patients. EI skills can help students cope with stress, develop their own resilience, and reduce the risk of burnout. Many medical school competencies are related to EI skills.
• “Patient-Centered Medicine (PCM) 4” curriculum is largely asynchronous and self-paced to provide clerkship-free time for interviewing. This provides an opportunity to enhance clinical skills in the diagnosis and management of clinical conditions the on-call intern commonly addresses as well as a continuation of topics related to physician wellness, pain, and opioid management, end-of-life care, and an opportunity for M4s to consider their impact and professional obligations within healthcare delivery systems.
• The Transition to Residency course provides in-depth training in areas that are common experiences in an inpatient internship with a format that includes didactic, small group activities, workshops, and simulation exercises 

We continue to expand our clinical training sites and include the additional integration of students and residents within MacNeal and Gottlieb Hospitals in addition to maintaining our primary educational affiliates of Loyola University Health System and Hines VA Hospital. We expanded the Family Medicine clerkship to St. Joseph’s Hospital (a Trinity ministry), in Mishawaka Indiana to help give students a rural healthcare experience. Most exciting is the start of pilot clerkship sites in Florida.

Student career guidance and mentoring has led to enhanced and aligned efforts for students throughout their Stritch training. In addition to mentoring offered through PCM courses, we expanded our specialty advising outreach to students and developed a mentor “linkage”’ for all students across their Stritch tenure.

We piloted our Personal and Professional Development program in 2023 and subsequently implemented it. Our focus: provide perspective, advice, and “just in time” information on common topics related to clerkships and residency planning. As M3s are planners, the program provides non-clinical education directly relevant to being successful on clerkships and in residency preparation.

Another successful program Stritch implemented is its Department of Medicine Residency Advising Committee. The purpose: provide mentorship, advising, and feedback to students pursuing a categorical or preliminary residency in Internal Medicine or Med/Peds (almost half of Stritch students), and provide them with their Internal Medicine Structured Evaluative Letter. The organizational structure supports students and aligns with and helps fulfill Loyola Medicine institutional and departmental goals to develop faculty as mentors, leaders, and scholarly contributors to education.

Recognizing the intersection of the healthcare environment and related disparities led to several leadership changes. We advanced a dean to the role of health advocacy and began developing a Center for Health Equity and Social Advocacy. This will be a pivotal and unique program as it develops and is integrated across Loyola’s Health Sciences Campus and schools. It will incorporate the foundational lessons of the health disparities curriculum and include student engagement with communities. Together with the Center for Community and Global Health, the new center will model a transformative community engagement and partnership, unique among medical schools. Finally, we created and filled a position of Vice Dean for Professional Formation to guide and develop curricular programs and electives that leverage Stritch’s Jesuit, Catholic mission as a definitive advantage and marketable, distinctive component through an articulated and shared “Stritch culture.”

• Access the DCI for the survey year. 
• Appoint members to the institutional self-study task force. 
• Assign sections of the DCI for completion by appropriate people/groups. 
• Designate team of students to conduct the student survey and write the ISA.   

• Distribute ISA survey to student body.  

• Compile student survey data and send to FALL for incorporation into DCI. 
• Begin data analysis.  

• Provide final ISA report to FAL for distribution to self-study task force. 

• Review and analyze DCI and ISA reports. 
• Prepare the self-study summary report. 
• Develop plans and implement changes to correct issues identified in self-study process. 

• Submit survey package to LCME. 

• Survey Team visit. 

• Accreditation discussed at LCME meeting. 

• Stritch School of Medicine receives an accreditation letter containing accreditation action, term, and requested follow up.