VTCSOM Strategic Planning Virtual Town Hall

Video Transcript

Dean Learman

Well, as we get to the top of the hour will ask everyone who isn't speaking to go ahead and mute themselves if you have the, the ability to do that, and given the fact that it is it is the six o'clock hour, we will get started. So it's my pleasure to welcome everyone tonight, because tonight's town hall launches our VTC School of Medicine strategic planning process.

Here we are. It's October 13 it's seven months into the COVID-19 pandemic and our students are doing well with the modifications we've needed to make to their curriculum. 

Our new domain of health system science and interprofessional practice launched back in July, has been well received by the M1 class, which is our largest class to date, and we're sort of getting settled into the new academic year.

When I arrived here as Dean back in July of 2019, I, you know, decided that year two would be a good time to engage in strategic planning and that was the plan as this year was coming around the bend.

However, by early July. As you all know, thoughtful observations by our students. After the killings of unarmed black citizens and the disproportionate burden and morbidity and mortality from the pandemic, shone a very bright spotlight on structural racism social determinants of health disparities experience of minority communities with healthcare with medical education.

Consequently, over the summer, we launched the Inclusive VTC School of Medicine task force to look carefully and comprehensively at every aspect of our medical school and medical education program, as well as how we engage with the larger Roanoke community. The recommendations of the task force will be vitally important to guide our efforts moving forward and we will proceed with intentionality and accountability to implement new and improved initiatives and processes to enhance diversity, inclusion, and equity.

The broader strategic planning efforts, we launched tonight will guide the next chapter of our history in multiple high priority areas as we continue to define ourselves and expand our impact on medical education locally and nationally. The plan will incorporate the recommendations of the InclusiveVTC School of Medicine Task Force and we'll also look more globally at our aspirational goals. Once completed, our new strategic plan will be periodically reviewed and recalibrated at least once a year, so it remains fresh and relevant to changes in our environment.

Tonight's agenda will introduce the VTC School of Medicine community - those of you who are here with us tonight - to our comprehensive strategic planning initiative.

We will start with a series of short presentations about the progress of our InclusiveVTC School of Medicine Task Force; about Virginia Tech's strategic plan to which we will map at align our plan; and about Carilion Clinic's vision 2025 plan which offers multiple opportunities for collaboration. Then I will introduce our strategic planning committee chairs, who will review our plan activities and timeline.

We'll spend the remainder of the hour hearing your comments and questions and you can certainly start to enter those into the chat stream when they come up and if we have a little bit of time between segments we could go ahead and answer a few questions before we move on.

So first up is Patricia Wooten, Co-Chair of the InclusiveVTC School of Medicine Task Force and our human resources manager and she's going to provide us an update on the progress of the task force.

3:30 - Patricia Wooten

Thank you Dean Learman. Good evening, everyone. Hopefully you can see my face as a panelist here, I believe we only have one slide. And I'm really going to talk more about our progress and the updates that we have as a task force, but first I wanted to thank Dean Learman for the opportunity to share this update that the task force has been working on with this group. I think it's really important that we pair the strategic planning process along with the work that we're doing for InclusiveVTCSOM. 

I also would be remiss if I didn't start by recognizing and thanking those that have undertaken this tremendous work and efforts, our chairs. There's another chair on with us tonight, Dr. Fidel Valea and Dr. Michael Jeremiah. The three of us have worked together now for a few months, and things are going well there. The steering committee that we have put together has undertaken some tremendous work as well. But mainly I really, really want to thank those of you. Some of you on this call are part of our working groups, and facilitating or leading the process of these working working groups to come up with some great recommendations. So again, I want to thank all of you for undertaking such an important but massive task.

So we'll take a step back and and many of you know that the InclusiveVTCSOM Task Force was established in July. The seven working groups that we've created began meeting in August and September and have been meeting on a fairly consistent basis whether that's weekly or bi weekly since August. Since then, some of the work or give you an insight to some of the work that the groups have done. They are reading articles, reviewing books, meeting with administrative leaders to learn more about our current programs and practices associated with their particular area or challenge. They have also consulted medical educators at schools who have done some great diversity, equity, and inclusion work that we'd like to model ourselves after. And these seven these seven groups have proposed three specific diversity related issues or what we call working group priorities that the school should tackle. And so those priorities are coming to the steering committee as early as tomorrow evening. We have a steering committee meeting that we will begin to review those priorities.

