For nearly a decade, ADFM has run a successful yearlong leadership development fellowship geared toward those interested in becoming the chair of a department of family medicine. Each year of the program, we trained 4 to 8 fellows; 42 in total, of whom 43% have gone on to become interim or permanent chairs. Recognizing that there are 15 to 20 academic department Chair positions open at any given time, and recognizing these positions represent the “tip of the iceberg” of open leadership positions in family medicine, ADFM’s current strategic work plan includes a priority to “increase the pool of individuals interested in and prepared to become department chairs and administrators.” Additionally, the current strategic work plan recognizes the need for increased diversity in our leadership roles, with a priority to “increase the number of women, racial and ethnic minorities, and individuals from other groups underrepresented in medicine serving as family medicine department chairs and department leaders.”
To better meet these needs, in 2018 ADFM launched the ADFM Leadership Education for Academic Development and Success (LEADS) fellowship. LEADS builds on our successful fellowship model, with an emphasis on leadership development and including special programming for fellows in conjunction with national meetings, advising from a current chair, experiential learning, and a relevant project. However, LEADS incorporates some additional structural and curricular changes, including the use of the ADFM’s Leadership Competencies for Family Medicine Department Chairs1 as the framework for the curricular offerings and fellows’ projects. LEADS expands the class size of the fellowship and broadens the outreach and the focus of the fellowship. In addition to individuals who know they want to be a department chair, the fellowship now includes those who aspire to become a Family Medicine Department Chair or other senior academic leader someday and for those who are interested learning more about whether senior leadership positions in academic family medicine might be a good career fit.
To help support these efforts to increase and broaden our leadership pipeline through LEADS, we have: (1) changed the timeline of the program to give potential applicants more time to complete applications and for their department to budget for their participation; (2) marketed the program more broadly through direct and organizational channels, through ADFM as well as through the other academic family medicine organizations; and (3) expanded the eligibility requirements for those applying in 2019 to include earlier-career exploration, now permitting assistant professors to apply as well as associate and full professors. As in the past, applicants are expected to be involved in each of the department’s mission areas (education, clinical, research/scholarship and administration) and should demonstrate evidence of being chosen for a leadership role within their department/institution and/or outside institutions.
ADFM plans to continue to expand and modify the LEADS program over the coming years. With sponsorship from the ABFM Foundation, ADFM will be holding a planning summit in the fall of 2019 to consider how to strategically expand LEADS and to begin to include leaders of health systems who may be less invested in the teaching and research components of academia but are a key pipeline into many of our academic leadership positions. Including these leaders and expanding the LEADS class size may require restructuring of the recruitment, curricular, mentorship, and evaluation processes of the program; we look forward to finding the way to expand the pipeline of leaders ready to meet the great demand for those prepared for senior leadership positions in academic family medicine.
Please share information about the LEADS program broadly. In addition, think about the LEADS program for yourself or for the up-and-coming leaders in your department who may be interested and ready to participate. The call for applications for the 2020-2021 LEADS fellowship is currently open. Applications are due to aweidner{at}adfm.org by August 18, 2019. More information about the program and the application materials can be found at: https://adfm.org/programs/leads-fellowship/.
- © 2019 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.
