At CHEST, cultivating future leaders in chest medicine is of paramount importance to us. Our members who desire to become leaders are prepared to advance our goals and initiatives, as well as become leaders within their own communities and institutions. That’s why we work to inspire, train, mentor, and galvanize new leaders.
When looking for leaders, volunteers, and faculty for CHEST, we most often draw from our own CHEST community—identifying members interested in engaging with us to help build the future of our organization and advance chest medicine. Knowing each person’s path to leadership is different, we have undertaken a new initiative, CHEST Academies, to help identify and provide essential training and development for future leaders.
Paul Markowski, CAE
Over the past several years, the Leadership Development Task Force supported these efforts by launching a mentorship program, an annual leadership development course, and a standard approach to preparing leaders and volunteers for their role in the organization. Our new Academies Work Group, following on the successes of the Leadership Development Task Force, will carry this work forward and further develop training opportunities in education, faculty training, guideline development, and leadership. The work group initially will focus on two distinct tracks: faculty development and leadership development.
The work group has made fast progress, and I’m happy to share that CHEST Annual Meeting 2015 will mark the launch of our first course tracks being offered as part of the new CHEST Academies. These tracks are direct pathways to the latest training for leaders in health care and for faculty in chest medicine. Core competencies to be included in the tracks include:
• Leadership—personal characteristics, communication, teamwork, finance, and strategic planning
• Faculty—educational goals and objectives, gap analysis and needs assessment, point of care and large group teaching, and instructional methods
I want to personally thank our current and past CHEST leadership for their contributions toward our success, the Academies Work Group for moving this opportunity forward, and those pioneers who will participate in our first CHEST Academies offerings at CHEST 2015.
This is only the beginning. Because we value our leaders and want to help them to succeed personally and professionally, we’re committed to continuing to develop and offer year-round opportunities for leadership and faculty development. Members also can access additional resources for leadership development in the Get Involved section on chestnet.org.
I welcome your input on how we can continue to advance professional development within our CHEST community. As always, feel free to connect with me to share your ideas. I invite you to follow me on Twitter, @PMarkowskiACCP, or look for me at CHEST 2015, October 24-28, in Montréal.