Another shout out. We are super pleased that the first year students have expressed such interest in contributing to the work of the task force and so therefore we actually are going to include the class president on the task force steering committee and a group of about eight M1 students will serve as what we are calling a Reactor Panel to offer feedback on our Task Force efforts. So kudos to the first year students for beginning their medical education but also jumping in on this huge priority that we've undertaken.

So myself and the other two chairs, as well as the steering committee, as I mentioned, will begin to meet weekly starting tomorrow to review those working group priorities. The proposed priorities are going to focus on whether those priorities are ambitious, actionable, measurable, and will help the VTCSOM make progress across our diversity goals. So those are the areas that we are looking at each goal from.

Our goal is still to submit our final task force report back to Dean Learman by the close of 2020 we're still on track to meet that goal. Each working group will submit a report of no more than 10 pages that includes some very detailed information. So I want to read this to you all, so you have an understanding of the work that's going into this and what we've requested from each working group.

• So each report is going to include foundational information to help whoever is reading this, understand the issues in the process that the working group followed in order to formulate their recommendation. So to give some backstory or history to where they came from. 
• And those reports are also going to include three manageable recommendations for action that can be implemented in the coming academic year so 2021-2022 to meet our short and long term goals. So hopefully you get an understanding of how this really pairs well with the strategic planning process.
• Each recommendation is going to provide at least a description of the issue or challenge; the proposed action steps to addressing that challenge; and the rationale to why that working group chose that particular recommendation and viewing those actions as feasible feasible and how they can benefit the school immediately as well in the long term. 

So that is ultimately where we're headed towards the end of 2020, to have that report finalized and again, presented to the dean. And lastly, I'll just sort of say that it's really important for us to engage the diversity, equity, inclusion review that we're doing, and the discussion in parallel with the school strategic planning process, to help us ensure that those diversity goals are included into the strategic plan. So again, the two chairs... we're happy to be here tonight to engage in this conversation and ensure that these are part of the strategic plan.

We're very excited that our school is going to advance towards achieving not only academic, operational, and clinical excellence, but in addition, to double down on our commitment to an inclusive environment. So again, super excited that we are making such progress and hope you all feel that we are making progress as well. And I believe that these progress reports or updates are really key for our community to learn about what the what we're doing and the work that's going into it.

So I'm happy to take questions now or if Dean Learman would prefer that we wait until the end of presentations. I'm fine with that as well.

9:36 - Dean Learman

Great. Great. Thank you, Patricia. While people may be forming some of their questions, I'm just going to mention that I'm hearing wonderful things from the working group participants who are in the trenches now getting down into the nitty gritty of the work, and I'm just really excited to see what emerges from the task force.

We've been very careful to coordinate and to pace the task force work in relationship to the strategic planning committees work on our strategic planning initiatives, for example: the bulk of the work for the task force will be concluded by December. Therefore, as we start with our survey as the first step for strategic planning, that's going to be a pretty straightforward survey won't take very much time to complete. But we'll gather a lot of great information from it. And then when we come back around for, you know, stakeholder interviews and to engage the community around the survey, that won't be until January. So we're really trying not to kind of get on top of the task force's process. As well, we're trying to coordinate at the steering committee level to make sure there's good communication between the two activities so they speak to each other and so that one of the destinations for the task force work is into the strategic plan. Although, although there will be much more detailed recommendations as well. So thank you all so very much. Those of you who are here tonight who are on the task force leadership team or on the working groups. Just great to hear of your progress.

All right, well, let's move on then. And actually, let me check the chat stream just briefly. A shout out from Dr. Valea and from Michael Jeremiah. Wonderful. Thank you so much, and then another comment prior about supporting about our priority in diversity, inclusion, and equity. So thank you both. Thank you for those positive comments. Appreciate that.

Well, next, it's my great pleasure to introduce Erin McCann from the Virginia Tech Office of Strategic Planning. Erin and Lauren Henson from the office have been incredibly helpful as we have developed our strategic planning timeline [and] strategy and it's just a great pleasure to have you with us tonight, Erin, just to take us through the Virginia Tech strategic planning priorities and some of our draft work in the medical school.

11:52 - Erin McCann

Thank you so much, Dean Learman. Thank you for the opportunity to talk a bit about our university strategic plan and good evening, everyone.

We're going to talk a little bit this evening about the university strategic plan, which was approved by the Board of Visitors in June of 2019 and is referred to as you can see here as the Virginia Tech Difference: Advancing Beyond Boundaries. Next slide.

On the left portion of this slide we see some information on Virginia Tech Beyond Boundaries, and on the right portion of this slide, we can see the Virginia Tech Difference: Advancing Beyond Boundaries for the university strategic plan.

This university strategic plan guides initial steps to achieving our long term Beyond Boundaries future as a comprehensive research land-grant university by affirming our vision, mission and core values defining university priorities and outlining goals and initial milestones to achieve each priority.

Led by President Sands, Beyond Boundaries, a 2047 vision culminated in a generational visioning process to position Virginia Tech as an internationally recognized land-grant university that strategically addresses the challenges and opportunities presented by the changing higher education landscape.

Beyond Boundaries identified three guiding concepts to transform Virginia Tech into the university of the future:

• VT-shaped discovery, or purpose driven discovery; 
• communities of discovery, or campus, regional and global engagement hubs; and 
• nexus of discovery, or trends disciplinary discovery. Next slide.

Integral to this transformation is Virginia Tech's continued commitment to Ut Prosim  (that I may serve), academic excellence, and world class research. In addition, engaging the whole person, innovation, and affordability, and accessibility are guiding principles that have informed the strategic planning process and initial steps toward achieving Virginia Tech's Beyond Boundaries vision. Next slide. 

The university strategic plan guides initial steps to achieving our long term Beyond Boundaries future.  Beyond Boundaries: a 2047 vision, is focused on approximately a generation into the future and the university strategic plan includes priorities, goals, and milestones for approximately the next five years.

The university strategic plan was developed in collaboration with faculty, staff, students and alumni, across our colleges, institutes, offices, and campuses, and shaped by partners and employers.

The strategic planning process involved significant iteration engagement and collaboration with the university community. Throughout this comprehensive and inclusive process, the Virginia Tech Community was engaged to discuss initial and evolving drafts, and gathering and incorporating feedback on the strategic planning framework. Strategic planning materials were continually updated throughout this process to reflect iterative ongoing feedback. These conversations and feedback sessions included participants from colleges, departments, institutes, offices, student groups, commissions, committees, associations, alumni groups, university leadership, and the Board of Visitors. Feedback discussions involved participants from various disciplines and levels and took place across geographic locations, as mentioned here, including Blacksburg, Roanoke, Alexandria, Arlington, and Falls Church. Next one.

Now we're going to walk through some elements of the university strategic plan. On this slide, we can see our Virginia Tech vision which is "Virginia Tech will be a global leader by inspiring and empowering people to learn innovate and serve beyond boundaries."

This next slide highlights our mission. "Inspired by our land grant identity and guided by our motto Ut Prosim (That I may serve) Virginia Tech is an inclusive community of knowledge, discovery, and creativity, dedicated to improving the quality of life and the human condition within the Commonwealth of Virginia and throughout the world." Next slide.

This slide highlights our Virginia Tech core values which are diverse and inclusive communities, knowledge and innovation, opportunity and affordability, and excellence and integrity. Next slide.

There are four strategic priorities within the university strategic plan and each priority has three corresponding goals. In the interest of time for this presentation, we will focus on the priorities and goals within the university strategic plan.

And the first strategic priority is advance regional, national and global impact.

The goals as listed here that are associated with priority one are increase excellence in research discovery and creativity; increase teaching and learning excellence for a holistic education; and increased institutional impact and visibility. Next slide.

As Dean Learman mentioned, the VTC School of Medicine has developed the following initial draft goals in alignment with priority one, which are: improve human health through discovery and implementation science; and create a systems oriented and scientifically minded physician workforce. Next slide.

Strategic priority two is elevate the Ut Prosim (that I may serve) difference and the goals associated with priority two are increase representational diversity; increase cultural competency; and address critical societal issues impacting humanity and equity. Next slide.

In alignment with priority two, the VTC School of Medicine has developed to the following draft goal, which is foster diversity and inclusion to better represent and serve the population.

Strategic priority three, is be a destination for talent and the goals associated with priority three, are attract, retain and develop the talents of faculty and staff; attract, retain and graduate students prepared to serve a global community; and support lifelong engagement and learning for alumni and local communities. Next slide.

And the VTC School of Medicine has developed the following two draft goals in alignment with this priority: be a destination for innovators in medical education; and create equitable access to medical education for top talent. Next slide.

Finally, strategic priority four is ensure institutional excellence. The three goals associated with priority for or continue to develop the physical campus and technology infrastructure; develop comprehensive and transparent budget and financial models with diverse and sustainable revenue sources; and develop and launch and adaptive inclusive process for continuous strategic plan.

The next slide highlights the draft goal that's been developed by the VTC School of Medicine to create self sustaining funding to support medical student scholarships.

A core component of Beyond Boundaries and our strategic planning process seeks to grow a culture of continuous planning at Virginia Tech. Continuous strategic planning involves monitoring goals, metrics, and milestones for existing priorities; identifying, developing, and advancing new strategic priorities; and ensuring a culture of self evaluation, innovation, agility, and adaptability. As Virginia Tech built upon this strategic planning framework, and develops a culture of continuous planning across the university, this framework offers a university and school level guide for colleges, schools, institutes, offices, departments, and units, as they develop their respective strategies and plans to advance institutional priorities.

For additional information on the university strategic plan, as well as some additional resources, these are available at strategicaffairs.vt.edu and I'm happy to take questions now or at the end of the presentation. Thank you.

20:28 - Dean Learman

Thanks, Erin. It's great to be looking at this slide: "Together we will advance the Virginia Tech difference" and to see the Roanoke, part of our Roanoke campus here including Carilion Clinic, the major hospital there, as well as our Riverside buildings together. And that's a good segue to our next speaker. I think she's with us. I think I saw her listed in the in the list there. Patrice Weiss, are you with us?

[Patrice Weiss]: I am Dean Learman. Thank you. [Can you all hear me?]

[Dean Learman]: Absolutely. Well, let me just give you a proper introduction. So Dr. Weiss is Carilion Clinic's  Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, as well as a professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and she's done the impossible, which is to take what is just an amazing and thoughtful document and she's condensed into one slide here, folks: the Carilion Clinic Vision 2025 and she's going to talk about the highlights of that. Thanks for being with us.

21:26 - Patrice Weiss

Thank you Dean Learman, I'll see if I can... No, my video doesn't want to come on, so I think you're just going to all have to hear me if that's okay.

So I appreciate this opportunity. It really does fall nicely with the Virginia Tech strategy and really what we have Carilion Clinic our strategy or our vision is now defined as our Vision 2025. We just completed our Vision 2020 and now are moving into Vision 2025. Before I get into those seven pillars and I'll talk just a little bit about each of them, and in particular, what facets or areas within each of those pillars that relates directly to the medical school and medical education. I want to just first remind everybody on on the call, that we really do live and serve by our mission, which is to improve the health of the communities that we serve, and we do that very much in partnership with our communities and certainly in partnership with Virginia Tech and the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine as well as the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute.

What we have... This year what we added is a vision and I wanted to just read that to you because we really put a lot of thought into this and and really a lot of pride because we think it really does describe what we stand for and what we shoot for.

• We provide world class healthcare through integrated clinical practice education and patient centered research.
• We develop and respect and experience talented workforce.
• We serve for the love of health and I think all of us.

Tonight would agree if you, if you look at that vision statement. It has medical education and our collaboration with the medical school woven all through that. So I just will take just a few minutes here as we as we walk through those pillars which we feel really fits our vision. And within each of those - and that's why there's only one slide - I'm just going to pull out a highlight as it relates to the medical school of what falls under each of those pillars.

• So under engage our communities, one of one of our goals there is to further develop Health Sciences and Technology campus with academic partners and accelerate the expansion of VTC.
• Under convenient or connected convenient and collaborative care we view this as patient centered coordinated collaborative care that improves health outcomes, patient satisfaction, staff productivity,  morales, and reduces the overall cost of care. Team-based interprofessional care is a hallmark, which I think really resonates with with the medical school.
• Moving on to community benefit. This is to improve outcomes of preventable mortality, morbidity, and prevalence of conditions that impact adults' ability to work, children's ability to learn, and seniors' ability for safety and well being.

And I would add that under all the seven pillars, we have multiple items. I'm again focusing on the ones that I think best fit the the presentation tonight.

• Under clinical advancement and patient safety, or what we call "caps," here we strive to partner with VTC to teach health systems science to students, residents, fellows, and interdisciplinary members of the healthcare team. We want to create a center of excellence in translational human factors in healthcare.
• Innovation and research, our fifth pillar, broaden our partnerships with Virginia Tech and Radford University regarding health care delivery, public health, and human factors engineering in health care, and further collaborate with Virginia Tech, Fralin, with Virginia Tech and the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech Carilion in areas such as brain health and science, infectious disease and immunity, cardiovascular science, bio materials and body device or interfaces, metabolism and obesity, and children's rehabilitation and children's health.
• Certainly under Workforce, now, and tomorrow, it's a very integral part our collaboration with the School of Medicine and here we seek to further build the relationship with Virginia Tech and Radford for nursing, medical, and allied health education, as well as plan a system-wide wellness approach.
• And finally, our last pillar, financial vitality. Financial performance is is designed to create long-term funding for sophisticated health care, health education, and health research, for the region we serve.

So I thank you, Dean Learman, for these two minutes for me to give a very, very high 33,000 foot view of our Vision 2025 of Carilion Clinic and again to emphasize how excited we are about our continued collaboration, our continued partnership with the medical school, and certainly have woven those goals into our vision and our mission. So thank you for this time.

27:15 - Dean Learman

Wow, thank you so much, Dr. Weiss. My goodness, so much there that that reflects already a lot of our shared interests, and agendas, and collaborations, but also some very future oriented opportunities for us all. So really exciting. So glad that you could be with us to summarize that tonight.

Because indeed, the most successful strategic plan we have for the medical school will take full advantage of the wonderful opportunities ahead here at VTC at Carillion, even as we map those on to our Virginia Tech format. And so far, it's been pretty easy to do that mapping. I'll tell you it's... We live in the Virginia Tech world and we've learned through the help of Erin and the office of strategic planning how to make that translation, but it's not a hard one. Virtually everything that you said in the areas of collaboration can be mapped onto the priority areas for Virginia Tech. So thank you so much for going through that with us. I appreciate that.

[Dr. Weiss]: Thank you.

[Dean Learman]: All right. Well, so now we've had some really great briefings we've we've heard about our Inclusive VTC School of Medicine Task Force and its progress and how we're going to interlink that work with the strategic planning process. We've heard a very nice summary of the priority areas of Virginia Tech and some of our draft goals submitted back in May. And from Carilion, the, you know, most up to date and highlights of their strategic plan.

So these are all the things in our environment that we're keeping in mind as we undertake our own strategic planning process, and I'm very pleased now to introduce doctors David Musick and Rebecca Pauly, who are the co-chairs of our strategic planning committee. I believe I don't know if someone won or lost the coin toss, Dr. Pauly, but are you the one who's presenting these slides at this point?

[Rebecca Pauly]: Yes, I am.

[Dean Learman]: Alright, so just, just tell me to go and I'll go on this. You want your next slide, I would assume. Yes. Alright.

29:18 - Rebecca Pauly

Well, thank you, Dean Learman, for this opportunity to present and to serve as Co-chair with Dr. Musick.

So I'd like to first introduce our strategic planning committee. And some of you may not be able to see the slides. If you've dialed in, and don't have access, so I'll just read through the names here. So we have representation from the School of Medicine with the class presidents, we have representation from Carilion Clinic and from VTC and Carilion Clinic so we have Ms. Backus, Mr. Davenport, Dr. Eikenberg, Mr. Engle, Dr. Harrington, Dr. Lane, Dr. Lara-Torre,  Mr. Malaty, Ms. Nazeer, and Mr. Reiss as well as Ms. McCann and Ms. Henson from Virginia Tech. So we're delighted to have these folks to help us with the strategic planning process. So, next slide please.

So in thinking about the strategic planning charter, we focused on the purpose. And the purpose of the strategic plan will be to guide our medical school into a vibrant future. In collaboration with Virginia Tech and our, our clinical partner Carilion Clinic, as well as other stakeholders, so that we can understand the challenges we face and the opportunities, so that we can respond with a comprehensive plan which will advance our school through the achievement of feasible sustainable and measurable objectives. Next slide.

And this will require engagement, objectives, and a process. So, we will ensure input from a variety of internal and external stakeholder groups, and the final committee report will reflect specific and measurable objectives. These will include success metrics, with recommendations concerning workflow and estimated costs.

So to use a similar analogy as Dr. Weiss. We don't... We will not be having just a 30,000 foot view of this, but we'll be very much on the ground level to understand what works and what it's going to cost us and the plan will be a dynamic process so that we can have feedback to see where we need to improve, looking at outcomes, and then it really is going to map back to our vision, mission, and values, so that if something is not matching up to those, we will be able to modify and redirect habits, so that is productive for all of us. Next slide please.

So what is our timeline for this? So we're beginning with our town hall today. Our survey will be sent out on October 20 with the return date of November 20. So October 20 to November 20. The survey results will be tabulated and analyzed in December with reports to our engagement sessions to get feedback from the individual session will be for students, one for faculty and one for staff and as Dean Learman mentioned will take... That'll be perfect timing to look at the reports from Ms. Wooten and the committee, to see input from the diversity Task Force incorporate that, so that we can have continued engagement from our stakeholders, with the final report being available to Dean Learman in April.

Now I will also say that within this timeline, we will be providing up to date feedback to our constituents in the form of minutes from our committee and subcommittees on the website. We'll also be summarizing the results of the survey so that you can be kept up to date as the process is evolving. Next slide please.

And we do want to hear from you. So not just in the survey, but we certainly want to encourage you to take a look at the survey. The questions, I think, are more quite clear, but they also have the opportunity for you to expand on those, and give narrative comments beyond the specific questions, so please complete the survey. But also reach out to us. My email is here (rrpauly@carilionclinic.org). Dr Musick's email is here (dwmusick@vt.edu). We will respond to you. We want to hear from you, and we think this is a very dynamic process, but it will not work if we don't have the engagement of our stakeholders and so I think I'll stop now and and we can open up for questions.

[Dean Learman]: Wonderful. Well, thank you very much Dr. Pauly, and as folks are forming their questions because... Oh here we go. We have a question. All right. There was some shout outs and accolades and excitement about the committee and the process. There is one question by Cynthia Lawrence: "Is there any plan for public policy and advocacy?"

[Rebecca Pauly]: We certainly would be most interested in entertaining that concept. And I think that would potentially be one of our subcommittees within the Strategic Planning Committee to take a look at that and I think it's a very important topic and certainly, the community and the broad community could encompass public policy would be one of our stakeholders.

[Dean Learman]: Thank you. And if any other panelists want to chime in on any of these questions, please go ahead and unmute yourself. Our next question is from Dotsy Clifton: "What is the survey surveying and to whom is it sent?"

[Rebecca Pauly]: So, it matches to the vision and mission, many of the questions... Are we on target to that? Are we meeting metrics? And it's sent quite broadly to students, staff, and faculty, as well as alumni constituents, and if I missed anyone the surveys going to, others can offer comments, but it is sent quite broadly probably because we wanted input from really all the stakeholders that are involved with the school.

[David Musick]: I will just add to that, Dr. Pauly, if you don't mind, I would just add to that, I think the list of people that will be getting the survey is pretty lengthy because we've really done our best effort to try to be as inclusive as possible. So I think I'm remembering that the number of people who will actually get the survey is about in the range of 1200-1300 people.

36:48 - Dean Learman

Right, that's what I'm recalling as well, and if you got the the information about this town hall, you will get a survey. So I think we had to cobble together maybe nine different email lists in order to get everyone included that received these invites, and so there will definitely be opportunities for everyone with us were invited to be here tonight to participate in the survey. And we'll try to provide other opportunities as well for input along the way, such as Dr. Pauly and Dr. Musick's emails that are still up there for people to see. So absolutely.

So the other thing that you'll be seeing is the these draft goals that we put together in May, that were aligned with the Virginia Tech priorities and that will give you a chance on the survey to sort of comment on on how you know on those and whether they are there. There are other any other opportunities to capture things that would advance those priorities.

So because they're going to be using a lot of technology to interpret your narrative comments, you'll find lots of opportunities in each question to add comments. If there's something that's that hasn't been asked that you would like to comment on. So we really want to capture everything that comes to mind.

All right, I'm looking for any more questions. I hope that was responsive to Cynthia and Dotsy's questions and I will start making some other comments as we wait for additional comments to come through and questions.

You know, I really just want to start by thanking the Strategic Planning Committee,  Doctors Pauly and Musick, students, faculty, administrative leaders, who will be stewarding the process together and really be looking carefully over the survey results and subsequent information.

The upcoming survey will be critically important for defining the types of questions and the types of discussions that we will bring to the January engagement sessions and by we, I don't mean me, I don't think that's part of the plan. I mean, we mean the the strategic planning team that will be bringing to the January engagement sessions.

And so you've heard about how our plan to kind of gather together different groups of students, faculty, and staff. We also may be gathering together other groups for key who are key stakeholders in key informants to answer some more specific questions based upon the survey results. So we don't know exactly how many groups we're going to be approaching in January, we have to get the survey data analyzed first, but we're really going to be using... Everything you put in that survey will be used at digested fully.

So, earlier on Erin did present the draft goals. I just wanted to reiterate, these were developed back in spring, essentially to capture this the school's current vision about the future. They are by no means set in stone. The survey will invite your modifications and additions. Please feel free. They were really put in as essentially placeholders until we reached this process that we're about to undertake so please don't hesitate to comment on those.

As mentioned, we'll get to the survey with the link by October 20 and will need it back by November 20, and I also wanted you to know that we are posting information about our strategic planning process as it unfolds, as well as periodic updates. Once the plan is implemented on our strategic planning website. It's easy to find by putting the words VTCSOM strategic plan in the Google search bar. Imagine that. And it will come up pretty quick, I think, is the first hit after you put that in the search bar.

So that's really all of our prepared comments and we really would be delighted to answer any questions or hear any comments from the participants who are with us or from any of the panelists at this time.

40:56 - Close

[Dean Learman]: It's a, it's a dedicated group of 80 plus people who are with us tonight and instead of or in addition to eating their dinners, because we can't see what you're doing right now. But we really appreciate your being with us and want to be sure you have a chance to to answer, ask any questions for us to chew on.

Going once, going twice. 

[Matthew Ogburn]: Dean Learman, This is Matt, I was curious if you all have any need or availability for Community participation right now in any of the working groups or committees. Thank you.

[Dean Learman]: Are you referring to the Inclusive VTC School of Medicine task force?

[Matthew Ogburn]: Particularly in that respect, sir.

[Dean Learman]: Right, so we are entertaining. The only group that we're entertaining to add to the existing working groups is the first year class, who just by timing, sort of missed the opportunity to be initially appointed, and so we've arranged for their class president, who is with us now, I believe, to serve on the steering committee for the InclusiveVTCSOM Task Force, and then we're thinking about having kind of a feedback panel for any other students that wish to be involved. The reason that we can't add people this late to the working group process is that it's well underway and started off with a pretty deep dive by the dean's office to kind of level up everyone's understanding of our starting place in all the different areas so they can then build upon that in terms of additional initiatives. So at this point the only exception to "no additional members" has been for the M1 class.

[Matthew Ogburn]: Thank you very much.

[Dean Learman]: That said, whenever someone comes to me with with that same sentiment, I say, you know, my goodness. This is going to be a major and important initiative for our medical school for years to come. And the task force is just getting us started, and there are going to be multiple opportunities to become involved in one or another of the initiatives as we implement them. And so we'll continue to communicate all of that very broadly so that everyone who's with us tonight or who is invited to be with us tonight will be hearing about these opportunities as we get to the implementation phase for the inclusive recommendations.

[Matthew Ogburn]: Thank you very much.

[Dean Learman]: Thanks for your question. Appreciate your question.

Alright then. Well, thanks everyone for being with us tonight and for all of your attention, and to our panelists and presenters for your really brief but very effective presentations to kind of convey all of the key aspects that are surrounding our strategic planning process. We're all very excited to get started. We know it's going to yield a very important direction for our school moving forward and we look forward to coming back to you in January and then periodically with updates after that, on our progress.

Thanks again to Doctors Musick and Pauly for co-chairing this effort and for all of our committee members as well. So thank you for being with us, and I guess the meeting is adjourned. Have a great dinner. Bye bye.